The series of events as I remembered, pretty much what Diop already posted...
We traded Emeka Okafor for Tyson Chandler in 2009. Great rate at the time as we desperately needed a center with more size. Plus we dodged a bullet because Okafor ended up having a lot of back trouble once he was traded and was never the same player.
Chandler should have been a perfect fit and anchor for the 2009 2010 team that went to the playoffs. However, reoccurring foot injuries kept him in and out of the lineup, earning him the name pussyfoot. His inability to stay healthy really angered Larry Brown, and Larry seemed to try to make statements by benching Chandler in favor of 52 year old Theo Ratliff and the albatross contract of Diop.
The 3 Center rotation would be termed FrankenCenter
Brown refused to change his rotation in the playoffs and the Bobcats were embarrassed by the magic and swept in four games.
A relationship with brown and Chandler was not good and either Brown wanted Chandler out or Chandler wanted out or both.
This was also around the time that the SuperFriends decided to team up in Miami. Jordan, at the time, always tried to emulate what everyone else was doing in the league two steps too late. Whether that be trying to model after the Detroit Pistons of 2004, create his own Super Friends team, model after the Grizzlies, become a three-point shooting team like the Warriors.
During the summer of 2010 there were rumors swirling that Jordan was trying to convince Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul to team up in Charlotte to form their own super team. I remember there were even rumors floating around at the hooptee charity golf event that summer. I don't think anyone actually gave the Bobcats even at 1% chance of being able to pull this off but maybe Jordan and the front office had more Intel than we knew about.
In order to pull off this trade they needed to free up some cap space. That's when the dust chip plan was hatched. Bobcats traded Tyson Chandler to the Dallas Mavericks for Erick dampier, who had a non-guaranteed contract that could be waived to create the imaginary cap space needed to try to go after Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul.
As you can imagine neither player gave joining the Bobcats a second thought watch free agency started. Carmelo went to join Amar'e Stoudemire in New York and Chris Paul tried to join the Lakers. Them teaming up in Charlotte was never an option.
The Hornets ended up waving to a contract a month later and essentially landed a washed-up Matt Carroll and Edward najera in a trade for Tyson Chandler, who was just about to enter the prime of his career.
In the four years following Chandler's trade away from Charlotte he one a championship with Dallas the following year, and was also 2nd team team all-defense. He was the anchor of the defense that beat Miami that year. The following year he went to the Knicks where he won defensive player of the year and first team all-defense, 3rd team all NBA. The year after that he was second-team all defense and an All-Star.
In hindsight it was a pretty terrible trade. We never had a chance at Landing Carmelo or Paul. And we gave up too soon on a really good player who was entering his prime.
How much of this was because Larry Brown constantly complained about the roster?
How much was because Jordan just couldn't stand losing and thought he could compete with teams like Miami and New York and La when it came to recruiting free agents?
It's doubtful Chandler would have agreed to play another season with brown. That relationship was ruined. So we probably had to trade him one way or the other. Sadly, his trade value was at an all-time low because of the reoccurring foot injuries and because of the damage Larry Brown had done.
I'm not sure where this ranks in the all-time horrible trades made by this franchise. But I doubt that it's worthy to be inducted into the inaugural class of the Hall of Shame. Maybe we come back to this one in a few years. Larry Brown had ruined the roster by the summer of 2011 and it needed to be blown up. So keeping Chandler didn't really make sense anyway.
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