Our Franchise Direction?

[fatlever]

~30wins

i think zeller has a legitimate shot at rookie of the year along with oladipo as the other favorite.

[fatlever]

zach lowe on our offseason

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/950 ... ng-between

Charlotte BobHorns

Paying Al Jefferson $14 million per season is ludicrous, but you can understand Charlotte's reasoning. Charlotte must prove itself as a viable free-agency destination, and that's impossible while flirting with "Worst Team Ever" status every season. Splurging on Big Al's flat-footed nondefense might be the perfect way to regain some relevance, transform into a run-of-the-mill bad team instead of a headline-grabbing embarrassment, and stay bad enough to try the top-five lottery gods one last time. Jefferson's is the only long-term nonrookie deal on the books, so it's not as if that contract is holding Charlotte back from future spending.

He may hold back the development of Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeffery Taylor, Cody Zeller, and others by monopolizing the ball on the way to 29 wins, but if that's the only real damage here, we can all just move on.

[Stun704]

zach lowe on our offseason

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/950 ... ng-between

Charlotte BobHorns

Paying Al Jefferson $14 million per season is ludicrous, but you can understand Charlotte's reasoning. Charlotte must prove itself as a viable free-agency destination, and that's impossible while flirting with "Worst Team Ever" status every season. Splurging on Big Al's flat-footed nondefense might be the perfect way to regain some relevance, transform into a run-of-the-mill bad team instead of a headline-grabbing embarrassment, and stay bad enough to try the top-five lottery gods one last time. Jefferson's is the only long-term nonrookie deal on the books, so it's not as if that contract is holding Charlotte back from future spending.

He may hold back the development of Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeffery Taylor, Cody Zeller, and others by monopolizing the ball on the way to 29 wins, but if that's the only real damage here, we can all just move on.

Should have stopped reading after he called us the Charlotte BobHorns. dudes a flaming douche bag

[Eoghan]

I wanted to ask this general question, but I wasn't really sure which thread to post it in, so I just chose this one.

What are our realistic expectations for this upcoming season? Does Taylor/MKG win NBA's Most Improved, Zeller for ROY, BRD for COY

No. Reason: Bobcats.

do we make the playoffs

Slim to no chance but within the realm of possibility if every domino falls our way.

how many wins do you expect?

~ 30 sounds about right to me too. 35 max I'd say.

[HornetJail]

zach lowe on our offseason

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/950 ... ng-between

Charlotte BobHorns

Paying Al Jefferson $14 million per season is ludicrous, but you can understand Charlotte's reasoning. Charlotte must prove itself as a viable free-agency destination, and that's impossible while flirting with "Worst Team Ever" status every season. Splurging on Big Al's flat-footed nondefense might be the perfect way to regain some relevance, transform into a run-of-the-mill bad team instead of a headline-grabbing embarrassment, and stay bad enough to try the top-five lottery gods one last time. Jefferson's is the only long-term nonrookie deal on the books, so it's not as if that contract is holding Charlotte back from future spending.

He may hold back the development of Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeffery Taylor, Cody Zeller, and others by monopolizing the ball on the way to 29 wins, but if that's the only real damage here, we can all just move on.

Seriously? Jefferson is probably one of the better things that could've happened. He's apparently good at teaching young bigs (taught Favors and Kanter post moves regularly), so that helps Zeller and Biz. Kemba FINALLY has a big man that isn't garbage to pass to, and MKG has another guy to distract defenses. This literally helps everyone but McBob.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

While I agree overall that Jefferson is a good thing overall here, but we will have to see how the season plays out.

[lmcguir5]

Did we end up using our MLE on McBob then?

[BlackOutBuzz]

Did we end up using our MLE on McBob then?

Room Exception

Sent from my SCH-I535 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[lmcguir5]

Did we end up using our MLE on McBob then?

Room Exception

Sent from my SCH-I535 using RealGM Forums mobile app

So we still have our mid level exception? We can go over the cap with Hendo too because of Bird Rights

[LamarMatic7]

Should have stopped reading after he called us the Charlotte BobHorns. dudes a flaming douche bag

may I ask why do you think he's a flaming douche bag?

[Liver_Pooty]

Lowe actually praises us most of the time.

[fatlever]

lowe is easily the best and fairest national NBA writer that i am aware of. he is not some hack who regurgitates stereotypes and tired material.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Lowe actually praises us most of the time.

I wouldn't say that. He does generally offer informed opinion which is nearly always an improvement over the typical ESPN MJ bashfest.

[mrknowitall215]

Lowe actually praises us most of the time.

I wouldn't say 'praise', but Zach Lowe isn't the typical pessimistic journalist that spew out inaccurate opinions about the Bobcats just because

[LamarMatic7]

thank you. I almost began to worry that Stun won't be the only one to call Lowe incompetent just because of him writing something negative about the Bobcats. I'll second Fats by saying that he's the best NBA writer I'm also aware of.

[Eoghan]

It's a fair critique. Jefferson isn't known for pushing the win-loss needle in the right direction so basically this amounts to us signing a notable free agent because we could (we couldn't before and we had to overpay to get this one). Outside of some nebulous, intangible benefits of being a good teacher and a teammate, this reeks of a stop-gap move. God have mercy on our souls if we're good enough to rise out of the cellar but bad enough to not make the playoffs. I don't even want to think about it anymore.

[vorbis]

It's a fair critique. Jefferson isn't known for pushing the win-loss needle in the right direction so basically this amounts to us signing a notable free agent because we could (we couldn't before and we had to overpay to get this one). Outside of some nebulous, intangible benefits of being a good teacher and a teammate, this reeks of a stop-gap move. God have mercy on our souls if we're good enough to rise out of the cellar but bad enough to not make the playoffs. I don't even want to think about it anymore.

i've already mentally prepared for it, and strongly suggest that other fans accept that it's a real possibility. it's a funny feeling, being optimistic about the win total leads to being pessimistic about the next big additions to the roster. the inverse is also true. weird place to be. regardless, i think the team and management are going to have Lots Of Cares about this season and will genuinely try to win as many games as possible. so yeah, giving up the pick this year could really happen and i hope no one is surprised in March when the team is on pace to do just that.

[amcoolio]

What I don't get about Lowe is that he praises the Sixers for tanking and getting a 2nd 2014 pick, going on and on about it, but then critiques the Bobcats for being "embarrassingly bad" and consequently ignoring that we could have 3 2014 picks, and I think the Pelicans are better than the Pistons and Blazers.

If we stood pat, we would get wailed on. Orlando stood pat and got praise, but you just know if the Bobcats did the same we'd get labeled a terrible franchise. So it is lose-lose either way. Gosh I hope we get a top 3 pick next year, because this team is set up so good if we do.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

The thing is that the Bobcats rebuild basically included years of being bad and "building through the draft" while flirting with a historic bad record one year and being the 2nd worst team in the NBA after that. The "plan" is pretty luck dependent ... witness not getting the number 1 pick either year. And while we talk about "being good in 2014" it's entirely possible that this will not be the case. There could be more years of being bad before it really turns around.

The Sixers on the other hand basically set a 2 year rebuild timetable. They probably aren't going to be historically bad and will be at least respectable after the next draft. They didn't sign a player like Jefferson the year before the best draft in recent memory ... instead they traded for Noel who isn't going to be able to help them much this year ... but probably will next. It's a sensible short duration turnaround plan.

[Elden Payton]

I agree that Zach Lowe is a good writer and is more often than not sensible with his observations of the Bobcats.