The Next Domino to Fall

[KB21]

Now that it appears that Billy has secured the acquisition of Joe Johnson, I wonder what the next move he has up his sleeve is.

The Hawks are rumored to have agreed to a deal with Zaza Pachulia on a four year contract, but it appears Milwaukee will match the offer. IMO, giving up the draft picks in the Johnson deal is sending a message that BK feels he will get the center he wants in free agency. As bad as I hate to say it, that might be Eddy Curry.

[Inside_Man]

I think there's only two outcomes here.

If he can be insured. We can get him.

If not, I bet he plays for the 1-year qualifying offer.

[Lascar78]

Quote:

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If he can be insured. We can get him.

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Wrong. If he can be insured, Chicago will match. If he can't it's a gamble that's worth it for us, but not for Chicago.

COME ON DOWN, EDDY!

[KB21]

I really don't think Chicago is too gung ho about matching an expensive offer for Curry. Their hesitance is because they know his history and like me, they worry that he will go back to his old ways once he gets that big contract. Chicago has talked about giving him an incentive based contract rather than a big, long term deal. If Atlanta makes a bid of 5 years, $50 million, I don't believe the Bulls will match.

[thescout10]

Can the hawks get Magliore for Harrington? Do they need Harrington? Will the hawks sign a smaller point guard to back up JJ? For now there isn't a decent prosepct in next year's draft so if the hawks have a shot at a top point guard and take him does JJ go to shooting guard and what of childress?

I think the Hawks will let things play out.Sometimes teams look good on paper but find out later there are weaknesses in other areas which may need to be addressed in the draft.

[KB21]

I would rather get Magloire than Curry.

It appears that the Hawks will bring back Tyron Lue to back up Joe Johnson at the point position. If they are in a position to get him next year, I would expect them to draft Ronnie Brewer, who is a 6'7" point guard that will give them a long, athletic player for depth behind Joe Johnson and Josh Childress.

[NickJYD]

I am thinking that we might be going for a Zaza/Hunter combo at center now, but I hope Curry is still in our plans.

[clrumph]

I'd say sign either ZaZa or Hunter but not both. We only need one to be our long term backup C.

[KB21]

We have reportedly agreed to a deal with ZaZa, but it's only a four year, $16 million deal. It's very likely that Milwaukee will match that.

With us giving our MLE to Phoenix, that would seem to rule out Hunter, because he will likely resign with Phoenix now.

To me, that leaves only Jamaal Magloire and Eddy Curry as options, with Magloire being the best option of the two.

[NickJYD]

How do we even have a MLE? I thought only teams that were over the cap had the mid level exception.

[Lascar78]

I think most here would prefer Magloire. The problems are:

a) I don't think we can get him without giving up a Josh or Marvin

b) would he stick around once his contract is up?

Personally I don't think we have a real chance at getting him. We need Curry. Then we'll have one years to find ourselves as a team, and then it's time to do some winning

[CBAreject]

We are not giving our MLE to PHX. We don't have an MLE. Read my post here Trade exemption .

People got confused when the mark Stein article said PHX would receive a trade exemption.

[ggp]

I am definitely a Magloire backer. I don't like the gamble of signing Curry. His risk/reward ratio does not look good.

We can trade Harrington for Mags and get the enforcer Center that we need. Although, if the JJ trade is for real, we will not have much to offer beyond Harrington.

[chillzatl]

The only risk with curry is that he has a long term debilitating heart problem and can't play basketball.

THe reward is that he becomes a 20+ppg post scorer.

If we've done our homework, we can feel relatively safe about the risks. The rewards are going to be hard to duplicate elsewhere.

[KB21]

Risks:

1. Heart condition

2. Could go back to being lazy with a fat contract

Rewards:

1. Could realize his potential if he works hard and becomes a better defender and rebounder.

[chillzatl]

1.5 seasons isn't enough to give him some benefit of the doubt here? well hell, why do I ask, I know where you stand. You pretend like he played well for one month in a contract year. When in reality he played that way for 1.5 seasons. Enough of the bs.

[KB21]

Again, why has his rebounding percentage gone down in each year he has played?

If there were no doubts about his work ethic, Chicago would have already resigned him.

Instead, Chicago is offering Tyson Chandler $60 million over 6 years while Curry is stuck with the one year tender at this point.

I was reading an article by Lang Whitaker yesterday, and he states in this article that an All-Star told him during the AS break that Curry would be a great player if he ever played hard. So, you also have people he has played against saying he doesn't play hard.

[chillzatl]

that Josh Smith will be the best player in the game in two years. Does that make it true? no. Do I have ANYTHING to back up what I'm saying? no.

But I do have 1.5 years of inspired, improved play from Eddy Curry to give me some assurances that he didn't just drop 40lbs to get a phat contract. That he actually does have an idea of what it takes to matter in the NBA and he cares.

I'll take the reality of mine over the speculation of yours any day of the week.

[KB21]

Reality?

Just do a google search for "Eddy Curry" and "Lazy". See what you come up with.

[chillzatl]

I googled "eddy Curry" and lazy, on the first page, 7 of the 10 were from early 2004, before he was called out and before he started playing the way that he has for 1.5 seasons.

Two of those 3 recent articles were pointing to the same hoopshype thread.

the remaining recent one was a was guy replying to a picture of shaq on some random site.

Oddly enough, it also pulled up a 2001 draft report. In Currys section the word lazy was never used. Google found that in a later report on Zach Randolph.

Looks like there haven't been many people calling him lazy in the last 1.5 years... coincidence?