CAN'T RIP CURRY TRADE NOW April 9, 2007 -- CRITICIZE Isiah Thomas' GM moves of signing three straight mid-level free-agent busts Vin Baker, Jerome James and Jared Jeffries. Rip Thomas for drafting Channing Frye over Lakers center Andrew Bynum. Destroy Thomas for wasting $28 million of James Dolan's money on hiring Larry Brown and thinking they could coexist.

But don't you dare criticize Thomas anymore for the Eddy Curry trade.

This isn't about Curry's 43-point epic night in Milwaukee Saturday when he climaxed his career evening by swishing a 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime in the Knicks' miraculous 118-113 win that kept their slim playoff hopes alive.

The Knicks, perhaps without five of their top eight players, including Stephon Marbury and David Lee, host Detroit tonight and head to Chicago tomorrow for a new set of reviews on the Curry mega-deal. And even with Bulls rookie Tyrus Thomas emerging, even with the Knicks set to hand the Bulls their lottery pick, the Curry trade is still the best thing Thomas has done as president after drafting David Lee at No. 30.

Because this is how the Bulls' blockbuster boils down now:

Curry, rookie Renaldo Balkman and the 20-ish pick in this June's draft for Tyrus Thomas and the probable 10th seed in next month's lottery.

If the Bulls don't hit the lottery jackpot and move up to 1 or 2 for Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, the Curry trade is looking sweet.
On my Knicks' blog online, readers have argued that I shouldn't add Balkman's name to the debate. But the Knicks obtained Antonio Davis in the Curry trade and used his expiring contract to land from Toronto the 20th pick in the 2006 draft that became Balkman.

Tyrus Thomas will become a better player than Balkman. But not that much better. Despite his recent tear, the LSU pogo stick started the season forgetting plays and not showing the work ethic needed for the NBA. The rugged, speedy, high-flying Balkman never had that problem and will break a backboard one night with his thunderous dunks, perhaps in the Slam-Dunk Contest.

Curry, meanwhile, will enjoy New Orleans next February in the main event of All-Star weekend. Bank on it.

"He's probably the most productive center in terms of scoring the ball in the paint in the league," Thomas said. "You have a constant low-post player every night, who has gone from single coverage to double to triple coverage. But every night you can mark it down, 19-plus."

Curry, 24, has rebounded better this season but will never be a shot blocker or lockdown post defender. His offense more than makes up for it. For years, the Knicks will have a low-post weapon others don't.

Curry will excel most when he has big guards such as Jamal Crawford or Mardy Collins throwing him lobs at the rim. One scout said Curry declined since Crawford went down because Marbury is too short to throw the alley-oop.

Saturday, Thomas said Curry needed to "become a better leader in the locker room." More importantly, Thomas revealed Thursday the summer strategy for Curry to develop a 15-footer to combat opponents tripling him on the low-post. After watching Curry calmly drain the 3-pointer off an inbounds from Collins with .9 seconds left, the plan is not far fetched.

"It's not the time to go out there and try to develop that shot now," Curry said. "The summertime is time to develop that game. That's what I'm going to try to do - turnaround jumpers to the baseline, turning away from double-teams, stepping out, making that 15 footer and shooting it with confidence."

"I shot from everywhere in high school," Curry added. "It takes a lot of confidence to build up in a game to feel like that's your role to shoot that shot. For years I haven't been doing that in a game. I've been married to the box. It's definitely going to help my game and my team."

After Saturday's Milwaukee miracle, anything is possible.

marc.berman@nypost.com

wow. I cannot believe I am going to say this but, good article marc.

And they hate Ben Wallace for some reason. I am thinking it is because of his time in Detroit.

I think it is because Ben Wallace is a player in decline signed to a long big contract, so he won't be good enough to help them when they need a guy like him (Or another big talent worth that $$)down the line.

Also he seems to be an ass-hole.

oohah

I disagree with your #2 response. As it pointed out, he is the #2 pick and had trouble getting into game situations early in the season. He is coming on now but as I made a case, his numbers are slightly better than Balkman's numbers and he avg. more minutes. Maybe that's not so much a fault of his but of the people who belittle Balkman's ability. Your point for #3 is iffy because many of the Bull fans that I spoke to believe that if Curry and Tyson were still there that they wouldn't have to be fighting for #2 seed. They would be running away with #1 seed. That team was coming along for some time now while the rest of the East were getting weak. Also, it should be noted that the Bulls were so desperate for a true post player to replace Curry that they were willing to trade Deng to get one. I think if they acquired Hilbert then maybe they can come out on top but I think they will not acquire the type of post player they just had in Curry.

Posted by TheGame:

Could you imagine Curry on the Bulls with the shooters that they have. He would be the final piece to their puzzle. Unless they get Oden or Durant, the trade is a wash at worst and probably is slightly in our favor.

Agreed. With Curry, the Bulls would have a legit shot to reperesent the eastern conference in the championship series.

We still got a guy in Balkman that gives us a high energy guy in a similar mold to Tyrus. We'll really have to wait a while to know for sure, but at this point I like what we've gotten out of it.

I've been watching Tyrus and he is a good player, actually very similar to Balkman, but with more natural offensive feel. also he is a better free-throw shooter. They both block shots and get steals. However, Balkman is a better rebounder and plays tougher defense especially on the interior.

I think they are equal right now but Thomas is younger so maybe he is a little ahead of Balkman in that respect.

Isiah needs to set his sights on a real 2 guard. I'm thinking he is looking at that athletic European kid who likes to jam.

oohah

one more thing, the pick was anybody BUT bargnani. it could've been alridge, gay, roy, etc.

Posted by djsunyc:

one more thing, the pick was anybody BUT bargnani. it could've been alridge, gay, roy, etc.

? what is that trying to say. I am not biggest Curry fan but in no way do I believe that Alridge is even on the same level as Curry. I like Roy but I still would have a hard time chosing Roy over Curry. Even Brown himself said that Curry was better than anyone in that draft, no questions asked. The big issue is this year swap deal if it is Oden or not lottery protecting this year pick. If the Bulls do not land Oden or Durant, then I could easily accept that trade and that why Bulls fans are saying that Ty Thomas better turn out to be the post player that Curry was for them and Ben Wallace is going to have to be better than Chandler. Another friend of mine said for him, he needs to see Curry fall out on the court because that is what Paxson claim could happen.

Curry and Balkman > Ty Thomas
Knicks draft spot Bulls draft spot


Oh btw, Ty Thomas was going to be NYK selection. Both Thomas and Brown were high on him as well as everyone else.

[Edited by - pharzeone on 09-04-2007 1:29 PM]

The amazing thing is that Balkman was drafted #20 and Thomas #2 and I cannot honestly say that Thomas is a better player. If Balkman develops a jumpshot, he could still become the better player of the two. Trading for Curry allowed us to get Balkman (if you believe IT's stance that the Suns were going to draft him).

[Edited by - thegame on 04-09-2007 1:55 PM]

a few thoughts:

balkman and tyrus thomas may be comparable now. but TT is two years younger including fewer years of college experience. i love renaldo, but TT's upside is higher IMO, although there are no guarantees there.

if curry were still on the bulls, their style of play would have to be significantly different. the bulls are a good defensive team - their perimeter defenders are backed up by very good defensive bigmen. with eddy in the mix one of the team's strengths is neutralized. replacing ben wallace's defense with eddy curry's offense is a swap of one-way talents. who knows what effect that would have? but i would predict they wouldn't be as well-off.

You can't compare Curry to Tyrus Thomas you have to compare Curry to the value of having a lottery pick(which at the time selection is undetermined) and possibly another lottery pick. The same with Balkman

Dumb article

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 04-09-2007 1:36 PM]