Vince Carter linked to Curry-Chandler rumors
Posted Thursday, December 02, 2004

Barry Rozner By Barry Rozner

Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler survived the road trip and were still members of the Bulls on Wednesday night.

As evidence we point to their names in the box score after the Bulls defeated the Lakers at the UC.

As for how long they remain Bulls, well, that's up to them. Chandler looked Wednesday like he wanted to stay, making the difference in the victory with his best game of the year, bringing terrific energy along with 18 rebounds and 10 points.

Curry was Curry, with 18 points and 10 rebounds, looking alternately great and terrible, ferocious and soft.

The reason they're still here is Bulls GM John Paxson understands you can't teach size, and he's waiting as long as possible before he pulls the trigger, hoping they find their games in Chicago and he never has to deal them.

He says he will not wait forever.

But Paxson also says the Bulls will not contend until they have a dominant player other teams must double-team consistently, someone who scores during "meaningful" minutes down the stretch.

Could that player be Vince Carter?

That was the whisper making the rounds Wednesday at the house that Michael Jordan built, and if your first thought was, "Don't do it," join the club.

It's a huge longshot, because on the surface, Carter doesn't seem like a Paxson-Scott Skiles player, but the more you think about it, the less ridiculous it becomes.

Carter will be only 28 in January, and when he's not miserable, he can still play. But amid threats to his safety, coaching changes, injuries and simply wanting out, Carter doesn't find much peace in Toronto.

The talk is that leg injuries have robbed him of his ability to attack the basket and leap tall players in a single bound, but prior to a 5-point effort in Miami on Tuesday, Carter had averaged 23 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.5 free-throw attempts and had shot 52 percent the past two weeks. And he did come back with 21 points Wednesday at Orlando.

So the first question is, could a rebirth occur in Chicago, which has so much to offer Carter?

Maybe.

The bigger question is, would Paxson use some of that cap space he's so carefully saving up for the summer of 2006?

It wouldn't seem so.

The Bulls have only four players under contract for 2006-07 and at only $12 million total. Carter would cost $12 million this year, $13 million next year, $15 million in 2006-07 and $16 million in 2007-08.

Paxson wants to do it the right way by ridding the Bulls of dead weight, drafting well and spending when the time is right.

However, what if Paxson never finds that go-to guy in free agency? What if the big free-agent crop never materializes? Or, hold your breath, what if after eight years of losing, players don't want to come here?

Jerry Krause could teach a class on the summers that never were.

Some believe Carter would be reborn in Chicago and think he could go back to attacking the basket and go back to being Vince.

Who's to say it's a bigger risk than waiting two more years for a free-agent class that might never exist?

The reaction

Kobe Bryant looked exhausted after playing back-to-back nights, and the UC fans didn't make it easy on him, booing nearly every time he touched the ball and cheering when he made mistakes.

Bryant is impressed, however, with the young Bulls, especially Luol Deng, who made Bryant pay for going to the bucket and forced him to stay outside late in the game.

"They've got some great young players who work hard," Bryant said. "I like that team. It'll be interesting to see them in a year or two."

Say what?

Scottie Pippen sat in on the TV broadcast for the fourth quarter and watched Luol Deng (18 points) make several huge shots down the stretch, scoring 16 points in the second half and 9 alone in the fourth. Apparently forgetting he was on TV, Pippen blurted out, "That kid's got some big (guts)."

Pippen later compared Deng to Paul Pierce.

Rookie time

Not only was Luol Deng solid, but Ben Gordon (17 points) also came up with another nice performance, despite missing a dunk on a layup late in the third quarter.

Said coach Scott Skiles: "If you look around the league, a lot of rookies are starting to loosen up."

Sight seen

Lakers players stretching in the hallway outside the locker room prior to the game, watching the Illini crush Wake Forest. Lingering too long, Kobe Bryant yelled, "C'mon, let's go. Who wants to play?"

From the result, you can tell not many of them.

Best observation

From an L.A. writer, who said, "For the last five years, we always quoted the coach and never quoted Kobe. Now, we never quote the coach and we always quote Kobe."

And finally ...

Syndicated columnist Norman Chad: "Remember when the Bulls would lower the lights and bring out Michael Jordan to a thunderous, pregame ovation? Here's who they usually introduce nightly these days: Kirk Hinrich, Eric Piatkowski, Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler and Andres Nocioni. That's not a starting lineup, that's a DeVry Ins ute reunion.

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