Bricklayer said:
Curry is considerably overrated. He is every bit as one dimensional as Peja, only his one dimension is post scoring rather than outside shooting. Every bit as prolific as Peja too, but he does not rebound. He does not defend. He does not pass. And you consider it a good day when you keep him from pigging out on half a dozen Big Macs. He has a use, and we could definitely use post scoring. On the other hand we can NOT use another one dimensional scorer. Not even as if he makes his teammates much better because he's not going to pass it out of the post on offense, nor does he use that bulk to help on defense. As with many players, I'd obviously take him for spare parts and feel good about it, but its hard to get too excited about a lazy kid who had heart problems even before he had heart problems. Duckworth #2.
And frankly I agree with whoever mentioned that we could/should try a KT for Darko swap. If Harrington is being asked for, KT is not too out of line with that type of offer. Darko did not show well in summer league again and may turn out to be a complete flop. On the other hand he still has the variety of talents to be a special player in ouor system if he ever gets it together. Unfortunately picking up young prospects has not been our style. Part of Geoff's "genius" is dealing almost exclusively in proven entitites.
While I don't dissagree with your assesment of Curry, I am trying to be realistic. We will not get Darko for a bad contract (KT). Not to mention, that Detroit had absolutely no use for KT, nor does Atlanta (in a three way trade). Darko and Curry and my favorite "sleepers". They have both managed to diminish their considerable value (talent, size and potential):
- Darko by what after his summer league display must be a legendary show of lethargy and
- Eddy by his hustle stats and history with Bulls.
But I can build a better defense for Curry:
1. Fitness and weight problems: Curry tried to be a good pro and go for the best off season program available - Tim Grover's Hoops The Gym in Chi-town, only to land into trouble with then Bulls front office who hated Grover. You cannot ban a guy from a gym and expect him to be fit. As for his eating habits, Eddy (according to his own words) simply does not know how to buy and prepare food or go out and order from restaurant so he usually ends up eating Mickey D or Pizza Hut stuff.
2. Succession of terrible coaches would alternate in scorning (Floyd) or coddling (Cartwright) Eddy without actually teaching him. At least Skiles found him a role along veteran bigs and that monster Chandler. This role included minimizing Eddy's contribution on D to help defense and taking up space. He is already better then a year ago and he could improve, but Bulls will go with Chandler as the max big guy that they will keep. In fact, I could argue that Eddy's rotations on D are already better then Brad's.
3. His character: The kid was slaughtered by the media for being lazy and for frittering all his money away to the point that he had to borrow 250K from Antion Davis last year. Turns out kid is just a kid and did not know better. Nobody showed him anything of any substance until Paxson and Skiles came into town. Before that his "leaders" and gurus were NBA's own NRA evangelist (Jalen Rose - what a piece this guy is) and his best friend on the Bulls was Jamaal Crawford. Real role models. Turns out that he did not fritter money away himself. he just gave it to whomever would ask for a "loan". He is a poster child for NBA age limit. But he is 23 years old now, he had a career threatening health scare and the max deal that his agent (who he fired since) was promissing him to be "imminent" is not going to materialise.
The kid has reclamation project written all over him and I would not write him off yet. Darko on the other hand has shown about the same amount of immaturity but his price still maybe too high as he hasn't had as bad a rep or history as Curry did.
or was it coincidental considering Curry's heart problems that sidelined him at the end of season.
