While the Bobcats are in last place in our rankings once again, the glass-half-full view is that they're not quite as far down as they were the last time we did this exercise. Trading Gerald Wallace and Nazr Mohammed managed to clear up a very messy cap situation and brought in some youth.
On the court, the Bobcats have a bit more hope, too. Youngsters D.J. Augustin, Tyrus Thomas and Gerald Henderson look like at least long-term rotation players now, making the league's emptiest cupboard look slightly less barren. Additionally, Charlotte should benefit from high draft picks, and the first-rounder the Cats owe Chicago has sufficient lottery protection that it may not head Chicago's way for a while.
Nonetheless, the questions massively outweigh the answers. Michael Jordan may be an improvement over Robert Johnson as an owner, but the same two guys (Jordan and GM Rod Higgins) are making personnel calls and their track record has been spotty at best. In particular, the decisions to offload Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton this past offseason seem misguided in the wake of breakout seasons by each; amazingly, the Chandler trade didn't even save the team money.
Charlotte could have cap room in two years, but which players want to go to that franchise, and can Jordan afford them anyway? Charlotte has little to differentiate it as a city, and it sports a low-profile, fairly miserable team on the court and an owner whose pockets appear relatively shallow. Put it all together and the next three years are likely to be extremely challenging for Mike's Cats.
And please, no "Hollinger sucks!" responses. This is Hollinger plus Chad Ford - and it's not exactly rocket science. Plus, they have the Bobcats in better place than the last two times they've done this - and Gerald Wallace was traded exactly because of how bleak things looked.
