Paying price for Curry
Losing draft picks a costly decision, but Dolan backs up Isiah
BY ALAN HAHN

April 18, 2007

James Dolan did his best to defend the impending loss of yet another lottery pick this season to the Chicago Bulls, but when it came down to it, even the Madison Square Garden chairman admits Isiah Thomas might have paid too much for Eddy Curry.

Dolan would not speak to the newspaper reporters after Monday's Garden finale, but as an in-studio guest yesterday on WFAN's "Mike and the Mad Dog" show, Dolan said there would be no ramifications if the Bulls wind up with a very high pick in the draft - which has the potential to be a great year - and said he feels "Isiah made the right decision."

"I think first off what you're talking about is an 'if', a gambling situation," Dolan said. "We had Eddy Curry, not a gambling situation. I think Isiah made the right decision. He found a player that he could build around in Eddy Curry, versus a [prospect] which is a six out of 100 chance, and we didn't know, by the way, back when we made the trade whether this draft was going to be [good]. We're still in it, but not at the top."

A major part of the Curry trade, which Thomas made on Oct. 4, 2005, was the Bulls option to swap draft picks with the Knicks in 2006 and 2007. They did it last season and, after another trade, wound up with the second-overall pick in the draft, which they later dealt for forward Tyrus Thomas.

This year, with the Knicks holding the sixth-worst record in the NBA with one game remaining, the playoff-bound Bulls are certain to flip again. The May 22 draft lottery will determine how high their pick will be. But considering the potential of the college talent available - Texas swingman Kevin Durant right now leads a class that could also include Ohio State big man Greg Oden - it seems any top 10 pick could produce an impact player.

And that's what has Dolan now second-guessing Thomas.

"If we knew then what we know now, and if we could have said, 'Look, we're going to have lottery picks the next two years,' if you knew that, yeah, you could have made a better deal," Dolan said. "But you didn't know that."

Dolan excused the high price Thomas agreed to pay for Curry by saying the Knicks president was in competition with other teams to complete a trade for the 6-11, 285-pound center.

"Isiah is fairly shrewd in this area," Dolan then said. "I don't think he gave up anything he didn't feel he had to give up. Whether he called that right or not, that's completely speculative."

What isn't speculative is Curry, who will finish the season as the Knicks' leading scorer at about 19.2 points per game, is a coveted commodity. Despite the team's rash of injuries, Curry played in 80 of the 81 games so far before he suffered a hamstring strain in Monday's loss to the Nets. Depending on how he feels, he may or may not play in the season finale tonight against the Bobcats in Charlotte.

Mostly everyone expects Curry to continue to improve and perhaps develop into one of the game's dominant big men in the generation to follow Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan.

"I think that, at the time, we felt that with Eddy, at the time that we got him, that we could build around him and by this time, this year, we would be in the playoffs," Dolan said. "As it is, if you look, we almost did make the playoffs."

Dolan then mentioned the injuries to key players such as Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and David Lee that all came in the final two months of the season and untracked the Knicks' drive for the playoffs. Dolan also put some of the blame for this year's failure on last year's coach, Larry Brown. Dolan believes the controversy-filled 2005-06 set the organization back a season of development.

"This is last year's team, this is exactly what you're looking at, last year's team," he said. "We lost a year."

And the Bulls gained a lottery pick.

"We had Eddy Curry, not a gambling situation."

Posted by martin:

every other GM knows about lottery protection except 1.

"This is last year's team, this is exactly what you're looking at, last year's team," he said. "We lost a year."

Posted by Bippity10:

"This is last year's team, this is exactly what you're looking at, last year's team," he said. "We lost a year."

I am noting a bit of inconsistency here. If he believes that this is last years team and this is where we should have ended up last year, than why wouldn't we lottery protect the pick.