The best part (and maybe also the sad part) of Eddy Curry’s return tonight is that there are no expectations. No one in their right mind thinks Curry is the missing piece to a winning club, and it would be virtually impossible to make the on-court product any worse. In a world without salary caps, the Knicks could maybe consider this an opportunity to showcase Curry for a trade, but even that’s not happening. Essentially, Curry’s playing because he’s physically able to play, and because they’re paying him anyway.
Last year, Curry played a grand total of twelve minutes over three games, otherwise sitting out with injuries and conditioning issues. But he returns tonight a thinner man, and though Mike D’Antoni says he plans on using Curry, it’s probably also true that he no longer has the luxury of sitting players simply because they’re not quite right for his offense. For what it’s worth, D’Antoni says he imagines Curry can contribute to his up-tempo offense in much the same way Kurt Thomas did in Phoenix — so there’s that. Less optimistic about Curry’s return is Twitter’s great Fake Mike D’Antoni, who we imagine will be a lot of fun to follow tonight, even if the team necessarily isn’t.