Marbury Is Big Part of Another Big Deal

Whoever said you can’t go home again didn’t tell Stephon Marbury, who turns up every three years like clockwork.

In a blockbuster trade involving eight players and two No. 1 picks, including three former All-Stars, that re-charted the courses of two teams, the Phoenix Suns on Monday sent Marbury home -- again -- to the New York Knicks for Antonio McDyess.

Going east with Marbury are Penny Hardaway and his huge contract and rookie center Cezary Trybanski.

Coming west with McDyess are guards Charlie Ward and Howard Eisley, forward Maciej Lampe and the rights to promising Serbian guard Milos Vujanic, two No. 1 picks and cash.

The deal represents a gamble by new Knick President Isiah Thomas to get back into contention this season, and the Suns’ intention to write this season off to pursue next summer’s free agents, who could include the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.

Thomas took over two weeks ago and, according to the Suns, called them within 24 hours of being hired to propose a deal.

“I knew right after we got a new sheriff in town that we were in for a shakeup,” said the Knicks’ Dikembe Mutmbo. “One of the reasons he was brought here was to shake up the team and get us to the playoffs.”

From his perspective, Sun owner Jerry Colangelo called the deal “a big-picture kind of move and a bold move. We didn’t have flexibility under the cap, and we were hamstrung by some contracts. This allows us to be a player in free agency if we choose to. This is not a talent-for-talent deal.”

He might have also called it an unwinding-your-mistakes kind of move, marking the end of the nucleus of Hardaway, Tom Gugliotta and Jason Kidd, who was subsequently traded for Marbury.

Now last in the Western Conference after starting 12-22 and firing coach Frank Johnson, Colangelo can rebuild around a nucleus of Shawn Marion, 26, and Amare Stoudemire, 21. They just went from a $52.6-million payroll next season to $34.5 million and can cut further, dropping them as much as $16 million under the cap.

Before this, only three teams -- the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz -- could create enough cap space to accommodate the $14.6 million Bryant will be opting out of, if he leaves. A fourth, the Clippers, can get about $10 million under the cap.

Meanwhile, the Knicks, who haven’t made the playoffs in two seasons and are now No. 10 in the Eastern Conference at 14-21, can now field a powerhouse -- on paper -- lineup with Marbury, Allan Houston, Keith Van Horn, Mutombo, Kurt Thomas and Hardaway.

How it actually plays remains to be seen. Mutombo is 37. Kurt Thomas can opt out this summer and has been complaining in the media recently. Marbury made little secret of his disdain for Van Horn when they played together in New Jersey.

For Marbury, a native of Brooklyn, the trade is his fourth in the eight seasons of his continuing NBA odyssey.

On draft day in 1996, after telling Milwaukee he wanted to play alongside his friend, Kevin Garnett, in Minnesota, he was traded to the Timberwolves for Ray Allen.

Three seasons later, after the new bargaining agreement capped Marbury’s new contract at $80 million, he said he couldn’t get over the fact that Garnett had gotten $126 million the year before and forced the Timberwolves to trade him to New Jersey, which was then perceived as “home.” In his two-plus seasons there, the Nets went 16-34, 31-51 and 26-56.

A 20-point-a-game career scorer whose ability is undeniable, Marbury has been in the playoffs once since leaving Minnesota.

In another blockbuster, he went to Phoenix for Kidd in 2001 and played well, getting the Suns into the playoffs last spring. However, with Kidd reviving the Nets and leading them to back-to-back Finals, the deal was an embarrassment for the Suns.

Hardaway, versatile but frail, represents another failed investment. The Suns acquired him in 1999 and gave him a seven-year, $87-million deal, but he was never what he’d been in Orlando, was often injured and lost his starting job.

Hardaway has two more seasons worth $30 million after this one. Marbury will get an average of $18.3 million for the next five, through the summer of 2009.

That means the Knicks had better be able to win as constituted, because they won’t be getting much help from the draft soon and are capped out until at least 2008.

Ward, whose $6 million contract runs out this summer, will be cut then, if not sooner. McDyess’ $13.5 million deal also ends this summer, but the Suns will evaluate his comeback from knee injuries and may be able to sign him to a smaller deal.

McDyess played with the Suns for one season, 1997-98, before jilting them to return to Denver as a free agent, and has since said he regrets leaving.

Eisley’s contract -- three more seasons at an average of $6.9 million -- was a problem for the Knicks, which is why Thomas insisted that the Suns take him.

So it may be an interesting winter in New York, after all, and an interesting summer in Phoenix.