So the Bulls finally pulled the trigger on an Eddy Curry deal.  Antonio Davis and Eddy Curry goto the Knicks and the immediate returns are Tim Thomas, Mike Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson and two second round picks in the next couple of years.  

There is also the possibility that the Bulls will get New York's first round selection in the upcoming draft.  

What do I think of this trade?  Let's break it down by parts.

First, what do the Bulls give up?

Antonio Davis - Among the least efficient big men on offense in the league even at the height of his career, Antonio Davis was merely salary ballast.  He's a strong lockerroom presence when he wants to be someplace and he's a bit of a cancer when he doesn't.
I'm a bitter Toronto fan, so I wasn't altogether impressed with the way he went about leaving but at this stage of this career, even my bitterness isn't overlooking what he's got left.

AD is 6'9 and built well.  He's strong, he's a good rebounder and he hustles on the floor.  He likes to taike baseline jumpers between 10' and 17' from the rim and he's reasonably good about hitting them.  He's not at all worth the money he's paid but the Bulls aren't losing a significant player; this just means Tyson Chandler can be on the floor more if he can stay out of foul trouble.  AD plays his best ball as an undersized center but prefers to play as PF, so he's a bit of a contradiction.  

In short?  Not a big deal.

Eddy Curry, on the other hand, is a big deal.
He's got faults:  he's a terrible and lazy defender, he is an underwhelming rebounder for a guy with his size and athletic ability and he's not the greatest passer.  These are somewhat outweighed by the fact that he's nearly 7 feet tall and almost 300 pounds when he's in game shape.  He has offensive talent on the block and while not a great rebounder, he's still good for about 5 boards a game and that's still something.  Curry has a lot of promise but he's got a bad attitude, work ethic and conditioing issues and then there's the ever-present question of if he's going to up and Reggie Lewis on the Knicks.  The Bulls are giving up one of the hardest things to find: a competent and willing low-post scorer with good size.

This is a tough deal for them to make, no matter what they get in return.  

What do the Bulls get?  

Tim Thomas is a career underachiever with a bad attitude.  He's got the size, athletic ability and skill set to dominate the league but he's never put forth the effort in any aspect of his game to really do that.  He's a bad rebounder and he doesn't score down low.  He shoots well but doesn't defend well.  In short, he's salary ballast and probably won't see a great deal of floor time under Scott Skiles.  He'll probably also complain loudly and often once he realizes he was in Skiles' doghouse before he even showed up to training camp.  

Mike Sweetney is a competent player in most regards but outstanding in none of them.  He's perpetually out of shape as Curry was before his contract year and he's 3" shorter than Eddy, so he doesn't even have good size going for him.  He's an unimpressive athlete and his skills aren't dominant enough for him to be a significant force.  Knick fans were really high on him and he does have potential as a sort of poor-man's Elton Brand (without the athleticism or the natural basketball instincts) but he's a poor substitute for Eddy Curry's presence because not only is he not a center but he's of significantly less talent as well.  

Jermaine Jackson was a throw-in; when the Bulls re-signed Jannero Pargo, they essentially committed to waiving Jackson.  With Kirk Hinrich, Chris Duhon, Ben Gordon and Jannero Pargo all needing minutes in the backcourt (and Luol Deng potentially taking some of his minutes at the 2 and stealing them from Gordon and Hinrich), there's just no time for Jackson.  There's a slim chance he'll stick around as an IR player but more than likely, he'll end up in the NBDL or the CBA or playing in Europe.  

The two second round picks will be nice if John Paxson can do something with them but the first of them is two years away and are again second round picks.  Sometimes you find gems down there, especially if you've got a good international scouting team, but the Bulls probably weren't clamoring to get the Knicks' picks as the primary element of the deal.  

The first round pick, conditional as it is, is more interesting.  If the Knicks' pick doesn't go to Utah AND the Knicks get San Antonio's pick, then Chicago gets its hands on what's probably going to be a 1st rounder between the 11th and 17th pick.  That means they could add a late lottery pick or a mid-first rounder to their team without the mediocrity associated with that pick.  And then they get their own pick.  

There are two potential problems here.  The first is
obvious:  the conditions on this pick make it a strong possibility they don't even get it in the first place.
The second problem is that if Eddy Curry IS healthy as he claims, he could really help the Knicks push for a playoff berth and the Knicks could end up with a pick in the 20s.  That would lessen the usefulness of the pick, though it would still be nice.  

Overall Outlook

Yes, there is the chance that Eddy Curry could have a potentially life-threatening health condition.
Unfortunately, the Knicks gave up a young low-post scorer who likes playing down low and is possessed of both size and athleticism.  

Eddy Curry isn't Benoit Benjamin; for one thing, Benjamin was a better rebounder...  but seriously, Curry is a much more talented scorer.  He's got the skills to stick in the league and be a focus for a team's offense.  He's shown improvement every year, if only in scoring.  But unlike a finesse player like Tim Thomas, even if his only skill is that he can score, he's doing it down low.  Most teams in the league would kill for a guy like Curry, even if he's topped out at 16 points, 5 boards and 5 free throw attempts per game just because of that.  He's putting huge pressure on the opposing defense and totally mangling their defensive schemes with his ability to muscle guys around inside and get hoops near the rim.  That and he seriously ups the offensive efficiency of a team because his buckets are so high-percentage.  

His heart issues are a major concern but as it stands, the Bulls have taken a significant step backwards as far as their offense goes, since it now relies solely on the offensive talents of their backcourt:  Tyson Chandler has not shown anything resembling offensive talent or the inclination towards becoming an offensive-minded player.  He's certainly not got the raw muscle power that Curry has.  The Knicks basically got Curry for Michael Sweetney and some draft picks they were really using anyway, since Jackson was a free agent and Tim Thomas was a waste of money.  

If Curry plays even 50 games a year at anything above
12 and 3, the Knicks win this trade in a landslide.
If he's totally unhealthy, they gave up Michael Sweetney for the chance at a player who could take them back to respectability, which wasn't a bad gamble.  If he IS healthy, then the Knicks win big time.  

Larry Brown stresses defense and while he may not get through to Curry entirely, he'll get through to him a little bit.  Even if Curry doesn't play great man-to-man D and just turns into a solid shot-blocker (which is what I expect will happen), those blocked shots combined with whatever rebounds he grabs and the scoring he does will raise the Knicks up to a level they haven't been at since the end of the Patrick Ewing era.  

Isiah Thomas has gambled a lot on Curry's health but in my opinion, it's a worthwhile gamble because good low-post scorers totally change a team.  How much easier will it be for Stephon Marbury to penetrate with Curry drawing attention on the other side of the court?  You can't double Marbury in the paint because he'll dish to Curry for a dunk.  Curry will space the floor to help the Knicks get better looks at the basket from the perimeter.  God help the Atlantic division if Allan Houston is healthy because he'll see nothing but open jumpers all season long.  

The Knicks might be awful on D while running two knee rehabs (Penny and Houston) with Curry down low but they are going to have a powerful offense.  

Bottom line, Chicago panicked and they're going to suffer for it.