Come on BK be bold...Roll the dice on Curry

[tmac13]

I know many will disagree, but I think this organization needs the potential of Curry..Dalembert is an ok player who might turn into a good player..Curry is a good player that might turn into a great player..Outside of Shaq, Duncan, and Amare, Curry is the best offensive bigman in the game..His post play will open up space for all of our slashers to work..The double teams he demands will leave someone wide open..Look how the Bulls struggled to score without Curry..I also think Woodson will be able to get more out of Curry than an abrasive guy like Skiles ever could.I hear alot of you guys talking about Smoove or Marvin having superstar potential, the fact is Curry has more potential than either of those guys and he is only 22 years old..Curry is the type of player taht can dominate a game..He can drop 30 on any given night..The Hawks need to be bold and take this opportunity to land a proven bigman that can be great.

[Nicholasp27]

and if he's injured (and he's uninsurable btw and won't take the dna test..hmmm), then we have another albatross contract rotting in street clothes

[TheDude]

3 or 4 year contract if cleared by the docs.

[Diesel]

CURRY was a lazy sorry player before the heart condition. He has a heart condition TMAC... It's not worth it. NO insurance will cover him this year.

The only Deal I would offer him is a 2 yr 17 million dollar deal.

That's more than fair.

[cyman3]

this is another grant hill situation waiting to happen.

atleast w/ Hill, u know u have a hardworker and a good guy w/ a good reputation.

this one is different. however, this one is a CENTER. u sometimes gotta take chances on CENTERS since they are so rare these days.

this is a tough one. like i said, if the price is reasonable- im for it. but i do not WANT curry with a max contract!

[DominiqueWilkins]

Curry's not the better center between the two, but I would like for Billy Knight to pull the trigger on one. I would much rather have Dalembert on the Hawks, because I think he fits alot more of the needs we have, but Curry would also be a big impact. I believe Curry will become a better defender, but time will only tell, and Dalembert has defender wrote all over him. Dalembert also is getting better at becoming a scorer.

[Lascar78]

I wouldn't take a DNA test. It's an ethical problem. Many believe an employer shouldn't be allowed to screen your genes before deciding whether or not to hire you. Personally I wouldn't do it either.

The bottom line is, where are you going to get your center?

Next year there will be a number of great PG prospects and I would assume that's what we're going to draft with our top pick. Which, even if we have to SNT Al to get Curry would leave us with

Great PG prospect

Childress/Salim

Smith/

Marvin/

Curry/

We have a 2nd 1st rounder to get depth somewhere at the 3-4-5. There won't be starting center material below the 10 pick. There are no good C's in free agency that we have a realistic shot at. Do you suggest we go another season without a C? We have zero shot at Dalembert or Chandler

That would be a lineup with talent at every position, with lots of cash to spare to attract free agents. I think you can get free agents when you have a real young, talented lineup (i.e. 1-2-3-4-5). That would give us young talent with starting potential at every position. What we're finding out is that it's hard to do that when you have no C and no PG.

Do you think we should just keep going with no C? Have you not seen what that does to our team, even in summer league?

Again, for all the talk of laziness, Curry has improved every single year, not just his contract year. The year before last he averaged 15, 6, and 1.1. If that is him being lazy, I'll take it in a heartbeat. People say he's chubby, I saw a guy get in better and better shape every year. He seemed pretty motivated to me, and was in awesome shape last year.

He had a heart scare, that does not mean he'll have heart problems in the future. He's been cleared to play, and our doctors have taken a good look at him. I don't think the odds of his heart causing him to be done are much greater than the odds that any other player can suffer a career ending injury in any given game. It can happen, but it's highly unlikely.

He hasn't been the greatest rebounder, but I would attribute some of that to playing next to chandler. He's also only 22 and still can be taught alot. Rebounding is not all desire, there's alot of technique to it too, and Woody is known as a good teacher of defense and rebounding. Not to mention that all our swingmen are great rebounders to help compensate. He'll never be an defensive great, but there's a great chance that he'll be an offensive great. That will do wonders for our slashing young talent, help their game almost as much as a PG could.

I don't see how anyone on a 13-win team with no center and no PG, and no forseeable center prospects coming this way in the future, could refuse to gamble on a guy who is one of the best offensive low-post centers in the league at age 22, who's not that bad on D. I'm all for not overpaying just anyone, and waiting for the right people, but where are you going to find a better gamble than Curry? Are you going to settle for Collier? We had HUGE gaps at the PG and C coming into this offseason, and he is our only chance of truly adressing one of those 2 needs this offseason. I can't see why we wouldn't.

Luckily, I feel positive that BK will do whatever he can to get Curry here, but I don't understand why people here wouldn't want him.

[Wretch]

I never thought you'd take this side of the arguement...and with very good points too. I agree for the most part; unless someone starts throwing around ridiculous numbers.

[Diesel]

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I wouldn't take a DNA test. It's an ethical problem. Many believe an employer shouldn't be allowed to screen your genes before deciding whether or not to hire you. Personally I wouldn't do it either.

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I would blindly take a DNA test either....

But as an owner, I think it is up to Curry to PROVE that what happened to him in the second half of the season won't be his downfall after he is giving 50 million dollars. Not many of us here are getting 50 million dollar jobs so with that great amount of money, there is also a great responsible to prove that he will be able to perform for the duration of the contract.

When you buy a car, you make sure that you check under the hood, you get the vehicle History, you get as much information you can about the investment before you buy it. Well, at 50 million dollars, Curry is just not some average player, he's an investment. It's up to him to prove that he is worth the down payment.

[Lascar78]

He is willing to take any physical test, which is standard. DNA tests are an entirely different story. He might be in perfect shape, yet have a gene that suggests that he has a raised chance of heart problems. He would suffer even though it is entirely possible that the problem will never surface. If he passes all health tests, he should be signed.

Enough with the bad analogies.

We also scrap cars when they get into bad accidents, and cars can't think for themselves. People are not cars, they are not objects.

[Diesel]

Also...

Curry is damaged Goods. PERIOD. He wants a big contract out of us.

Now. To answer your question.. Should we go on without a C. Well, we don't want to but we don't take a guy who's damaged goods just because we need a C. Even before knowing that Curry had a heart condition, I was not jumping up and down about his ability. I think we can do better with Hunter/Zsazsa as potential stop gaps while we wait on a real C either by draft, trade, or FAcy.. But we can't just take a guy simply because he's available. Look at what you're getting.. Damaged Goods!!

Remember the effect that Grant Hill had on Orlando.

[Blunt91]

I agree we need to take a gamble on Curry since he will probably be the easiet for the Hawks to get out of the three. I would give him a 3year 25million dollar deal. We have loads of money and if he is unable to fufill his contract so what? We already stink as a team anyway. If Billy Knight fails to land any "decent" free agents this summer and we don't win more than 20games next season I seriously think Billy Knight might be shown the door by Belkin& Co.

[Diesel]

My point is that before you make any investment (and this is an investment) you get all the information that you can get.

Curry had to sit out the second half of last season because of his heart. Players have dropped Dead because of the same problem. Hank Gathers for instance. I don't want the Hawks to pay big money for Curry and then watch him have to sit down because of heart problems...

LASCAR, we know this going in... We don't have to do it. You have not given one piece of convincing evidence on why we should gamble on Curry... And don't try to overplay his abilities. He doesn't rebound or defend well. We can get that from Drobs!

[Diesel]

I think Belkin will be gone before BK (mark it down)...

anyway....

I don't like the idea of taking him and paying him even 25 million just because he's there??

If I wanted a C who couldn't rebound or defend, I'd get Drobs back.. At least he can pass.

[Lascar78]

you don't get a 22 year old player full of potential in Drobs.

you don't get arguably the 2nd most unstoppable center in the low post in Drobs.

Also Curry's D is significantly better than Peja's. You're being absurd and I think most here will see that.

If we don't get him, we'll still be trying to figure out how to get a center in the 2007 offseason.

[Inside_Man]

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He would suffer even though it is entirely possible that the problem will never surface.

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Incorrect. The problem already has surfaced. The DNA helps pinpoint the cause.

[Lascar78]

I meant surface again, in the future. It's entirely possible that Curry will play for 15 more years with no health issues, and yet that his DNA indicates that he is succeptible to heart problems. In such a case he would get severely penalized even though nothing happened to him. As opposed to checkouts that determine conditions he is actually experiencing.

Either way I don't believe that a player should have to submit his DNA. If not they'll be screening all players for all kind of possible genetic defects in the future, and players will be penalized for conditions that they might not even ever experience.

[Diesel]

I think what most here will see is that I'm not foolish enough to watch 50 million dollars go down the drain on a mediocre player who has already had to sit a season for a heart problem...

Tell me Lascar... What treatment did the Doc's use to fix Curry's Heart problem???

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A few short months later, the Boston Celtics drafted Lewis in the first round of the NBA draft. Lewis began his career as a reserve on the bench, then worked his way into the regular rotation, then to the starting line up and then to the Celtics' go to guy and their leader. In 1992, his selection as an NBA all-star came as no surprise. It was also no surprise when Reggie became the Celtics' sixth captain, taking the reins from Larry Bird. Lewis starred in his inaugural year at the helm of the Celtics, scoring 21 points per night and leading the Green to the '93 playoffs. But, in the Celts' first postseason game, the heart problem that would later result in his death caused Reggie to collapse and marked not only the end of his brilliant basketball career, but also a brilliant life.

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n the lawsuit, which was filed just months before the state's three-year statute of limitations, Donna Harris-Lewis charged that her late husband's treatment by Dr. Gilbert H. Mudge, Jr. and other cardiac specialists at Brigham and Women's Hospital was "rendered carelessly, unskillfully and negligently."

The 27-year-old Lewis collapsed while shooting baskets at Brandeis University gym on July 27, 1993, and was pronounced dead several hours later. A few months earlier, Lewis had collapsed on the floor of the Boston Garden during a playoff game. A team of a dozen heart specialists, hired by the Celtics, diagnosed Lewis with cardiomyopathy, which is a potentially life-threatening condition that would have ended his basketball career.

His wife reportedly had her husband transferred from the hospital where he was under the care of Celtics' physicians to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he was under the care of Dr. Mudge, a nationally known heart specialist who contradicted the earlier diagnosis. According to Dr. Mudge's diagnosis, Lewis was suffering from benign fainting condition. With further monitoring, Dr. Mudge told a press conference, Lewis could return to his basketball career.

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[TheDude]

i would offer Curry a three year deal and a maximum per year amount. I mean heck, we can't GIVE that money away now to free agents so it's being wasted. Why not use it and take the risk. If the worse-case scenario happens, then we're not on the hook for a long period of time. Why not? What else you going to do with that money since noone is taking it?

[MoonKnight]

If BK is serious about Curry he should require Curry and his agents to procure an insurance policy to reimburse the Hawks for Curry's heart ailment. The only holdup would be if the league requires this one earlier mentioned insurance company to be the only insurance company teams and players can contract with. Signing Curry is a big gamble and it is a gamble I would be unwilling to take if Curry's heart ailment is not insured. Because of this insurance issue, the Bulls have more leverage on resign Curry than many might believe.

Dale Davis, S. Hunter, and Ervin Johnson should be short term, reasonable contract folks we should consider.