With the Knicks in the running for one of the top picks of the 2006 Draft, Eddy Curry is now being compared to players such as Tyrus Thomas and Rudy Gay, as the club will be sending that pick to Chicago as part of the deal made last October.

Most experts believe that there isn't a player in the draft that can make the kind of impact that Curry can.

"Without a doubt," an Eastern Conference scouting director said. "I wouldn't even bat an eye to think about that one. There's nobody in this draft that you're going to add to your team and he's going to make you a playoff contender."

"Centers are hard to come by," a Pacific Division executive said. Curry, he said, "has got a track record" in the N.B.A., "and everything else is pie in the sky."

"You get a starting center who will be in the league for 10 years, then to me that's a good gamble," the executive concluded.