via www.knicksfanaticsblog.com

 

Winning is good no matter who you beat, especially after you're accustomed to losing to anybody and everybody for any reason or every reason under the rim.   Winning is the reason it is difficult to fault Mike D'Antoni for his desire not to play Eddy Curry (7'0," weight a mystery), who he admits has looked good on occasion in practice.  EC, aka "ECity", aka "Expiring Contract," says he is ready to contribute to the winning atmosphere.  Coach D says Eddie is not ready to play long stretches.  D'Antoni adds that he is not ready to disrupt chemistry just to accommodate an unknown quantity. The problem is that Eddy is not an entirely unknown quantity and it takes very little foresight (or fan-sight for that matter) to know that his recognizable bulk will be very useful when the Knicks schedule becomes more difficult.

D'Antoni admittedly coaches by feel and he is trying to keep his job.  He is not feeling Curry like he was not totally feeling Shawne Williams.  That is understandable.  However, if Curry is able to play, it would behoove D'Antoni to put Curry in the rotation now, for however small a period of time, to help work him into the system, improve his conditioning and have him as an added weapon when the Knicks face the likes of Boston, Denver, Miami, Orlando, L.A. Lakers, Portland, Houston and San Antonio in the next month or so.  Eddy Curry could save his job.

Coach D'Antoni said, "I'm not going to give up a couple of games just to work guys back in. If it was Raymond (Felton) or Amar'e (Stoudemire), sure you do. But you just don't know. It's a tough situation for us right now. . . We want to only know things that are for sure. Whether that will backfire later on I don't know. Right now, our part of the schedule we have to get our record straight. We can't experiment right now."

D'Antoni has never seen Curry as a fit for his system.  Eddie Curry is not mobile enough and he must be able to get the ball to the open shooters on the perimeter and wings.  D'Antoni simply does not trust Curry.  He has reason not to given the series of misfortunes and ailments that have kept Curry sidelined.  If he viewed the tape of Curry's disappearance when Isiah put Zach Randolph alongside him in the paint, D'Antoni is probably wondering why Curry won't just vanish period.
If Curry is truly able to play, D'Antoni is being shortsighted as he often is with big players  (but give him credit for much clearer communication as to why players will sit). He does not automatically believe in players like David Lee, Rony Turiaf, Darko Milicic (LOL) and Shawne Williams.  He is stuck on that short (both in size and number) rotation but, as he pointed out, there is no practice time these days and without Curry on the floor there is no way to give him a fair opportunity to be ready, to increase his trade value and to lessen the risk of further injury

If Eddy is ready, play him.

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