As Planned, Curry Becomes No. 1 Option. NY Times. 12-01-06

By Howard Beck

There is nothing subtle about a 300-pound man-child bounding to the basket, dunking and woofing as he goes. This is only appropriate, because there is nothing subtle about the transformation the Knicks are undergoing with Isiah Thomas on the bench and Eddy Curry roaming the lane.

As the team president, Thomas acquired Curry in a risky and much-criticized trade with the Chicago Bulls. As the coach, Thomas is making Curry’s development his top priority, and it is starting to pay dividends.

Curry, the 6-foot-11 center, has scored at least 20 points in four consecutive games, by far his best streak since joining the Knicks last year. Curry leads the team with six 20-point games this season — twice as many as the Knicks’ high-powered starting guards, Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury, combined.

None of this is by accident. When Thomas traded for Curry, he viewed him as an offensive centerpiece — a franchise player who could anchor the Knicks for the next decade. Upon becoming coach this season, Thomas immediately designated Curry the No. 1 scoring option. The better Curry has played, the stronger Thomas’s rhetoric has become.

Thomas was never clearer about his vision than Wednesday afternoon, before the Knicks’ 101-98 victory in Cleveland.

“Where Eddy’s at right now, he definitely will become a go-to guy,” Thomas said. “That’s one of the subtle changes that’s happened in our team, is the point and the direction of the ball is starting to go and focus more inside, which is forcing some changes out on the perimeter. There’s a natural growth process that will happen, and it’s happening in our team, although it’s not showing up in terms of wins and losses. But I feel good about the direction that we’re going and the way our team is taking hold.”

It was a prescient speech. A few hours later, Curry scored the winning basket on a dunk with 46.5 seconds left. He also hit a free throw to complete a 3-point play, which forced the Cavaliers to attempt a 3-pointer on their final possession. Donyell Marshall shot an air ball.

Since Patrick Ewing began his decline in the late 1990s, the Knicks have been dominated by perimeter players. Ewing was the last big man to lead them in scoring, with 17.3 points a game in the lockout-shortened 1999 season. In the seven seasons that followed, the Knicks were led in scoring by Allan Houston four times and by Marbury the past three. Curry, at 15 points a game, is now second on the team.

Thomas, a former point guard, has shown an affinity for guards, acquiring Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and Steve Francis in trades over the past three years.

Obtaining Marbury once figured to be Thomas’s signature move. And Marbury, a native of Coney Island, once figured to be the star who would rescue his hometown team. That no longer appears likely.

The 23-year-old Curry is emerging as Marbury is fading. This, too, is no coincidence. The motion offense Thomas installed calls for ball and player movement, which means Marbury is no longer dominating the ball or the scoring load. He has struggled with a reduced role, shooting 39 percent from the field and averaging 10.1 points.

Thomas is harping on his guards to look inside first and ride Curry as long as possible each night. It is a logical approach — Curry shoots 53 percent from the field, draws double teams and is fouled a lot, putting opponents in the penalty.

Curry has struggled at times, notably in the two games that he faced Yao Ming of Houston. But he scored 24 points against Ben Wallace, a defensive force for Chicago, on Tuesday, and followed that with another 24-point night against the Cavaliers. Curry scored half his points in the final quarter Wednesday, which was another landmark — the first game in which the Knicks have asked Curry to win a tight game.

“Eddy was huge for us,” Marbury said afterward. Asked if the Knicks were comfortable with Curry carrying the load, Marbury said: “If he’s doing it, then you have to continue to go to him. It’s working right now, so everybody has to play off of him.”

Curry’s weakness in clutch situations has been his foul shooting, but he made 6 of 9 free throws in the fourth quarter of the victory against Cleveland, a modest improvement from his 55 percent rate this season. “It’s not that bad, especially compared to where I was a couple weeks ago,” Curry said.

Curry is proving to be durable, averaging a career-high 30.9 minutes this season. His conditioning was a major issue last season under Coach Larry Brown, who often left Curry on the bench. Curry also has managed to stay out of foul trouble most nights.

Curry is still a lackluster rebounder (his average, 6.5, would be a career high) and defender. He has not yet learned to exploit double teams with good passing (he has only nine assists). But the scoring bursts should win the Knicks some games, which is the only way they can justify their investment.

In addition to giving Curry a $56 million contract, they sent the Bulls two players (Tim Thomas and Mike Sweetney) and a 2006 draft pick that turned into Tyrus Thomas. The Bulls also have the option to swap first-round picks next June — a potentially devastating event if the Knicks are again near the top of the lottery.

But, for the first time, it appears that Curry might have enough brawn and mettle to steer the Knicks away from that ditch.

i understand many are happy with curry's play over the last 4 games. he has benefitted from guard penetration and is not asked to make as many 1 on 1 moves in the post, thus playing to his strengths (easy feeds for dunks) and curtailing his weaknesses (posting up and asked to make a move). credit isiah for using curry in this manner.

but in that entire article there's only one single sentence that sticks out more than anything else, to me at least.

Curry is still a lackluster rebounder (his average, 6.5, would be a career high) and defender.

if we keep curry and utilize him in this manner, then long term, we should probably seek a stud PF to play next to him that will bring the rebounding and more importantly, the defense. it's a little dissapointing that in today's nba, we can only talk about one side of the ball. after 4, 20 point games, the papers are saying "yay eddy". but he's still not playing defense, he's not providing any presence defensively and the paint opens up like the red sea.

i'm not going to lie, my eyebrow is raised somewhat by curry's efficiencies offensively but i credit that more to the gameplan and to our guards for feeding him in the right spots. he still continues to make the same mistakes when asked to make a post up move. defensively, he's still the same player.

djcriticalnyc

Dj its shocking that out of a huge complimentary positive article you find the negative, lol. :)

Anyway mods you might wnat to merge me and djs NY times threads. :)

DJ, I'm with you on this. Curry's defense is still bad, and it still spells doom to start Frye with Curry. I still say trade Curry, even now, b/c his value is high. Frye is just as good a scorer, and he has a little bit more upside on defense b/c he at least tries hard. Curry doesn't. I remember that one play at the end of the Cleveland game, where LeBron had an EASY layup, and Curry just stood there looking. It was pathetic.

Posted by SugarRayRichardson:

Posted by Allanfan20:

DJ, I'm with you on this. Curry's defense is still bad, and it still spells doom to start Frye with Curry. I still say trade Curry, even now, b/c his value is high. Frye is just as good a scorer, and he has a little bit more upside on defense b/c he at least tries hard. Curry doesn't. I remember that one play at the end of the Cleveland game, where LeBron had an EASY layup, and Curry just stood there looking. It was pathetic.

I'm a Frye and a Curry fan why not keep both. Frye can be our Kevin Mchale off the bench. Frye plays a totally differnt game.
It has taken Frye 132 shots to score 114 points this season
It has taken Curry 185 shots to score 255 points this season
Both are very good bigs as is Lee. No reason not to keep all 3. They all 3 play dramatically different games

Yeah, but only one of them is decent at defense at this point. Can't have 3 bigs who equate to bad defense.

Posted by Allanfan20:

DJ, I'm with you on this. Curry's defense is still bad, and it still spells doom to start Frye with Curry. I still say trade Curry, even now, b/c his value is high. Frye is just as good a scorer, and he has a little bit more upside on defense b/c he at least tries hard. Curry doesn't. I remember that one play at the end of the Cleveland game, where LeBron had an EASY layup, and Curry just stood there looking. It was pathetic.

How about giving Eddy some credit on the next play when he did help defensively and forced Lebron into a wild fade-away off the glass.

BTW, on the play when Lebron layed it in, Gooden made a heady play by sealing off Lee (who actually was supposed to be the help defender on that play).

Curry has played well lately and it is great to see but he's done this before and then disappeared. I hope he keeps it up.

Unlike a lot of people, I will wait and see if he does this on a more consistent basis before saying that he was well worth Tyrus Thomas and this years draft pick(potential lottery pick)

Lets hope he keeps it up Sugar because the franchise is basically riding on that trade for the next few years. I pray this isn't just a flash like he's shown before.

The key is that it's coming from the COACH. He's making it a primary issue and it seems to be sinking in. In the last 5 games his number of FGA's has increased as have his FTA's. That's a sign that the guards are in fact looking for him more. The results speak for themselves. It's not a fluke when the trend shows clearly that there's been a change in approach. Francis for his career avg'd about 15 shots a game and Steph about 16. Both are under 10 this year. Jamal has taken about 14 per, but he's not as high %. All 3 need to keep improving on passing more, but I get the sense that they will.

well at least this quiets the biendrins threads....