Our upcoming season's theme - Indigestion

[Bassman]

Cats do nothing on draft day, while the rest of the league is active and crazy with trades or fire sales. We picked the worst possible time to have no cap space. Hinrich and the 17, the Heat give away Cook and a 1st rounder, now reports that Beasley is VERY available for more cap space. I think these teams are crazy doing this without knowing they can accomplish their goal of signing the CABAL (James & Bosh). But, that is what is going down.

As for us? If we ultimately do nothing, this season will be known as our YEAR OF INDIGESTION, as we await the slow agony of bloated contracts, the heartburn of slipping back against our competitors in the East, and the excess gas from watching LB use some old veteran horses again versus developing our youth.

I guess it begs the question...do we sit and suffer a year in hopes of attracting a key player here, or make a deal early (dealing Chandler, Nazr, etc) to get one of the players being waived around (Monta, Jefferson, etc.)?

[BigSlam]

Nice thread Mark.

[amcoolio]

Actually, there were very few trades considering the hype. No one in the draft outside of the top 8 + Aldrich would have come close to cracking our rotation, so we didn't need to trade or buy into the draft. Hinrich was traded for pure cap space, which we don't have....and is he really the savior? No, and I don't know why Washinton gave up their space for him. Cook is worse than Diop in terms of usefulness.

So what are you complaining about again? I'm glad we didn't give up future assets for something stupid last night. I think we'll still have a very different roster by the time the season comes around.

[ball teacher]

If the Bobcats plan on keeping Thomas they need another big that can score bottom line. I'd try to get Jefferson by giving up one of the two big men we have, Chandler or Diaw. The frontcourt would be a little shorter, but Crash hits the boards at an exceptional rate and Tyrus is a great weak side shot blocker with great athleticism which could really make up for the lack of height. Then the Cats' get a point guard and the team should be much better than this previous season. Kansas PG Sherron Collins wasn't drafted, neither was Michigan SG Manny Harris, I think they both have potential to play in the league. I think Jordan Farmar and Calderon are available, I'd look into getting either of these guys, T.J Ford also.

[countryboi]

sometimes i wonder why your a bobcats fan....it would be alot less stressful for you just to root for the lakers or boston or something

[GoBobs]

Mami got both of the project guys I wanted, Dexter Pitman and Jarvis Vernardo. I don't think either would have played this year for us so no huge loss.

We could have moved into the second round, but it would have been stupid to give up a future second to get into the late second round just so you can say we had a draft pick. There are plenty of guys that didn't get drafted that could be interesting projects.

[Bassman]

sometimes i wonder why your a bobcats fan....it would be alot less stressful for you just to root for the lakers or boston or something

I know, but I just love the misery!

Actually, I wanted to just stir the pot this morning, give us something to chat over since nothing happened. I thought the indigestion theme fit our bloated contract status for next season....oh well, no appreciation for clever prose.

Plus I had to tickle Slam this morning since he loves me SO much!

More seriously is the open question of do we try to get one of the biggies with our expiring(s), or wait till next year to hunt?

[doc.end]

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... available/

*getting popcorn and waiting for posts*

[August Us Seazr]

With some teams totally gutting their rosters, and "Trader Dan" teams like OKC , Memphis, and Minny stocking up like there's no tomorrow, it looks like at some point the league will HAVE to come back to us. After all, we DO have some roster spots that will be available.

Michael and Company need to claim dibs on those guys that were left hanging after that # 60 pick!Just my opinion.

One other question-- Do we control our # 1 pick next year, or is that gone too?

[countryboi]

sometimes i wonder why your a bobcats fan....it would be alot less stressful for you just to root for the lakers or boston or something

I know, but I just love the misery!

Actually, I wanted to just stir the pot this morning, give us something to chat over since nothing happened. I thought the indigestion theme fit our bloated contract status for next season....oh well, no appreciation for clever prose.

Plus I had to tickle Slam this morning since he loves me SO much!

More seriously is the open question of do we try to get one of the biggies with our expiring(s), or wait till next year to hunt?

no i understand i was a little disapointed with yesterdays draft outcome with out young players, cap space and losing felton........it feels like we are doom next season

maybe we should start a hire kevin pritchard thread

[dmutombo321]

^I know we've already traded our next earliest permissable first. Not sure if that's next years, think it may be the year after.

Its moot though since they're showing no inclination to rebuild. They're stuck in mediocrity purgatory (a 35-45 win team who can contend for a late playoff spot but will never advance; not talented enough to contend yet too talented to draw lottery picks high enough to make a difference) and too blind or stubborn to realize it.

I'd never advocate that they make a trade just for the sake of doing it and there may well have been nothing out there. But either way, the fact is many of Charlotte's peers are set to improve dramatically and if the cat's stick with the status quo roster wise theyre going to regress.

[Bassman]

I wasn't expecting a draft pick so much (a 2nd rounder for the sake of a draft pick didn't make sense). I was more hopeful that we'd do something with a deal regarding one of the available impact players being discussed. I guess we'll see if anything shakes out between now and camp.

[doc.end]

With some teams totally gutting their rosters, and "Trader Dan" teams like OKC , Memphis, and Minny stocking up like there's no tomorrow, it looks like at some point the league will HAVE to come back to us. After all, we DO have some roster spots that will be available.

Michael and Company need to claim dibs on those guys that were left hanging after that # 60 pick!Just my opinion.

One other question-- Do we control our # 1 pick next year, or is that gone too?

It is ours and it can't go away oh

[doc.end]

sometimes i wonder why your a bobcats fan....it would be alot less stressful for you just to root for the lakers or boston or something

I know, but I just love the misery!

Actually, I wanted to just stir the pot this morning, give us something to chat over since nothing happened. I thought the indigestion theme fit our bloated contract status for next season....oh well, no appreciation for clever prose.

Plus I had to tickle Slam this morning since he loves me SO much!

More seriously is the open question of do we try to get one of the biggies with our expiring(s), or wait till next year to hunt?

no i understand i was a little disapointed with yesterdays draft outcome with out young players, cap space and losing felton........it feels like we are doom next season

maybe we should start a hire kevin pritchard thread

I thougth so as soon as the wiretap he may lose his job appeared 2-3 weeks ago. Not that Higgins is bad or something but pritchslap is pritchslap. No matter what his position should be (something like "Strange voice talking in Bobcats GM's head refusing to go away" would be fitting), just sign him.

[Stun704]

"Beasley Very available"

Would UPS for Beasley work?

[Rich4114]

Miami and others are risking ending up of a roster of 1 superstar and a bunch of scrubs. Miami especially, they have what - 2 players under contract? I'm sure Wade will resign and maybe they get Amare or Boozer too but after that then what? Haslem comes back? Felton? The rest will be summer leaguers I'm thinking. It's going to take them 2 or more years to build the team back up to a serious playoff contender. I don't know that they'll be a playoff team next year. The Cavs if they lose Lebron could take a major step back too. Boston will take a step back as they're getting even older, Toronto is a mess without Bosh...

You've got to figure the teams who will be competitors next year in the East will be:

Orlando
whichever team gets Lebron and/or Chicago
Boston
Possibly NY if they add two guys like JJ and/or Lebron/Bosh/Boozer

Teams that look to be taking steps back:

Atlanta, Cleveland, Bucks if Salmons leaves, Miami because of only having like 4 players

Washington improves slightly, NJ improves a little, Sixers still blow, Indiana doesn't get anywhere, Detroit gets nowhere... I think we'll be in really good shape next year if we're able to keep Felton or not lose anything at the PG spot.

It's early for all of these assesments, and after the summer is over the landscape will be very clear - but there's a strong possibility a lot of the teams ahead of us or competing in our range will drop off while only 1 of them really emerges as a top team. I think that will ultimately be Chicago.

So all in all, I don't think it's bad we didn't make any moves. What could we have done to make a significant impact? Nothing. Let all of the teams blow their money this off-season so next off-season the competition will be more scarce. I say unless a really good deal presents itself, we hang on to these expiring deals and become either a FA player for '11 or a team capable of taking a contract a la J-Rich again.

[Walt Cronkite]

Good post, Rich.

[ball teacher]

Miami and others are risking ending up of a roster of 1 superstar and a bunch of scrubs. Miami especially, they have what - 2 players under contract? I'm sure Wade will resign and maybe they get Amare or Boozer too but after that then what? Haslem comes back? Felton? The rest will be summer leaguers I'm thinking. It's going to take them 2 or more years to build the team back up to a serious playoff contender. I don't know that they'll be a playoff team next year. The Cavs if they lose Lebron could take a major step back too. Boston will take a step back as they're getting even older, Toronto is a mess without Bosh...

You've got to figure the teams who will be competitors next year in the East will be:

Orlando
whichever team gets Lebron and/or Chicago
Boston
Possibly NY if they add two guys like JJ and/or Lebron/Bosh/Boozer

Teams that look to be taking steps back:

Atlanta, Cleveland, Bucks if Salmons leaves, Miami because of only having like 4 players

Washington improves slightly, NJ improves a little, Sixers still blow, Indiana doesn't get anywhere, Detroit gets nowhere... I think we'll be in really good shape next year if we're able to keep Felton or not lose anything at the PG spot.

It's early for all of these assesments, and after the summer is over the landscape will be very clear - but there's a strong possibility a lot of the teams ahead of us or competing in our range will drop off while only 1 of them really emerges as a top team. I think that will ultimately be Chicago.

So all in all, I don't think it's bad we didn't make any moves. What could we have done to make a significant impact? Nothing. Let all of the teams blow their money this off-season so next off-season the competition will be more scarce. I say unless a really good deal presents itself, we hang on to these expiring deals and become either a FA player for '11 or a team capable of taking a contract a la J-Rich again.

Without knowing where the free agents will go kind of makes it hard to say how the teams will look, but from looking at the teams with money to spend like Miami, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, and with some of the trades and draft picks you can see some teams have the have a chance to really be good. Chicago should at least be very good on paper they appear to be a team that could get a combo of Lebron and Bosh or any other two of the so called major free agents. New Jersey is a team alot of people are sleeping on. They're even a team I think that's a major contender to land Lebron, if they get Lebron and a SG they'll be a team that can go all the way. However, for the Bobcats, I truly think this team needs 2 pieces, a scoring big man if they plan on starting Tyrus, Tyrus hasn't yet shown to be a great go to guy, so get a big who can and that gives you the inside scoring you need. Then get a really good point guard, you don't need a superstar, just someone who can really play the game, I'll even add a point guard with size. The Bobcats weakness last year was point guard play, scoring in the post was weak also, but the play at the point really hurt the guys especially in the playoffs. If the front office can get a post player the can get buckets and a good point guard this team should be able to make a deep run into the playoffs vs any team in the league.

[DY_nasty]

Wade went to the playoffs with a team of scrubs two years in a row. One of those years, he had an MVP season. If he were to get any legit , all-star help at all, he'd be in the 2nd round with ease. I don't think people really grasp the magnitude of what Miami has accomplished yet. Pat Riley is a wizard - he's done in 2 years what the Knicks have been trying to do over the last 5. And he did a better, cleaner job with it. Wade's not leaving. Even if they only get one more max guy (boozer, amare, dirk, yao, bosh, w/e) he immediately becomes a contender in the East - not only that, but say Riley DOESN'T want to go for another max contract - he' still gonna have 20+ mil of cap space to work with. Couple that with Riley's eye for undrafted talent and the recent success of d-league call-ups... Miami has laid the foundation to win a ring in 2 years.

Chicago... get healthy, get anyone else, they're good to go.

The Knicks though, I think they're screwed. When you compare them against other locations in the FA hunt they look bad. Really bad.

Sixers are going to be in the playoffs hunt this season btw. Doug Collins has a history of improving his teams 10+ wins everywhere he goes. Not only that, but he's not an idiot who's going to try and make an all-star like Brand play a style of basketball that doesn't suit him. They'll make some more moves before the season starts too.

The Bucks have made massive improvements all around, and they only got better this offseason. Not only that, but they would've been in the 2nd round this year if Bogut didn't get hurt. Even if Salmons ops out, they've already more than made up for it with the addition of Maggette and CDR. If they start off hot next year, they could easily end up a 2-3 seed in the playoffs.

Indiana would've been in the playoffs this year if everyone didn't get hurt. They never got a chance to build any momentum at all. IF they manage to get some additional PG help, they're sneaking in next year.

Atlanta... I doubt it, especially if Joe Johnson leaves. Still, maybe Larry Drew can instill some mental toughness in that team for once - if he can, then Atlanta still has more than enough talent to make some noise in the playoffs.

So what, thats like 7 teams who're gonna be in the playoffs once you count Orlando and Boston? I think we'll sneak in again. If not, more lottery fun-times and Larry is on his merry way. Win/Win.

Oh, and one more thing. We suck because we're one dimensional. I'd rather add two solid 3pt shooters than a big pf. This team has no problem scoring inside.

[Rich4114]

Wow, you have insanely high expectations for the Pacers, Sixers, and even Bucks to an extent. No way the Pacers or Sixers are sniffing what you've just suggested next year.

Look at the Pacers roster too, PG or no PG who do they have besides Granger?

Sixers - unless that draft pick comes up big the improvement will be slight.

Bucks - Maggette does not bring the same type of benefits as Salmons does. I have no doubt the Bucks will still compete for a playoff spot with or without Salmons but still.

As for Miami - they won't be able to become dominant with 2 max players so quickly. It'll take a few years IMO as they build a supporting case up and good chemistry.

We'll see, it'll be interesting to come back to this in say September and see where things are at.