RealGM

This is with no offense at all towards any of our current players but being in a small market like we are will we ever have an A list superstar like Kobe, LeBron, or D-Wade, caliber?

It's possible. Having MJ here now sure will help.

And of course money talks.

If we draft them, like all three of those teams did, then sure. Those kinds of players don't really end up in free agency though.

The days where superstars hit the free agency market are over. Not unless they stop making rookies automatically become RFA's once their deal is up. It's not like in the 90's where these guys really hit the market. Look at what happened with Varejo. He was a RFA, so we offered him a nice deal and Cleveland matches. 9 times out of 10 the other team is going to match. So the only way you're getting a superstar is via the draft, a non-superstar FA gets signed and then becomes a superstar, or through a trade.

The closest thing we've got right now is J-Rich and if he plays all of next year like he has the second half of the season this year he will and should be an all-star.

Only if we draft well..........we could have ended up with 1 or 2.......Chris Paul, Roy, Gay, or maybe even Granger.

paul = superstar
roy = borderline all-star from year to year.
gay and granger = quality starters.

i think calling gay and granger potential superstars is a bit of a stretch. if gay and granger are potential superstars then so are crash and jrich.

we either have to get lucky in the draft (high-lottery) or package picks/and players to try to get hold of a real superstar.

I just don't know what star player we could get.

Brand?
Arenas?
Who else? And what would it take to get one of these guys?

I would love to get brand- i wonder if clips would look at our pick/and some combo of players (excluding okafor)- I think okafor and brand would be a great tandem. If we could keep either j-rich/or wallace we would be in great shape.

Paul is the only superstar we had a realistic chance of getting. The next closest would've been Howard if the Magic selected Okafor instead.

The difference between Crash and JRich and Gay is that Gay is 21 and just finished his second season. Given his improvement this year, on a truly horrendous team, superstardom is still in the realm of possibility. Certainly "borderline all-star" looks actually likely at this point.

Rudy Gay and Danny Granger are on the cusp of stardom. They are putting up 30 pts almost every other night and can do more than score. Rudy Gay will be one of the best 10 players in the league in 5 years and that's what I call a superstar.

luck, we need to get lotto lucky in years where big name players declare.

We didn't even have the chance to draft CP3 so at least we haven't passed on any stars in the draft.

The Garnett thing was a rarity. These days stars are looking to join forces instead of a team just "building" around 1 really good player. Shaq joined Wade, Garnett and Allen joined Pierce, Shaq joined Nash. It is really tough to compete at a high level in this league without guys that consistently can win a game for you down the stretch.

I know market size makes a difference but not that much. San Antonio is not a huge market but people want to play with Duncan, Parker, and Ginobli so they are always signing solid players.

So i guess i'll go along with the rest. We have to get lucky in the draft. I'm sure it will happen someday, but not anytime soon.

i admire your conviction cash. i guess we'll have to wait a few years to see. i mean, i can maybe see gay making an all-star team or two, assuming he can somehow become the man and lead memphis to a winning record..... but granger? meh. but hell, if richard freaking jefferson can avg 24ppg and make an all-star team, anything is possible.

lol, we all hate dickey jefferson. He is the sole reason why the Nets annoy me, and I consider them sort of local to me.

I can't believe I wanted him in the 2000(?) draft and he went a couple picks before us so we took Kirk Haston(!) instead.

Wow. I guess its payback for moving from 13th to 3rd and selecting Baron Davis.



















i still miss the charlotte hornets

Badd_Intentions wrote:We didn't even have the chance to draft CP3 so at least we haven't passed on any stars in the draft.

We backed out of a trade that would have allowed us to pick between Chris Paul and Deron Williams, so, yes, we basically did pass on Chris Paul.

Exactly WHamilton.....we did have a chance but we turned down 5 and 13 for Portland's pick. Also, we screwed that up anyways bc we had to beat Detroit in a meaningless last game and then we lost the coin toss so we got the 5th pick instead of the 4th. I would have felt a little better if we ended up with Felton and Granger in that draft.

has it actually ever been confirmed that we had the chance to make that 5 and 13 for paul. i know its been widely speculated for some time, but is it possible that the deal was never officially there for us to turn down, just rumors? [continue beating dead horse]

YES.

See:

http://www.nba.com/bobcats/draft_centra ... 50628.html

And specifically:

(On the Portland-Utah trade) We allowed them to make the deal this morning because we pulled out of it. We feel that we had held up everything long enough, so we called this morning and said we

Its all hindsight. You can't really fault the Blazers for picking Bowie in that draft either....No one, even though you might try to prove it, thought Paul and Deron would be this good quickly, or that Felton would be less than comparable with the other two. I still don't think its all player, either. Both Paul and Deron have semi-decent to great coaches and player developers who have worked with (Byron-Kidd, Sloan-Stockton). And Byron was a PG for a championship team.

As long as you want to play the "what if" game with Paul and the Bobcats, "what if" May stayed healthy his career and was an all-star this season? Would you still do the trade? "what if" the Bobcats had Don Nelson, Larry Brown, or Rick Aldeman as coach?

And isn't a little early for the great HAMILTON to be posting already? You post at night.