As point guard for the 8-22 Knicks, Stephon Marbury is a lightning rod for criticism. Since arriving on Broadway 158 games ago as the player around whom a new era of Knicks could be built, Marbury has averaged a more-than-respectable 19.8 points and 7.9 assists per game, but also exhibited questionable defensive intensity and a habit of singing his own praises. Still, many of the most oft-repeated barbs don’t stand up to careful examination.

One of the most frequent complaints about Marbury is that he’s not a winner. The claim is seemingly supported by contentions that all three of his former teams found success after he left. While three consecutive instances would constitute some sort of trend, the contention is wrong. Each of Marbury’s former teams – Minnesota, New Jersey, and Phoenix – did win after his departure, but there is no direct link.

Marbury was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Nets during the miserable 50-games-in-90-days sprint that was the 1999 season. The Twolves were coming off their best season in franchise history (45-37 in 1998) and stood at 12-6 when they dealt Marbury in a three team deal that brought them power forward Joe Smith and point guard Terrell Brandon. Following the trade, Minnesota limped to the finish line, going 13-19 to finish at 25-25. The following season, Minnesota soared to a 50-32 record, but that owed mostly to 51% shooting from rookie swingman Wally Szczerbiak and a career year from former St. John’s star Malik Sealy.

The Nets were mired at 3-16 when Marbury arrived in East Rutherford in 1998. They finished the season with 13 wins in 28 games with Marbury manning the point, but would have done ven better had center Jayson Willams not gone down with career ending knee injury late in the season, robbing the lineup of 12 boards and two blocks per game.

Indeed, Marbury’s tenure in New Jersey was marked by bad lineups. The following season, unproductive stiffs Jamie Feick and Joe McIlvaine took most of the starts at center. In Marbury’s second full season with the Nets, the injury bug bit hard, robbing the lineup of starting guard Kerry Kittles for the entire season and starting small forward Keith Van Horn for nearly half of it. The Nets con tinued to use center as some sort of reality show competition, starting another end-of-the-bench-type, Evan Eschmeyer. for much of the season. During the offseason, Marbury was traded to Phoenix for Jason Kidd.

The overwhelming success of Kidd’s first year in New Jersey – 50-32 and a trip to the Finals – versus the desolate failure of Marbury’s final campaign with the Nets – 26-56 and yet another trip to the lottery – often provides the most vivid evidence for Marbury detractors, but there were numerous extenuating circumstances.

First, Kidd joined a healthy Nets lineup. Kittles returned and played well, as did Van Horn, and second-year forward Kenyon Martin improved markedly. The team also filled the pivot via a draft day deal that brought them rookie pivotman Jason Collins and free agent Todd MacCulloch. Their production nearly doubled that of their Marbury-era predecessors. Finally, the bench got significantly stronger with the arrival of rookie forward Richard Jefferson. In sum, Kidd helmed a substantially stronger Nets team.

Meanwhile, Marbury’s time in Phoenix was deja vu all over again. In 2001 – the season before Marbury arrived – the Suns went 51-31. During Marbury’s first season in Arizona they sunk to 36-46. Again, the problem wasn’t point guard, it was, again, the pivot. In 2001, Clifford Robinson was the starting center and averaged 16.4 points per game, but cap problems led Phoenix to trade him to Detroit. This left the pivot in the incapable hands of the two Jakes, Vokshul and Tsakalidis, who combined for barely two-thirds of Robinson’s production.

Meanwhile injuries began to take their toll on shooting guard Anfernee Hardaway, pushing him to the bench in favor of a still raw Joe Johnson. Amare Stoudemire arrived in Marbury’s second year in the desert, and the team improved to 44-38 and threw a scare into San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs. But the following campaign, the bottom fell out again as Stoudemire fought through a myriad of injuries and, after a 12-22 start, Marbury was traded to the Knicks.

Without Marbury, the Suns went 17-31. They rebounded to win 62 the following season after signing Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson and adapting an uptempo offense.

Knicks fans who complain about Marbury’s track record may be forgetting his first months in New York. Arriving in the middle of the 2003 season, he joined a 14-21 team and led them to a 39-43 finish and the team’s first playoff berth since 2001. Unfortunately, injuries cropped up yet again, with Allan Houston playing his final effective games for the Knicks during that run. Following another trend, the Knicks’ pivot play declined as the team went from starting Dikembe Mutombo and Nazr Mohammed to Michael Sweetney and now the oft-injured Eddy Curry.

Throughout all this, Marbury has maintained a career average of 20.6 points and 8.3 assists per game. That his teams don’t win has owed more to injuries – particularly among Marbury’s backcourt mates – and to poor personnel decisions in the pivot. The related charge that Marbury’s teams have not made it beyond the first round of the playoffs is also a sham. In each of his four postseason appearances, Marbury’s team was by far the lower seed.

There are many reasons to dislike Stephon Marbury. He’s not an aggressive defender, he’s certainly not press friendly, and he’s not an uptempo player making highlight clip dishes like Kidd or Nash, the point guards to whom he’s often compared. But the notion that he’s a cancer whose style of play causes teams to lose is ludicrous. The Knicks have an impatient fan base and they’ve only won 41 games since the start of last season. This is leading to bad habits like blaming the team’s best player for not being better. There’s plenty of blame to spread around for the current Knicks situation, but their point guard is getting far more than his share.

mjohnson@nysun.com