Stephon Marbury was the complete package when it came to scoring the basketball, which is what made him one of the most terrifying players with the ball in his hands.
First off, the man was lightning quick with elite handles. It normally took only a simple one-dribble crossover to get his defender off-balance, and by that point, he was already on his way to the bucket. Because he was so elusive, Marbury was able to drive the lane and finish under duress.
He could stop on a dime and pull-up from the elbow, or come off a screen and drop in a 3-pointer. There simply wasn’t much Marbury couldn’t do on the offensive end, which made it incredibly difficult for defenses to devise a plan to stop him.
Despite his abilities to put the ball in the basket, Marbury was also terrific as an actual pass-first point guard. His ability to fill up the scoreboard put such fear into the heart of the opposition, they almost had no choice but to send a second defender. When the help came, Marbury would carve up the defense by finding the open man.
While some may have wanted Marbury to get his teammates involved just a little bit more, scoring was what the two-time All-Star did best. It was the basis for the amount of success he had with the Knicks and in the NBA overall.
He put immense pressure on the opposition with every basket he made. Only after he’d become enough of a threat for the defense to change things up, he would begin to dish the rock.
Should he have attempted to find more of a balance? Perhaps, but then he likely wouldn’t have been as great a player in his prime.