Starbury?

So, the Knicks and Starbury reached a buyout agreement. Is it next stop Boston for him? Right now, people seem to think yes. What do I think?

Well, he's not the world's best teammate but he is coming onto a team with a clear pecking order where he will be forced to fall in line behind KG and Paul Pierce. The other thing that I think will help is that he will be the clear-cut number five guy on the team and coming off the bench. By virtue of that last sentence it tells you immediately that Stephon cannot come into town thinking he is the man and that his teammates should act accordingly.

If he does act a fool then the C's dump him. And that my friends is the beauty of having a championship caliber, veteran laden team, with a clear-cut leadership structure in place from both a player a coach perspective. The Patriots do this stuff all the time and it works great for them. I'm not saying that the Celtics are quite at that level yet but as far as basketball teams go I think the only other team in the NBA that could bring on Marbury in a similar situation would be the Spurs. That my friends says a lot - of good things - about the Celtics and if there is any NBA company you want to keep, it is the company of the Spurs.

So now basketball, what does it mean?

Worst Case Scenario

Sam Cassell version 2.0. Plain and simple. It would astonish me if it turned out that poorly. Astonish me. Nobody inspired vitriol around these parts like Sam Cassell circa May 2008 and I would prefer to not see that matched nor have my patience tested in that regard again.

Best Case Scenario

Nick Van Exel from the Mavericks circa 2003. These were the Mavs teams back when they still had Steve Nash and Michael Finley to go along with Dirk and could put up 130 seemingly at will. ALL these guys did was score. And for this this team, Van Exel was the A Number 1 offensive weapon off the bench. Really his only job was to come in the game and create offense. Pretty much he was a rich man's Eddie House. That is no offense to Eddie either. Van Exel - dating back to his Cincinnati days in college - was just one of those guys I always loved to watch play and if Marbury can provide some semblance of what Van Exel provided to that Mavs team from the bench then I say the C's have done VERY well for themselves.

Good character or not, the C's need bench help so if you want to see them repeat without getting on your moral high-horse then embrace this move with open arms.

PS...

Do you realize that in that aforementioned postseason, 2003, Van Exel averaged almost 20 points per game and had three games of 35+ points all from the bench. Pretty good right?