Question about the Bobcats

[tyrususi007]

I dont watch them, but I catch the highlights like the rest of you. They seem to be playing alot more uptempo.

to my question. With Oakafor's deal up this summer and the team playing more uptempo, does anyone think the Bobcats would be interested in a deal like this.

Chicago trades: Tyrus Thomas, V.K. and future 1st.

Bobcats trade: Omeka Oakafor

Tyrus might seem like a better player for their open court game. Dont have to worry about resigning Oakafor.

But my next question to all of you realgm salary cap masters. If a deal like this could even happen. Can Chicago resign Deng, Gordon and Oakafor???

The only reason why I brought this up, is I know Oak has been talked about on this site before as being a PF to bring to Chicago. maybe this would be a better deal and cost us less to get him.

thoughts?

[the air. . . . .man]

I'd like that deal but i think we'd be tied up financially for a while with that deal.

[BrooklynBulls]

I doubt the Bobcats will let go of Okafor, because he's one of their biggest needs. If they let him go, it will be for nothing less than a package of Tyrus, Noah, filler, maybe a pick. They may like Noc. Okafor's a bigman, who's playing well, and is young. They're never traded cheap.

[girlygirl]

Has anyone else seen/heard stuff lately that suggest scouts aren't really all that high on Okafor?

This was the anonymous scouting report on him in this year's SI NBA preview: " Okafor is going to be a solid NBA player -- and I mean solid, nothing special. He has some limitations, and yet he gets the most out of his game every night as a defensive presence, a shot blocker and a rebounder. He's an adequate low-post scorer, and I don't see him getting a great deal better offensively. I see him playing at this level the next 10 years. He's getting everything out of himself that he can. But he just doesn't have the scoring mentality, and the proof is that his team doesn't go to him a lot down there because they know what he can and can't do..."

Then this was Charley Rosen's opinion, when he did a story on the Bobcats' development last week...Emeka Okafor: "He's a good-but-not-great rebounder, mainly because he sometimes gets pushed out of position. He's also a decent shot-blocker, with the caveat that he doesn't always come to the ball with the proper energy. Making poor choices on defense is another chronic problem. In fact, the best part of his game is his ability to throw out-let passes after securing a defensive rebound, a skill that routinely initiates the Bobcats' fast break.Passing is another weakness, and Okafor is extremely uncomfortable in the low post. His crude moves in the paint resulted in two traveling violations and one blocked shot...In a perfect world, Okafor would be a primo backup for a championship team."

In addition, when I've seen comments on the ESPN.com chats about Okafor, they always seem lukewarm, at best.

Aside from the fact that he can't seem to stay healthy, he isn't a particularly good shooter for a guy who plays almost exclusively in the post (47.8% career) and is a bit of a black hole when he gets the ball (career 1 APG with 0.6 APG this season).

Acording to 82games.com, his defensive PER this season is 18.2, which well below average.

Okafor turned down a fairly big contract extension offer from the Bobcats. He isn't worth anywhere near max money, but that may be what he's looking for (or maybe he just wants to go to a better team, who knows?)

Anyway, I don't know if Okafor is really all that much better than the young guys the Bulls have now. He's farther ahead in his development than are Noah and Thomas, but I think Okafor basically is what he is, while Noah and (especially) Thomas still have a ton of room for improvement. So I would be very careful to avoid overpaying if I were interested in trading for him...

[Ben]

Great research and great post, girlygirl.

My sense has always been that Okafor is seriously overrated by many. Unfortunately for us and other teams, the "many" overraters probably includes Charlotte's front office.

In other words, Okafor is probably not going to become available for anything less than a costly package, yet he's not really all that great. Not all that much better than Tyson Chandler; the main difference now is that TC is playing next to a primo PG. We do not have one, at any rate.

Would I do Tyrus & Noah for Okafor? Probably-- but even that's in a vacuum. Okafor plus Wallace would depress me no end. So I wouldn't do that deal unless we could dump Wallace for an expiring contract plus something else decent. Kwame plus Vlad?

Hmmm... but think about that. Our lineups would then comprise:
Kirk/ Du
BG/ Kirk/ Thabo
Deng/ Noc/ Vlad
Okafor/ Smith/ Noc
Kwame/ Gray/ Smith/ Okafor

Then we let Kwame walk, re-sign BG and Deng, and head into our "glory days" horizon with:
Kirk/ BG/ Deng/ Okafor/ Gray ???

Any chance that that lineup could ever compete with the big boys? I sure don't think so.

Which brings me back to my main, primary, main point:

So maybe we should just forget the whole idea.

[step]

Okafor turned down a fairly big contract extension offer from the Bobcats. He isn't worth anywhere near max money, but that may be what he's looking for (or maybe he just wants to go to a better team, who knows?)

It was a surprising move, turning down the massive extension that would of given him something along the lines of $12M per year. He's not even worth that.

[Tommy Udo 6]

Okafur turned down 5 years/$65 million. That's the most of anyone & is considered above market based on his injury history

Like Deng, he's been playing like crap since.

Both players seem so afraid to get injured that their whole game has deteriorated.

[dflaschberger]

Our only hope would be Johnson is a cheap owner and forces MJ's hand-then he calls his old buddy pax

i am SO glad they didn't draft Roy (like I and many were saying they should)

Their core of felton, gwallace and okafur would look GREAT with Roy and their lottery pick last year

I love how Eastern GM's suck