Presti has the Center Curse

[sonictecture]

No one knows if the Center Curse was carried over or whether Presti contracted this curse while with the Spurs, but there can be no denying that Presti has the Center Curse.

Definition of the Center Curse: A curse placed on an individual or nba franchise that prevents a team from improving the center position dramatically regardless of efforts.

What we know:
Presti inherited a roster that was infected with the center curse. The various Swift, Petro and Sene strains were some of the most concentrated and powerful known.

Presti diagnosed two of the three strains almost immediately, but chose to extend the Swift strain a season longer than he should have.

Presti was not successful in solving the stain in finding a center to play alongside Duncan in San Antonio.

Attempted Cures:
Creative Free Agent Signing: Nenad Kristic was signed from Europe despite his rights being owned by the Nets. Kristic is back in Europe where soft play and outside shooting is revered rather than reveled. A classic example of the soft strain.

Trade: Tyson Chandler a top 10 center, trade rescinded due to failed physical. Chandler is currently playing without injury. Diagnostics is not clear whether this is an example of the bad timing strain or the overly cautious strain.

Kendrick Perkins. After nullifying the Chandler trade due to injury they accept the Perkins trade, knowing he was injured. Perkins is currently injury free has helped transform the team defensively and with his toughness, but is a liability in on offense and his rebounding numbers are journeyman comparable. The "he seemed to look better with his previous team, but we're winning strain".

Nazr Mohammed a veteran converted power forward who looks like an offensive savant next to Perkins but is overall limited and near the end of his career. Five years from now he will enter the, "oh yea, I forgot he was on the roster strain".

Draft: Byron Mullens (traded), "needed him to be something other than he is strain"
Cole Aldrich (end of bench) "gotta be worried when Nazr is ahead of you in the rotation strain"
Tibor Pleis (europe), "is that Tiago Splitter or Peter Fehse strain".

Although a small glimmer of hope remains for the remaining draft cure strains, one must be troubled by other draft cures playing well that were not drafted by Presti. Andre Jordan, Roy Hibbert, Greg Monroe.

We know that Presti is a smart individual who prides himself on preparation, so what can explain the Center Curse and more importantly how can it be removed?

[dream_catcher_9]

I don't think this is true at all IMO. Presti was a big part of the Spurs getting Ian Mahinmi and Tiago Splitter while in San Antonio. Now both players are playing very solid basketball relative to their draft position.

Perkins isn't playing great but he is still only a year and a half removed from an acl tear. Mullens sucks, no argument there. Aldrich is way to early to tell IMO.

Chandler was too expensive for us to retain.

[slick_watts]

It's tough to get a good center these days, especially if you're not going to throw eight figures annually at one. Perkins has been disappointing but he was probably the best we could have gotten after Varejao got hurt.

[dream_catcher_9]

Varejao is like a more mobile version of Aldrich without the shotblocking. They would have been redundant IMO. I think Cole is our #2 Center for a long time, still not giving up on him. He has shown flashes of very good play this year.

Perkins as bad as he is playing now, will help us a lot when going up vs Memphis and the Lakers. Assuming he gets back to his 2008-2010 Celtics days.

[slick_watts]

Varejao's been amazing this year especially considering he's coming off the Achilles injury... better than Perk or Aldrich I'd say, very comfortably. I don't think we could have gotten him without giving up Harden or Ibaka though which tempers my disappointment. Cole has showed promise and should be playing ahead of Nazr IMO...

[sonictecture]

Is it so hard to believe that Varejao's injury is indeed part of the Presti Center Curse? Days before a rumored trade Varejao suffers a torn achilles tendon. Cursed!

Splitter was drafted an hour after Presti selected Durant and Green, so I'm not sure how much sway Presti had in the decision for the Spurs. But the fact that Splitter never played for the Spurs while Presti was there certainly reinforces the curse.

Mahinimi only started producing after he left the Spurs. This is part of the curse.

I'm not trying to argue that Presti is incapable of judging talent at the center position, only that the curse prevents that talent from being productive while he is attached to the team.

Brooks playing Nazr ahead of Aldrich is just another dimension of the curse.

[Seiklis]

Varejao tore a tendon in his foot, it wasn't nearly as serious as an achilles

All it required was some time to heal after the surgery, Varejao would of been 100% at the start of training camp had the lockout not eaten it