NP: Stevie Wonder, At The Close Of A Century

The Tribune's NBA columnist wants to keep Eddy Curry, trade Tyson Chandler, and maybe throw in promising rookies Andres Nocioni and Ben Gordon for good measure. What, exactly, has Eddy Curry done to warrant keeping him? Ever? He's just not a very good player. Chandler is finally growing, apparently as a result of less pressure and a better-defined role coming off the bench that seems commensurate with his age rather than his distorted pro experience. Curry keeps getting thrown into the starting lineup and failing miserably at it. While I agree that everyone on the team would benefit from a more reliable scorer, I see way too many babies going out with Smith's bathwater.

I'll say it again. Eddy Curry needs to be traded. Immediately. Any Bulls team with Curry as a key figure is going to fail miserably. One nice post-up over Tim Duncan doesn't change that.

As for last night, the grim truth of this squad is that they're going to get severely overmatched by the top tier of teams in the league, even when those teams have off nights. No one should be throwing in the towel after dropping games against Miami or San Antonio.