TMS
Posts: 60684
Alba Posts: 617
Joined: 5/11/2004
Member: #674 USA
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http://www.suntimes.com/output/banks/cst-spt-banx07.html Growing pains continue for the Bulls, who have a three-game losing streak and a frustrated center on their hands as they play host to the Milwaukee Bucks tonight.
Eddy Curry has been benched for most of the second half of the Bulls' last two games and has played no more than 24 minutes in the last three. He has been on the bench in the late stages of most of the team's close games this season.
Curry has distinguished himself as an effective low-post scorer, but he's often a liability when it comes to rebounding, defending and ball control. He'll commit a turnover, fail to box out for a rebound or fail to make a key defensive stop. So coach Scott Skiles will opt for the defensively tough Tyson Chandler to close the game and seal a victory.
"For the younger guys, he definitely gives them a little more leeway and he should because they are younger players,'' Curry said, noting that rookies Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni are also often yanked for erratic play but maybe not as quickly. "But for the most part, everybody should be pretty much treated the same on this team.
"I don't know, man -- it's a tough situation. I don't want to start up any controversy. I love playing for this team, and I love playing for coach Skiles. I just hope that we can try to resolve this situation before it gets too bad. When he sat me for the last 10 minutes of the third quarter [Saturday at Milwaukee], I knew he wasn't going to send me back in. So all I could do was sit there, cheer my teammates on and hope for the best.''
For Skiles, victories this season are a mere byproduct of a higher priority. He wants his players to be well-rounded individually and he wants them to play with grit as a team on both ends of the court from start to finish.
To that end, he wants Curry to be more than a post-up scorer. He wants him to play with maximum energy, defend, rebound and not lose the ball. He wants Gordon to be more than an electrifying closer. He wants him to cut down on his turnovers, be a solid defender and be a consistent scorer in the first three quarters as well as the fourth. He also wants Nocioni to be less reckless on offense, cut down on his turnovers and shoot better while still being a superb defender.
And when he sees Curry, Gordon, Nocioni, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng or any of his players falling short in quality all-around play, he yanks them.
Just in case one feels Skiles is picking on Curry, the numbers defend Skiles.
While Curry is averaging a career-high 15.4 points and shooting an impressive 52.6 percent from the field, he also leads the Bulls in turnovers, averaging a career-high 2.7 per game, and he ranks sixth in the league with 4.55 per 48 minutes played.
That's more than any other non-guard. Among centers, Yao Ming (4.08), Shaquille O'Neal (3.8), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (3.73), Amare Stoudemire (3.2) and Tim Duncan (2.86) are the closest, and all of those big men average more points, rebounds, assists and blocked shots than Curry.
After 7 years & 40K+ posts, banned by martin for calling Nalod a 'moron'. Awesome.
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