By the time I got home from Denver this afternoon, my e-mail inbox already had several queries about Stephon Marbury with the news of his sudden and bizzare departure from the New York Knicks. Then things kicked up a notch when one of my close friends in the business, ESPN’s Chris Sheridan, wrote a column where he listed the Cavs as Marbury’s potential No. 1 trade destination as part of a sign-and-trade package for Anderson Varejao. Thanks for the extra work, Chris.
So let’s deal with it. Based on my conversations with Cavs people now and over the years, I would doubt they would look to bring Marbury in via trade or even after a buyout. His history of dragging teams down is well documented as the Minnesota Timberwolves, New Jersey Nets, and Phoenix Suns all got much better quickly. He’s played on losing teams his whole career, which can’t be a coincidence. That’s a well-worn tale. He has had problems co-existing with other stars in the past.
A bigger issue whenever considering Marbury, though, is that he has an ongoing and mostly one-sided fued with LeBron James. I broke it all down in this blog post from the summer. Right there should be the end of the conversation. But to go further, Marbury is not the type of character player the Cavs front office values and it starts with the news about him sleeping with a Knick intern that was made public over the summer.
All the fans sending me e-mails and Sheridan’s story about a trade for Marbury giving the Cavs a load of cap room in 2009 do have merit. Here’s what you need to understand as a side point here. The Cavs don’t want cap room. They want expiring contracts that they can trade so they can target a player or two, not bid and overpay for whatever free agent is available. This is how most major transactions are getting done in the NBA these days. So Marbury would actually have value to the Cavs before the summer of 2009, he’d have value a massive expiring deal next year. It would also allow them to move some unwanted contracts now instead of later. Everybody knows the Knicks love bad contracts.
For that reason, I will label a Marbury move has “highly unlikely” but not “impossible.” It’s one of those never say never situations. But don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about it.
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Good comments on the ESPN.com article, but you failed to mention the other Cavs players involved: Hughes and Damon Jones along with Varejao. I think Cavs fans would be excited about the “potential” of getting a talented PG (when he wants to be) for three players who don’t really want to be on the Cavs for various reasons. But you make a great point on Marbury’s personality and history, the Cavs tendency to choose character players, and a potential LBJ feud. Still you have to wonder how long the Cavs can keep an underperforming and unhappy Hughes around…
While the thought of potentially using Marbury to acquire better talent is tempting, it would absolutely kill this season and probably next season, when the team we have really just needs to get healthy and a chance to show that they are still an elite team in the East
Marbury might very well have some actual mental issues. His actions on the NY local sports show, at the courthouse, and now on the court prove this guy has some serious personal issues to take care of.
I would be absolutely stunned if Cavs make a move for this guy.
Why people always ignore character and intelligence when clamoring for a selfish talented veteran with a losing track record always baffles me. Marbury has been the poster child for clubhouse cancer his entire career. When he came into the league, he had the opportunity to form a partnership for the ages with Kevin Garnett. Instead, it was all about him and it still is. Marbury is spoiled, selfish and intellectually immature (putting it kindly). Anyone who has ever watched his talkshow knows what I’m talking about. I watched him interview Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the intellectual chasm was so wide and deep, it was like watching an 8-year old interview God. “Kareem, why do you think people should read?” was one of the questions, I swear.
Let Starbury ruin somebody else’s locker room. He’s a loser and we don’t need that kind of headache. As the recent road trip exemplified, the sum of our parts may be greater than another individual with meaningless stats. Patience will be our virtue.
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His actions on the NY local sports show, at the courthouse, and now on the court prove this guy has some serious personal issues to take care of.
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let’s not forget his actions in his pickup truck. mental issues, um yeah, maybe a little bit. sheridan is a moron as usual.
OK, now I know all of the issues associated with Marbury, ie; shoot first/ball hog, no D, a little insane, issues with Bron Bron, never been on a winning team, 40% from the field. However, I feel that every teams ultimate goal for each season, especially if they are almost a sure playoff team, is to go out and make a move to win a championship. Now, obviously, I know that getting Marbury doesn’t guarantee us a championship, or even of advancing any furhter than we would have with our current team.
At the same time, I think all of us real Cavs fans that watch this team night in and night out know that we really don’t have much of a shot of winning a championship this year, with this current team. When our supposed “2nd option” is averaging like 8 points a game on 37% shooting, you can not win a championship. (Obviously, Hughes is not our 2nd option, but that’s what he was brought here to be, hes probably like our 7th or 8th after LBJ, Boobie, Z, Drew, Devin, Sasha, DJ and maybe Newble). So, the reason I think Ferry needs to make this trade is really not to acquire Marbury, but to dump Hughes. If I were GM of the Cavs, this would be my number one priority, day in and day out. I know Larry has had a rough few years here in Cleveland on and off the court, but is anyone besides me so sick of the excuses. It’s time to move on. Ferry – please either trade Hughes to the Knicks, or somewhere else, or it is time to start thinking buyout, especially with Larry crying to Arenas now.
I have a source who says a deal very well “could happen” but most definitely “might not.” He/she wishes to remain unnamed.
A “cancer” is bad news.
What about the other disgruntled former Knick PG — Steve Francis? Houston picked him up but has made him inactive for the first four or five games. I don’t know how much he has left or how much he could help, but he’d represent a lot less risk than Marbury, has a much friendlier contract, and shouldn’t take much to acquire (maybe Damon Jones gets sent home to Houston, but at this point you might not even have to give up a rotation player to get Francis).
Marbury playing on the Cavs will never happen, but gosh, would it ever help the Cavs now in a major way. If we had a cowboy in the front office, a Hughes and Ilgauskas for Marbury and Jerome James trade would already be in the works. Like my online buddy Rageaholic Rick likes to say, this would be a “win-win.” But this would involve risk, so this is just fun fantasy league stuff. Unless Flip Murray or Martynas Andriuskevicius can get involved.
Speaking of the latter, some fans may wonder what in the hell ever happened to him. I know I did. To steal the local press’ two favorite words, he’s “young” and here’s his “potential.”
http://www.cblucentum.com/
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Forget his ‘behavior’, I remember him single-handily handing Wake Forest the ACC Championship in 1996. He was on a great team and no one but Starbury touched the ball in the first half. They trailed by 40. Hor-ri-ble. He would be the worst thing for this team. Lets get smart Cleveland Fans, we’ll never be that desperate.
Why don’t the cavs go after Jamaine O’Neal
Hahaha, earlier this year Alan T was upset we didn’t try to acquire Ricky Davis, and now he wants Starbury. My guess is the reason is because Starbury dislikes LeBron about as much as Alan does.
No thanks Alan, you can have the definition of a prima donna waste of talent who drags every team he plays for down in disorder and chaos on whatever team you root for. If the Cavs are smart, they won’t consider this move for longer than 2 seconds.
Trading for Marbury (even if it involved getting rid of Hughes) would have comet-hitting-Earth-in-Armageddon like repurcussions for the Cavs.
1) Marbury is a loser, not talented enough to even start for the freakin Knicks. The talent people remember from years ago is gone.
2) He’s selfish, arrogant and thinks that he should treated like a star and deferred to (but ain’t got the game to back up the attitude)
3) He quite possibly could be insane and is certainly volatile and capable of creating a circus, throwing teammates and coaches under the bus, and single-handidly destroying team chemistry
4) He hates LeBron. Bringing him here could very well be saying goodbye to LeBron when he opts out and bolts at the first opportunity. That alone should kill the very thought of a deal for this guy.
The Cavs need a point guard and there are decent ones out there that could be had via reasonable trades. A mega-deal for a mega-cancer is not what they need.
Uhh…I wasn’t “upset” about the Cavs not making a move for Ricky Davis. All I said is even the Heat were trying something/anything to improve beyond Smush Parker, while the Cavs were trying absolutely nothing. I didn’t want the Cavs to get Ricky Davis any more than I want my sister to get syphilis.
And I don’t like Marbury, per se, but he’s a very good player when he’s not a mental patient, and it seems like his track record shows it takes him about two seasons before he becomes bad news. So by that time, he’d be gone anyway. Sounds good to me. What, you don’t think that a playoff team is going to be taking a risk on a post-Sacramento Ron Artest?
But now that you brought it up, who would you now rather see wearing a Cavaliers uniform, Ricky Davis or Hughes? Honestly.
I agree with SUD. A trade for Marbury would really be a trade to get rid of the headaches that are Larry Hughes and Anderson Varejao. Yes, the Cavs would have to take on an entirely new headache in Stephon Marbury, but it would be a headache they would be rid of in 18 months or less.
There’s no doubt that Marbury would be a problem. But would he really be a bigger distraction than Hughes and his constant whining about how it’s the offense, or the pace, or the scheme, or any other excuse that is causing his lack of production? Would he cause more problems than Anderson Varejao and his ridiculous contract negotiations? The answer might be yes, but it’s definitely close. And the ability to get rid of those problems relatively soon has a lot of value.
Go Cavs.
Mike C.
How did this slip through the cracks? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2007/11/deshawns_beardgrowing_contest.html
My money’s on Drew.
Stephon Marbury is a trash talking ball hogging team chemistry
destroying intern screwing junk tennis shoe selling gold toothed bald headed idiot. I dont care how much he makes
or how good he is if the Cavs trade for him they are finished.
There are only two players the Cavs should be interested in
regarding free agency. Arenas and J O,Neal period. Either
one could win us a championship. I would give up any four
players besides Lefreethrow for these two.
Any other moves are counterproductive. All this talk about
high priced LOSERS is Wednesday afternoon boredom activity
by Rosen and Tuck Tuck Suck Suck.
jmoe, seriously, are you Rageaholic Rick Lite? Stop the name-calling and grow up, how ’bout it?
You’re absolutely right, it’s Wednesday afternoon boredom activity. It will never happen, it’s total fantasy league trade stuff. But you will note that some senseless people were filling the beat writer’s e-mail box with the possibility, and I was not one of them.
Besides, why not have fun and talk about Ricky Davis or Marbury on the Cavs? Davis is going to be on his best behavior this season, he’s playing for a new contract. And Marbury is a damn good player, and right now the Cavs only have one, and his name is not Larry Hughes.
Besides, precisely what “chemistry” are we talking about here? Damon Jones flaps his lips about playing time and has expressed his unhappiness to the media. Hughes has his own publicist in Gilbert Arenas, and that will get even louder when Pavlovic starts taking minutes away from him. Sideshow Bob hasn’t reported. Shannon Brown has been told to hit the road. Apparently “good guy” Snow now wants out. James is seen on the court getting frustrated and barking at his teammates. Oh, wait a minute, that’s not frustration, that’s “leadership.”
Bottom line is it’s all harmless fun to talk about, and even if total fantasy came to fruition, I don’t see any possible competitive downside. Marbury doesn’t wear out his welcomes for at least two years, and Cleveland will never sign a premier unrestricted free agent, whether it’s 2008 or 3008.
Cleveland will always be competitive so long as James is on the roster and healthy. Period. It’s going to take a substantial risk via a trade to have a shot at beating the best teams from the Western Conference, and right now the real and the sole concern in the front office seems to revolve around the possibility of paying the luxury tax this season and next. In the meantime, the LeBron window may be closing. Can any Cavs fan consider this to be a good thing?
I can’t see Marbury fitting in with the Cavs, though I could see him playing well again in a different situation.
The distressing part to all of this is the salary-cap driven philosophy many fans are accepting so easily.
First, there’s no way the Cavs should be worried about creating salary cap space two years down the road. LeBron is young but he could blow out his knee at any time. They will contend as long as he is healthy so they need to think about championships every year. Plus, is he going to want to be part of a rebuilding project when his contract is up in a couple years?
Second, from what I understand from BW’s post, the Cavs are thinking they can trade long bad contracts for short bad contracts then trade the short bad contracts for star players who don’t make too much money.
That sounds like a difficult task, one that will depend on a few lucky situations in other cities to pull off. Plus, it seems Ferry might not be all that popular with other GMs, let alone agents, which might make it even more difficult.
he’s a cancer!
Good defense by the Minnesota Timberwolves drama boys, if only we could patch up the difference, this will be a Minnesota good season. They are running, switching in defense, rebounding see those efforts. We don’t have yet the Timberwolves team down.
I which I could see some Timberwolves games live. I was looking for tickets all the good seats on ticketmaster were taken I had to check broker. And man you don’t want to do that especially for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Thanks god there sites like Ticketwood which work as comparators here is the site
Timberwolves Tickets
http://www.ticketwood.com/nba/Minnesota-Timberwolves-Tickets.php.
I like slam dunks that take me to the hoop my favorite play is the ally-hoop,
I like the pic n roll,i like the given goal its basketball yo, yo lets go!
Go Timberwolves Go!!!
I hear all of you when you talk about Hughes and AV problems, but they at least have some value when they play. Granted, that aint happening right now, but hopefully it will. Marbury’s only value when he plays will to selfishly put up bricks and made LBJ less effective.