DX On The Bobcats

[BigSlam]

Ouch?

one of the NBA’s most talent-starved franchises.

he (Felton) has yet to take the next step as a scorer and still is somewhat turnover prone.

they have sacrificed all potential financial flexibility with some very short-sighted trades over the past few years

too good to land any more high draft picks, but nowhere near good enough to advance past the first round of the playoffs.

This team lacks some serious star power, without any real hope of being able to land that coveted all-star that can take them to the next level

[dmutombo321]

The truth hurts. I can't really say I disagree with any of their analysis.

The line:
"too good to land any more high draft picks, but nowhere near good enough to advance past the first round of the playoffs."
sums up my longstanding concerns.

Every year around Feb-March we invariably end up debating whether or not to tank (i.e. not intentionally losing games but rather giving minutes to Lexi, DJ, etc for developement's sake and allowing things to play out as they may) or go all out to win meaningless games that only hurt our draft position.

At #12, we can add a nice role player; plug Terrence Williams into the starting lineup, resign Felton and provided everyone stays healthy, we MAY be able to eek out 39-40 wins and sneak into the play offs and receive a first round ass reaming......but to what end? We'll have no lotto pick, insufficient cap space to do anything meaningful and our core players will be a year older.

The future looks pretty bleak if the front office insists on standing pat with this core and merely plugging in pieces here and there. As presently constructed, the team simply isnt good enough talent wise to go deep into the post season.

This is why I've always championed trading Okafor and/or Wallace for either a go-to player or the chance to draft one, even if it means taking a step backwards for a year.

[spectre_]

http://www.draftexpress.com/blog/NBA-Team-Needs/

I hope he didn't get paid to write that crap.

Here's the first part to that quote about Felton:

Felton was finally starting to feel comfortable in Larry Brown’s offense by the end of the season, but during his tenure with the Bobcats, he has yet to take the next step as a scorer and still is somewhat turnover prone.

Heh, he's starting to get comfortable but since he's not taken the next step under the previous idiots we should just let him walk? Yeah, we can easily afford to give up assets like that.

This "author" has no idea about our situation.

[Bizz]

I don't think the bobcats are in that bad of a situation. Sure we lack a superstar and we don't have the pieces to acquire one. The best way to get us that star we need is the following.

First this draft is crucial. We have three picks and have to get at least a 2 guys that will produce in the NBA.

Second we need to develop Lexy and DJ. I still have high hopes for both of them, I could easilly see DJ having a Aaron Brooks type a season and Ajinca must show this season that he belongs in the NBA. Very few players developed into something if they didn't show anything during their first 2 years in the league.

Third thing we must do is resing Felton. At this point we just can't afford to lose talent. But his contract needs to be reasonable. That shouldn't be that hard since there are few teams that can offer him anything significant and there are other available FA PGs, a PG deep draft and many more Pgs available in trades.

Fourth Bobcats have to make the playoffs if we want to sound even a little bit attractive to stars. We aren't gonna make a Boston kind of jump, so we need to make the playoffs to make us legit. Than after next season or maybe even during the 10/11 season we can trade Radmanovć+ Mohammed expireing contracts along with either our young guys(DJ, Lexy, this years picks) or our young veterans(felton, Wallace, Okafor) for a star that needs a change of scenery.

But the main thing is we make the playofs and that our young guys develop as expected. Hey maybe we even have a star on our rooster we just don't know it.

[e4Nf6]

If you look at the Bobcats with the typical NBA GM philosophy of "If you are not a Championship team, cut salary and Tank" then the Bobcat's moves look terrible. I don't think Higgins/MJ/Larry Brown/The Illuminati or whoever are in charge of personal moves believe in that.

I also believe that there is ample reason to be skeptical of the "tank and cut salary" strategy for Charlotte or any NBA team. Who is the best FA signing in the history of Charlotte professional Basketball? There has never been a "super-star" level player sign as a FA in Charlotte, there have been very very few in the history of the NBA for that matter.

As for High Draft picks, we've had gobs of them in our short history and have very little to show for it.

I suppose the idea is that we are decent now, but with 0 potential, I don't think that's true. DJ and Lexy will almost certainly get better, how much remains to be seen. We have a decent Draft Pick this year. Nazr and Radman could be used to snag a player from one of the "tank and cut salary" teams. Look what Chicago was able to do, getting Miller and Salmons basically for free, or the Lakers and Gasol.

Not a huge amount of potential but more than 0. And I think I heard somewhere that a bird in hand was worth two in the bush anyway.

[Rich4114]

I look at it this way. If we didn't have idiots running our front office, we would be equipped with players like Chris Paul and Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay. That's enough star power to build a contender around if you ask me.

The people who have been in charge have gone all over the place and never hit the right note, which has put us in the position we're in today. We also set ourselves back a year with the Sam Vincent experiment which I NEVER understood. They've got Larry now, and at least he somewhat knows how to make quality personnel moves in the NBA... but nobody else from the top to bottom of this organization does, including MJ.

Look at any of the successful teams out there and it all begins with the front office. Look at the Suns when Collangelo was running it, now look at them when Steve Kerr is running it. Look at the Spurs... how about the Jazz. Hell even the Hornets have the front-office talent to put a great team together (regardless if they keep it or not due to being cheap).

Being willing to spend money is one thing, but when we had the flexibility to make moves that could land us stars we didn't take it. Bernie wanted 2 for 1 and wasn't ever willing to make moves for guys like Joe Johnson. How many damn picks were wasted? The only one that wasn't was Okafor and even that one is tainted because of how much better the "higher risk" guy who went before him was.

And before someone calls me out on anything, remember I'm not the guy getting paid millions to make these decisions. If I was, you could be damn sure I'd be making moves to secure my job long term and that's by building a championship team.

And the consensus is right, we're not landing any big stars via free agency. Only way we land them is by trades or actually making a good pick one of these days.

How would the 05, 06, and 07 drafts have gone if we had Bob Bass running our drafts? I bet we'd be talking about how we could secure home court advantage instead of worrying about if we're doomed for permanent lottery land.

[dmutombo321]

Well stated Rich.

Brown has done a good job and made some good personel moves (diaw deal). The 08-09 team was unquestionably better.

Charlotte's front office has had plenty of opportunities to acquire a go-to caliber player with past top 10 picks but squandered them (Paul, Granger, Roy, Gay, Andrew Bynum, etc).

The concern is that since we've now achieved a level of mediocrity, we may have plateau'd in the 38-40 win purgatory. And if so, future opportunities to draft star caliber players will suddenly become fleeting.

I'd much rather be a bad 32 win team with young talent (perhaps with one player who possesses star potential), money to facilitate trades, high draft picks and the potential for greatness than a mediocre 40 win team good enough to make the playoffs each year only to be a perinial 8th seed whipping boy.

Case in point, I would trade our roster/draft pick/cap situation for Oklahoma City's in a heart beat. We're unquestionably a better team than they are right now but they've got young talent, a potential star in Durant, a high draft selection this year and likely next as well. We'll taste the post season before they do, maybe as soon as next year. But three to four years from now, when we're still treading water in the 38-44 win neighborhood, they will likely be one of the top 10 teams in the league with a chance to contend.

At any rate, I'm not advocating that we should arbitrarily go trade Okafor and Wallace just for the sake of doing it. But if a deal arises whereby we can get a go-to player and/or a lotto pick in return, I'd say it would be worth listening.

[freakon0mics]

I cringe when ever someone mentions the 2006 draft. We could have landed, not only Brandon Roy in that draft, but Rudy Gay as well. I'm getting sick thinking about that all over again.

I agree with the majority here though. It begins and ends with the front office. It's been pitiful what this team had to endure by the decisions they made. This team needs to make some playoff noise in order to put Charlotte back on the map. Hopefully they can make the right pick in this years draft and make the playoffs next year.

[ccbballin]

At times last year this team could beat anybody and then they couldn't beat anyone at the end of the season.

If we can get started hot and get our confidence going then we could win 50 games and maybe have one or two all-stars. GW is so close to being really great, Felton and DJ aren't far behind him, Mek may get better, and Diaw is solid.

Young players never win, you have to have veterans if you want to win and that appears to be the direction.

Look at a team like Boston a few years ago, nobody would have thought they would have won a championship. They get lucky and draft Al Jefferson who they turn into KG then they bring in Ray Allen and they're an instant contender.

At least our FO took some gambles last year, enough to get people talking and maybe they make a few more this year and can land a HOFame level talent.

[August Us Seazr]

A lot of you have made some very good points. I'd like to make two more.

Michael Jordan and Rod Higgins should be setting aside about two hours a day to tap into Larry Brown's vast professional experience and gain some insights as to just how to build that type of team that Michael himself played on in the 90's. I think by now, Higgins should realize that being in the orbit around Michael won't make the Bobcats a winner. Precious few people can drive a team to the top from the executive suite, but it has to come from there, if it is going to work. Barring this, maybe Jerry Krause should be brought in to assist Larry in getting this team whipped together from a personnel standpoint.- Just Kidding.

The other thing is that from a personnel standpoint, we need to get a little lucky. Lucky like Crash developing into a serious basketball player, as opposed to how he ended up on an expansion draft list. Think Sacramento wishes they had THAT decision back! UBBI! I really believe that we are more likely to have that happen with Larry Brown coaching this group than with any of his predecessors. Having said that, whoever we draft, including our past draft picks, all have to have an internal drive to be the best that they ever have been for the team. The coaching staff in all likelihood has set some goals for each player during the summer break. Each player needs to be honing the skills they excel at, but should also be looking to bring at least two new skills to the court come September. Many of our guys would be well served to try to match DJ's prowess at free throw shooting.