# Hoopsworld strikes again...Curry and Lakers talking S&T, yada yada yada



## Darius Miles Davis (Aug 2, 2002)

http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_14087.shtml

"Other names mentioned are Tom Gugliotta and Darius Songaila. Though all accounts seem to have Songaila headed to Chicago, I*'m told he's still in consideration for the Lakers*.

The final big fish for the Lakers would be Eddy Curry who has yet to come to terms with the Chicago Bulls. The Lakers are said to have a solid two-year offer on the table for Curry via sign and trade. The Bulls are amenable to the Laker package, but both Curry and the Bulls are both striving for common ground. Chicago has offered Curry a sizeable contract, but with just a little over $5 million guaranteed. Though Curry has been cleared to play, his irregular heartbeat that kept him out of the Bull's playoff run has spooked insurers. Curry is looking for as much guaranteed money as possible, likely taking into account his own personal fears that the heart problem may indeed be an issue in the future.

If the Bulls final offer is no more than $5 mil guaranteed and the Lakers commit to above $16 million for two-seasons, LA has a legit shot at the young center. Because everything the Lakers are working for are on the 2007 plan, they are in a good position to take short-term risks. LA wouldn't be the only team in the hunt for Curry and would have to hope that they do not get outbid.

Ultimately it remains a long shot. It would appear that the Kapono acquisition signals that the Lakers aren't waiting for Curry since Eric Piatkowski, also a three-point specialist, would need to be included in the deal to accommodate Curry's base year compensation status. Adding both Pike and Kapono would seem redundant.

If promising rookie Andrew Bynum does not play in year one, LA currently would need 48 minutes out of Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown. It would seem very unlikely the Vlade Divac returns, so unless the team is comfortable with Slava Medvedenko and Brian Cook filling in minutes at the five, the team needs to make a move for an additional center. Even if lightning strikes and the Bulls trade Curry to the Lakers, the cost would be Mihm . . . once again leaving LA a player short at center."


I'm basically not going to take Hoopsworld at its word on anything. However, the other side of this is I wouldn't be surprised if we're shopping Curry if he isn't seriously considering the supposed six year deal worth approximately $60 some million, the deal with only one year guaranteed. Not every team is going to be as gunshy about offering Curry a contract with a few years guaranteed, because they aren't all holding their cap space for next year like we are. 

Of course I'd still rather come to terms with Curry, as I think he could be as great or greater than any realistic remaining 06 free agent. But we know this is the one negotiation which has turned ugly, and I wouldn't be surprised if Paxson has been considering deals around the league for some time.


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## 4door (Sep 5, 2005)

I dont' think Curry is a Bull next year, if he was going to be this would be over by now. I think the Lakers thing is a very good option for both teams. Curry does not fit into our system, but would probably fit into Phil's system just because as a Chicago native and basketball fan he must have a lot of respect for the man, and he will listen to him. There is a lot of disrespect for Chris Mihm, but average centers (12 pts 7rbs) with small contracts (4M) are very hard to come by. If you throw in Medvedenko who is also average and has a small contract to back up Mihm at Center and Jones who is very underated can play 3 positions and has a very low contract, I would make that trade. It makes the Lakers good again because everything works with Phil but they will be very young and won't get through SA. I would not trade Curry to the East just in case he gets healthy and decides to play some D and grab more than 5.4 rebounds a game.

PF Chandler Songalia Harrington
SF Deng Nocioni Pike
C Mihm Medvedinko Allen
SG Gordon Jones Basden
PG Hinrich Duhon 
Waive AD


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## SALO (Jun 6, 2002)

4door said:


> I dont' think Curry is a Bull next year, if he was going to be this would be over by now. I think the Lakers thing is a very good option for both teams. Curry does not fit into our system, but would probably fit into Phil's system just because as a Chicago native and basketball fan he must have a lot of respect for the man, and he will listen to him. There is a lot of disrespect for Chris Mihm, but average centers (12 pts 7rbs) with small contracts (4M) are very hard to come by. If you throw in Medvedenko who is also average and has a small contract to back up Mihm at Center and Jones who is very underated can play 3 positions and has a very low contract, I would make that trade. It makes the Lakers good again because everything works with Phil but they will be very young and won't get through SA. I would not trade Curry to the East just in case he gets healthy and decides to play some D and grab more than 5.4 rebounds a game.
> 
> PF Chandler Songalia Harrington
> SF Deng Nocioni Pike
> ...


You want to waive our best veteran leader (with a huge expiring contract) in AD, and keep shoot first / no defense Medvedenko instead? :krazy: 

I'd consider Mihm, Cook, and a couple of picks. Mihm is a decent young center on a reasonable contract, and Cook is another big that can stroke the long ball. But I'd still rather keep Curry though.


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

Nothing about this scares me. The Bulls still hold all the cards, as Eddy can't sign anywhere without the Bulls allowing it. And I guarentee Pax will not trade Curry unless we get something good in return. Chris Mihm is ok I guess, but the Lakers would need to add 1 or more draft picks to get the deal done, IMO. And as a side note, it's comical how Hoopsworld thinks the redundency of Kapono and Piatkowski would be the main thing preventing a deal from getting done. :laugh:

In a way, it's upsetting that we aren't in a position to reasonably offer Eddy a guarenteed 2-year deal. We can't screw ourselves out of signing a potential Eddy replacement next summer (depending on Eddy's health) by having Eddy occupy a significant chunk of cap room. 

Would anyone think Chris Mihm + Lakers' lottery-protected 1st rounder is enough to trade Eddy Curry away?


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## rosenthall (Aug 1, 2002)

If all it would take is 16 million in guaranteed money to lock up Eddy Curry, I'm disappointed a deal hasn't gotten done yet............and makes me a little skeptical that one ever will.


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## InPaxWeTrust (Sep 16, 2002)

Yodurk the short answer to chris mihm plus lottery protected first rounder for Eddy is YES.


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## fl_flash (Aug 19, 2002)

I would think something like Mihm, George and a first would just about do the trick - at least from a dollars standpoint. Don't know if the Lakers would do somethink like this or not, but Pax would have even more Cap Space to play with next summer as George is an expiring deal also. Does anyone know if LA has their pick this year or did they trade it away? In order to retain that all valuable Cap Space, Pax could defer LA's first for a year or two.

I don't know how I feel about a deal like this. Curry is the best player in the deal and I would think a first round pick would have to be included to even make it worth-while. I'm just not sold on Curry as a long-term option.


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## Darius Miles Davis (Aug 2, 2002)

rosenthall said:


> If all it would take is 16 million in guaranteed money to lock up Eddy Curry, I'm disappointed a deal hasn't gotten done yet............and makes me a little skeptical that one ever will.


If we trust Hoopsworld, that is.


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

rosenthall said:


> If all it would take is 16 million in guaranteed money to lock up Eddy Curry, I'm disappointed a deal hasn't gotten done yet............and makes me a little skeptical that one ever will.


Like I said before though, I speculate that it has very little to do with the $16 million, and has EVERYTHING to do with occupying our cap room for next summer. If Eddy Curry is on the books for $7-8M in 2006, then that's $7-8M we can't spend on a free agent next summer. And if Eddy isn't healthy enough to play, then we'll be forced to spend most, or all, of our cap room on Eddy's replacement. Which means we won't have the option of upgrading our roster in any way, shape, or form. If we were capped out like the Lakers, giving Eddy a 2nd guarenteed year wouldn't make much of a difference. I have very little doubt that Eddy's negotiations would be going better right now if we didn't have the cap space 2006 plan already in place.


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## LoyalBull (Jun 12, 2002)

Hoopsworld is essentially going off the braintrust of Emplay's articles which are little more than editorial wishlisting which are tailored off by the use of "sources" looking to give more validity to what is actually there.

One need only look at the record of said sources to figure out that very little (if anything) has ever come about from his speculations of the past.


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## SausageKingofChicago (Feb 14, 2005)

Efforts are being made to sign and trade Eddy Curry.

I have had this confirmed by two reporters ( prefer not to say who they are or quote their email replies )

Basically the bottom line is that both camps are open to the possibility but difficulties remain as to 

1. Who wants him without giving anything of value up

2. Commitment to term with albatrossed salary

3. Something that meets the Bulls requirements given strategic goals ( of salary cap flexibility etc )

Optimism is not high that something will get done notwithstanding both parties desire to have it on the table as a very real option for serious consideration if something suitable could be arranged


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## SausageKingofChicago (Feb 14, 2005)

I would be interested in a Charlie Villaneueva swap ( that also included Aaron Williams's expiring salary to make it work )

Would the Raptors guarantee Eddy Curry to a long term deal starting at $6M per ?

With Villaneueva on board it cuts our need for Songaila and is a much improved talent upgrade

It also enables the Raptors to play Bosch at the 4 where he belongs 

*

Curry
Bosch
Graham
Petersen
Alston

Arajuo
Bonner
Murray
?
Calderon

*

I'm assuming Rose will be cut and Alvin Williams gets taken out with Insurance 

Bulls would have Chandler and Villaneueva to build around and with short term supports in AD, Othella, Allen and Aaron Williams.


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## DaBullz (Jul 15, 2002)

Hey King,

I'm thinking my idea for preseason last year is still a good one. Package Kirk (or Ben, but we know you want to keep Ben) with Curry.

What kinds of deals can you conjure up?

EDIT:

I'm just not sold on the "play the right way" guys unless they have a lot of talent to boot. We're talking about losing a #4 draft pick here, I hope we could get something really good back for the two.


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## David Fathead Newman (Jul 31, 2005)

LoyalBull said:


> Hoopsworld is essentially going off the braintrust of Emplay's articles which are little more than editorial wishlisting which are tailored off by the use of "sources" looking to give more validity to what is actually there.
> 
> One need only look at the record of said sources to figure out that very little (if anything) has ever come about from his speculations of the past.


Nice.


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## johnston797 (May 29, 2002)

SausageKingofChicago said:


> Efforts are being made to sign and trade Eddy Curry.
> 
> I have had this confirmed by two reporters ( prefer not to say who they are or quote their email replies )


What's the timeframe on these confirmations? McGraw (a noted emailer, by the way) reported this early in the signing off-season. There hasn't been a decent rumor since.


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

johnston797 said:


> What's the timeframe on these confirmations? McGraw (a noted emailer, by the way) reported this early in the signing off-season. There hasn't been a decent rumor since.


No timeframes J , and both ( independently from each other ) advised that at this stage nothing is imminent given the various issues 

Merely confirmation that both parties would be prepared to part ways if something suitable could be brokered but at this stage no scenarios are suitable


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

DaBullz said:


> Hey King,
> 
> I'm thinking my idea for preseason last year is still a good one. Package Kirk (or Ben, but we know you want to keep Ben) with Curry.
> 
> ...


DeeBee

At this stage I would be really disappointed to see Kirk or Ben saddled with Curry as I think it lessens their value 

I would prefer to have Eddy as a solo piece .. or with expiring contracts to make it work where we don't get penalised with having to add a core piece 

I just don't think that just because we add Kirk or Ben we get fair value


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

And I might add.. I think the cold hard reality is is that if you are looking at Eddy S and T's .. its is going to be for players with a question mark or two against them .. or for bit part lesser talents similar to the Jamal Crawford sign and trade last year 

I have already nom'd

Sweetney
Gooden
Villaneueva

as principals in a swap 

Then there is the Mihm rumour / suggestion 

Outside of that .. I can't think of anything that would be plausible 

I was thinking of Mark Cuban ..but even he has pulled his horns in and is more fiscally prudent / restrained than what he used to be 

* Would he give up Keith Van Horn with Josh Howard for Eddy Curry, Jannero Pargo , and Antonio Davis ?*

I would not think so ..but what if Marquis Daniels is healthy ?

*

Dampier
Curry
Nowitski
Daniels
Terry

bench

Bradley
Davis
Stackhouse
Christie
Harris

Podkolzine
Diop
R.Marshall
Wahad
Pargo

*

In this scenario I assume Josh Powell is not guaranteed as a 2nd round pick and they would need to cut bait with Didier Ilunga-Mbenga ( who is an expiring contract at $1.76M ) 

Bulls would have :

*

Chandler
Van Horn
Deng
Howard
Hinrich

bench

Harrington
Songaila
Nocioni
Gordon
Duhon

Allen
Griffin
Piatowski

*

Van Horn is an expiring contract - we don't need to add guard depth given that we have Josh Howard and we only need to add front court help in Nene/Wilcox , Jeffries etc 

Back to the time being however ...Atlanta is not a player .. so no Al Harrington

I don't think Danny Ferry would bite ..he seems like a smart cat 

Toronto needs to take risk , hit a home run , and re-balance their team . I think they could be an outside chance ..maybe .Maybe not

I think if something were to get done..all roads lead back to New York 

But I don't think Pax would part with AD to get a deal done ( which is what he would likely have to do to make salaries work if Sweetney was a principal and Hardaway a balancer )


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## giusd (Apr 17, 2003)

Why would the bulls sign and trade for crappp. They can have him next year on a QA. Why would they take on contracts for players who will sit on the bench. They would be better off just cutting him after next year. They will however, sign him him for a 3 year contact.

david


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## DaBullz (Jul 15, 2002)

Would the Lakers consider giving up Odom for the right package?

Hinrich
Kobe
Curry
Jumaine Jones
Brown

Bynum
George
McKie
Walton

(that's if they gave up Mihm & Odom)

Bulls starters would be pretty sweet, but we'd need a backup guard...

Duhon
Gordon
Chandler
Odom
Deng


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

DaBullz said:


> Would the Lakers consider giving up Odom for the right package?
> 
> Hinrich
> Kobe
> ...



I don't mind that 


I'm not sure Odom and Bryant fit real well


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## DaBullz (Jul 15, 2002)

Machinehead said:


> I don't mind that
> 
> 
> I'm not sure Odom and Bryant fit real well


Yeah, I think Odom and Bryant didn't make very good teammates last season... Hinrich would be an ideal backcourt mate for Kobe, it seems, and Curry might really benefit from PJax' tutelage.

Mihm and Odom are like $14M in salaries. How do you make a deal fit with a S&T?

We'd badly need a backup guard, or else we'd be playing Pike and Deng there for some big minutes...


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## fl_flash (Aug 19, 2002)

If you look at the teams that could possibly fit into what Pax might want to do in a sign and trade with Curry, there really aren't many candidates. I would tend to think that Pax wants a big back, expiring contracts and/or picks. Looking at the teams who have bigs who might be available I come up with the Clips (Kaman and Wilcox), Nuggents (Nene), Trail Blazers (Pryzbilla), Pistons (Milicic?), Lakers (Mihm) and Knicks (Sweetney). All those players I would consider as inferior to Curry. Of those teams only the Blazers and the Lakers have expiring contracts that might work with Curry's salary needs/demands. I believe that Pryz and Patterson would work as well and Mihm and either Divac or George. None of the other teams have expiring contracts that either the Bulls would want (Thomas and Hardaway with the Knicks) or would be willing to part with (Lindsey Hunter with the Pistons).

tough to come up with a workable deal. Also, I don't think that Pax would be looking to take on Odom - no matter how good the deal. He really seems to be angling for max cap space next season for whatever reason.


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

DaBullz said:


> Yeah, I think Odom and Bryant didn't make very good teammates last season... Hinrich would be an ideal backcourt mate for Kobe, it seems, and Curry might really benefit from PJax' tutelage.
> 
> Mihm and Odom are like $14M in salaries. How do you make a deal fit with a S&T?
> 
> We'd badly need a backup guard, or else we'd be playing Pike and Deng there for some big minutes...


Frontload Eddy at $8M , $7M and $6M and throw in Pike and Pargo..take Mihm out and give us Devean George ( expiring contract ) 

That makes it $13M going out and around $14M coming back 

Effectively it becomes an Odom and Curry swap 

LA keeps big man depth and gets Pargo back who played with Jackson before ( and replaces Chucky Atkins role ) and they could use another shooter in Piatowski within the triangle .. we use Devean George as a designated big guard defender that Eddie Basden has to fight for his minutes 

*

Chandler
Odom
Deng
Hinrich
Duhon

bench

Davis
Harrington
Nocioni
George
Gordon

Allen
Griffin
Basden

*

LA 

*

Curry
Mihm 
Jones
Bryant
McKie

bench

Brown
Cook
Walton
Piatowski
Pargo

Bynum
Medvedenko
Vujacic
Wafer
Parker

*


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## DaBullz (Jul 15, 2002)

fl_flash said:


> If you look at the teams that could possibly fit into what Pax might want to do in a sign and trade with Curry, there really aren't many candidates. I would tend to think that Pax wants a big back, expiring contracts and/or picks. Looking at the teams who have bigs who might be available I come up with the Clips (Kaman and Wilcox), Nuggents (Nene), Trail Blazers (Pryzbilla), Pistons (Milicic?), Lakers (Mihm) and Knicks (Sweetney). All those players I would consider as inferior to Curry. Of those teams only the Blazers and the Lakers have expiring contracts that might work with Curry's salary needs/demands. I believe that Pryz and Patterson would work as well and Mihm and either Divac or George. None of the other teams have expiring contracts that either the Bulls would want (Thomas and Hardaway with the Knicks) or would be willing to part with (Lindsey Hunter with the Pistons).
> 
> tough to come up with a workable deal. Also, I don't think that Pax would be looking to take on Odom - no matter how good the deal. He really seems to be angling for max cap space next season for whatever reason.


You may be right, but I sure hope we get some talent back instead of cap space. In a sense, getting Odom would be trading for future cap space - whatever Hinrich will earn after his rookie deal, in the scenario I presented.

If Pax isn't interested in using cap space on a guy like Odom, who's actually a very good player, then the cap space may be for nothing in the end. If Pax doesn't use it now or next season, he's going to end up using it just to keep the players we have. It could be used to augment the players we have...


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## DaBullz (Jul 15, 2002)

Machinehead said:


> Frontload Eddy at $8M , $7M and $6M and throw in Pike and Pargo..take Mihm out and give us Devean George ( expiring contract )
> 
> That makes it $13M going out and around $14M coming back
> 
> ...


I like it. Though I'd sure like to get Mihm as our backup big...


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

DaBullz said:


> I like it. Though I'd sure like to get Mihm as our backup big...



Yeah but if you sub George for Mihm .. we still get to go shopping for one of Nene and Wilcox + a guard back up like Welsch


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## kukoc4ever (Nov 20, 2002)

Odom for Curry would be great, especially compared to the crap sandwich that seems to be coming down the road.

I don't see the FA to use Cap Space on that would be better than Odom. Perhaps I'm forgetting someone. Odom would be the exact type of player that we could trade Curry for... in the right situation for a trade.


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## fl_flash (Aug 19, 2002)

DaBullz said:


> You may be right, but I sure hope we get some talent back instead of cap space. In a sense, getting Odom would be trading for future cap space - whatever Hinrich will earn after his rookie deal, in the scenario I presented.
> 
> If Pax isn't interested in using cap space on a guy like Odom, who's actually a very good player, then the cap space may be for nothing in the end. If Pax doesn't use it now or next season, he's going to end up using it just to keep the players we have. It could be used to augment the players we have...


Hey, if Pax could swing a deal like the proposed one in this thread (Curry & Pike) for Odom, I'd be all for it and I agree with you - getting Odom would be an ideal use of Cap Space. Without running the numbers I think we'd be enough under the cap next season to at least be able to offer a good deal more than the MLE but less than the Max for certain players (Pryz, Nene, or Wilcox). If we let Curry go for nothing next summer, we'll be what - about $20mil under the cap? What Pax could want to do with all that space is beyond me. A front line that consists of Chandler, Odom, Deng, Songaila (hopefully), Harrington, Nocioni, Davis and Allen seems pretty good to me! Drop Davis and add any of the three possible FA bigs next season and that front line looks even better.


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## Machinehead (Jun 12, 2002)

Also could suit the Lakers 

Within 2 summers they could conceivably have as their core ( assuming Curry stays healthy ) 

Bryant, Curry , Brown and Bynum + two more draft picks ( likely lottery ) - 6 players at $38M and $10M- $12M in cap room to add a top flight guard support to Bryant 

If there core is that 7 they would then have to fill in the blanks with 5 role supports comibiunation of vets , exception types etc 

Retooling on the run


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## Bulls96 (Jun 25, 2003)

We have been waiting four years to see if Curry, will turn himself into a solid center. Today Pax is not ready to give Eddy a long term contract and I don’t see any good S&T deal is currently available. 

So, I would prefer to evaluate Curry for one more year and then sign or dump him, rather than get a questionable trade now.


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## 4door (Sep 5, 2005)

Odom for Curry? 
Odom, Chandler, Songalia, Allen, Davis, and Harrington? Maybe we should get more power forwards? How about Hinrich, Gordon, Deng and like 10 power forwards? 

If you trade Curry we should get 2 players: a true center and a tall shooting guard. They both need to be younger (under 28), small contracts (5M each), multi-year, and defensive minded. We don't need superstars, we don't even need stars. Players will become stars in the right system, don't go after anyone that doesn't fit our system. And Phil wants to use Odom as a point-forward like he did with Pip. Come on, no one sees the similarities between the old bulls teams and this years lakers team?

PF Grant Brown not a superstar, but can rebound and play D and score 10 points
SF Pippen Odom Point-forward that can rebound and pass and score 20 points
C Longley Mihm solid center, fouls well and hits his free throws
SG Jordan Bryant superstar SG, athletic scoring machine - 30 ppg
PG Harper McKie former stars, knee problems, average 2 guards playing point

Stacey King Andrew Bynum -- big lottery mistake


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## bullsville (Jan 23, 2005)

(To the tune of "Fish Heads")

Hoopsworld, hoopsworld
Silly silly hoopsworld
Hoopsworld, hoopsworld
Don't waste your, time


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