What do we need to do in the offseason?

[thruthefire]

So, this article by Bonnell ( http://www.charlotteobserver.com/bobcats/ ) inspired me to start this thread.

I'll start off ... order of importance

1). Resign Raymond Felton.
2). Draft (Gerald Henderson), sign, or trade for a shooting guard ... Anthony Parker or Ben Gordon.
3). Trade or reach a buyout with Gana and/or Nazr ... preferable both.
4). Resign Sean May.
4). Add a 4-5 player ... Antonio McDyess, Rasheed Wallace, or a player in the draft.

Now, if we can't get rid of Gana or Nazr, it's going to be tough to bring in a McDyess or Wallace and get everyone playing time. I think at this point, it is obvious that the Diop trade was a horrible trade to make, so now we need to right a wrong by trading him. I'd rather move him than Nazr, but I would be satisfied if we could move or reach a buyout with Nazr as well.

[vexco]

get better

[Dexmor]

So, this article by Bonnell ( http://www.charlotteobserver.com/bobcats/ ) inspired me to start this thread.

I'll start off ... order of importance

1). Resign Raymond Felton.
2). Draft (Gerald Henderson), sign, or trade for a shooting guard ... Anthony Parker or Ben Gordon.
3). Trade or reach a buyout with Gana and/or Nazr ... preferable both.
4). Resign Sean May.
4). Add a 4-5 player ... Antonio McDyess, Rasheed Wallace, or a player in the draft.

Now, if we can't get rid of Gana or Nazr, it's going to be tough to bring in a McDyess or Wallace and get everyone playing time. I think at this point, it is obvious that the Diop trade was a horrible trade to make, so now we need to right a wrong by trading him. I'd rather move him than Nazr, but I would be satisfied if we could move or reach a buyout with Nazr as well.

They can do all of that but it won't do anything.

Henderson has asthma and is 6'4.
Antthony Parker? What is that gonna do?
Ben Gorden? So lets make the smallest team smaller
Sheed Wallace? We need to get young and rebuild so lets add the 33 year old pf?
Resign Sean May? What?????????????????

Truthfire is today opposite day were you live?


What they should do for real

See who is out there first off all because until we know we can only do so much.
Draft Tyreke or TWill and then trade for another sg in the draft to make sure
Hopefully get Tyler for not much.
Clearly resign Felton
Do not sign May
Diop was just gotten. they should trade him but he is the only real C so they can't right now.
Trade Nazi but that is almost mission impossible

[spectre_]

We need to get young and rebuild so lets add the 33 year old pf?

I see no way that this is the direction Larry Brown will want to go. Since he's came on he's brought in vets/guys who's "been there, done that". He's been rebuilding, but not with young guys.

We're at 57 million with 9 players. Assuming we'll keep the 12th pick that'll add 1,630,900...so that gets us to almost 59 with 10. Throw in Felton at the QO (5,501,197) and we're just shy of 65 million bucks. Firgure one of the two 2nds stick...750k. May at a smaller deal (1.5 maybe?) and we're around 67.5 million. Maybe keep Jefferson at 750k. and we're over 68 million with 14 players.

Assuming a luxury tax limit of around 70 million, if we add anything other than the rookies something will have to give.

[Bassman]

We need to get young and rebuild so lets add the 33 year old pf?

I see no way that this is the direction Larry Brown will want to go. Since he's came on he's brought in vets/guys who's "been there, done that". He's been rebuilding, but not with young guys.

We're at 57 million with 9 players. Assuming we'll keep the 12th pick that'll add 1,630,900...so that gets us to almost 59 with 10. Throw in Felton at the QO (5,501,197) and we're just shy of 65 million bucks. Firgure one of the two 2nds stick...750k. May at a smaller deal (1.5 maybe?) and we're around 67.5 million. Maybe keep Jefferson at 750k. and we're over 68 million with 14 players.

Assuming a luxury tax limit of around 70 million, if we add anything other than the rookies something will have to give.

This is where we are stuck. This is why I was concerned about our finish and what that said about the team.

Those who feel we have the right players, but are only missing one significant piece or 2 are wrong. We have lots of role players and some marginal players (off the bench). Yes we need a SG out of this draft. While we have Diaw, we still need a true big man at the 4. And yes Felts will be re-signed.

No player on this team is or should be untouchable. Frankly, I would like to see us trade 1 if not 2 of our starters to get us the player(s) we need to take bigger steps. That would mean dealing either Mek, Wallace or Diaw. I say Wallace is our best overall talent, Diaw is our best overall player, and Mek is our most consistent player. That makes it difficult to part with either of them. But Mek's hit his ceiling, and I don't believe he can take us us 2 levels into playoff success. Diaw is a valuable multi-tool player, but he's a liability rebounder/defender at the 4. Can he play the 3? That's where I want him if we keep him. Wallace...the heart and soul of the team...and an enigma as well. If he could reach a point of consistency in his production, I would say he's untouchable. He played his best ball last year, but he still leaves me wondering about his ability to be THE MAN.

[fatlever]

i'm hafl w/ bonnell and half w/ spectre

1. i love the idea of anthony parker and mydyess. yes, both are old, but both have 2 good years left. parker is a solid all-around player and would form a nice sg duo w/ raja. mcdyess was playing out of his mind when sheed was out.

2. look to move mek for a major talent upgrade. only trade him for a great deal though. if not, hang on to him for another year. he's value will not go down.

3. resign felton...................ONLY for a good deal. i know i keep flip floping on this issue, but lets keep him for the right price. we can always trade him next summer if needed. let dj get one more year playing off the bench before we find his perfect backcourt partner.

4. draft player with most upside... hopefully a sg or pf.

5. let may stay if he accepts the minimum (or close to it). 2 years with an additional year team option.

6. hang on to dontell jefferson. i think he has something.

7. cartier needs to go.

8. lil' sean needs to go.

[spectre_]

Thing is...are you willing to do something similar to that idea of Mek for Amir Johnson + 15th in order to get Parker & McDyess (that trade would save us around 7 million in '09/'10)?

FWIW I liked all of Bonnell's suggestions and those 2 esp. would help us out big time next season. The problem however is expressed in his caveat:

A caution about these unrestricted free-agent suggestions: I don't know if they can afford any of these guys, much less two or more.

[fatlever]

if trading mek, would let us get: amir, 15, parker, mcdyess and also re-sign felton. i'd do it.

i think we could easily get by with a center by commitee of mydyess, diop, nazr, amir and ajinca.

[Walt Cronkite]

Isn't the salary cap dropping this offseason? Wouldn't the luxury tax drop as well? I think we're pretty stuck where we are right now, no one is going to want our bad contracts--especially not a team with space that we can just dump them on.

Further, and I can't find the website that used to give me thins information, but won't Felton's cap hold be higher than the QO?

I know some of you dislike Okafor and think he could contribute more, but if we dump him we have to hope the prospect we get (here, Amir Johnson) + vet we sign (here McDyess) + Diop/Mohammed are capable of matching his rebound numbers AND the impact he has defensively. I hope LB has Gana running wind sprints already if we're seriously shopping Mek, because that guy is going to have to step his game up to levels I can hardly fathom.

[ccbballin]

I'm not ready to give up on any of the players we have except for Nazr. Not expecting any miracles but last year Felton was likely the most improved player. Who is it going to be this year?

LB wants Mek to change his offseason habits and that may pay off bigtime for him and us next year.

LB said he wants to get a full training camp with the players he has. Another move that could pay off.

Diop has talked about getting better and Vlad Rad might work to get more playing time. The biggest problem with those three aside from skill issues is their on court IQ. If any one can help them it would be LB.

Considering Juwan and Big Sean probably won't be back that opens a big need at 4. Even if they do come back it is still a weak spot. Probably a position that a quality guy is signed for the MLE. Alot of big name vets have been talked about but do they really want to play for Charlotte who's not considered a championship contender?

I don't want to go into next year with just DJ at point so re-signing Felton is most important. But he could be S&T'd for somebody really good if both sides can't agree.

I really think Felton is going to screw us though. CP3 and DWill are making 13 mil next year. GW, Diaw, and Mek all make around 9 or 10. He's got some good points of reference there to say he's worth at least 10 and I don't see us paying him that.

[Dexmor]

All of our players are in there prime though at around 28. Bell is the only old guy. I don't seem them going after Sheed unless the championship is truley not a goal.
They need at best 2-4 years to be championship contenders. By the time that happens Sheed will be old old like PJ Brown old.

Most fans and players go for championships espially the older one's so I don't see old free agents coming here unless it's luck like Juwan were nobody stupidly wanted him.

[Walt Cronkite]

Our goal is most certainly not to win a Championship. Like I've been saying in my past couple of posts to you Dex, you have to keep in the back of your mind that this is a glorified expansion team. Look at some of the guys the Raptors, Grizzlies and Hornets had in their 5th year.

[spectre_]

Walt yes...Felton's cap hold is much more (like 2x or 2.5x last year's salary)...so he would have to be resolved quickly to make any other FA moves. If it actually came down to the QO that would most likely be in the later stages of the summer, basically hindering us to make any other moves.

From what he's been saying I'm thinking he'll be resolved early...but you never know. If he's re-signed tho you can probably add a little more for what I was deducting for his salary.

In regards to the cap dropping...I've read either a slight decline or static. Going from memory I was thinking it was about 71 last season so I was saying 70 for the next.

Our goal is to make the playoffs and (hopefully) get into the 2nd round, and it certainly looks like LB thinks the path to that is with seasoned vets...and I can't argue with that. IMO if Raja hadn't went down we'd be playing Orlando right now.

[Dexmor]

I think what we should do is move Mek to the pf. Diaw is only good as a big man but the problem is I don't think he is a long term solution with his rebounding inability and inconsistany. Plus he could scrub out if he doesn't start.

Move Mek to pf keep Wallace at sf and keep Felton.

That means get a new Center and SG.

If a C is not available try and get a decently sized pf and keep Mek up at C.

No matter what keep Wallace, Felton and Mek.

[thruthefire]

They can do all of that but it won't do anything.

Henderson has asthma and is 6'4.
Antthony Parker? What is that gonna do?
Ben Gorden? So lets make the smallest team smaller
Sheed Wallace? We need to get young and rebuild so lets add the 33 year old pf?
Resign Sean May? What?????????????????

Truthfire is today opposite day were you live?


What they should do for real

See who is out there first off all because until we know we can only do so much.
Draft Tyreke or TWill and then trade for another sg in the draft to make sure
Hopefully get Tyler for not much.
Clearly resign Felton
Do not sign May
Diop was just gotten. they should trade him but he is the only real C so they can't right now.
Trade Nazi but that is almost mission impossible

You keep saying rebuild ... my question is, what the are we rebuilding from?

What's Anthony Parker going to do? Let's see, we have no backup shooting guard ... yeah, Anthony Parker would help.

What's Ben Gordon going to do? Let's see, we have trouble scoring and need another shooting guard ... yeah, Ben Gordon would help.

What will McDyess or Wallace do? We have no big man who play's the 4-5 ... our backup power forward for quite sometime was Vlade, and that's not going to cut it. I would gladly take McDyess and Wallace over Diop and Mohammed.

Saying Diop is our only "real" center is bogus. I would take Okafor starting at the five over Diop game in and game out. TRADE HIS GARBAGE ASS ASAP.

And I find it funny how you have this ridiculous obsession with height, but yet, you want to draft Tyler Hansbrough.

[chrbal]

Win a top 3 pick and get Blake Griffin

Never let Nazr see the floor again

That would be playoffs right there.

[Dexmor]

Parker is just another role player. See I think we have an excellent backup sg in Bell and should be looking for our starting sg.

Point is you guys are all talking about getting more role players but you can't have just role players with the stars around them.

Nevermind the word rebuild because I think you might be misunderstanding me.
They need to get a go to guy and a good #2 scorer. They have a bunch of #3's and #4's but no first and second option.

[Walt Cronkite]

But that's the problem. You think we need a go to guy AND a good #2, but why would anyone give up one of those guys for just a bunch of #3 and #4 caliber players?

[fatlever]

i think we should get kobe this offseason. we need a star sg and kobe would fill that need. lets do it.

[August Us Seazr]

If someone held a gun to my head and said "Trade Okafor and one other starter", this is what I'd do.

Try, try, try to get Grainger and Hibbert away from the Pacers.

But don't make me pick that other starter (Boris!), Pleading.