Upcoming Free Agents

[dvdbumpus]

Alright guys, since we're mired in a slump, I thought I'd bring up the players that are FA's on our team, as well as players I'm interested in for next year. Here's the list if anyone is interested. Please take a look, and let me know who you'd like to see on your Charlotte Bobcats.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=2008FreeAgents

Here's who we're losing:

Restricted: Jermareo Davidson (T), Ryan Hollins, Emeka Okafor

--I think we'll resign Davidson, and let Hollins go. Okafor will be resigned.

Unrestricted: Derek Anderson, Earl Boykins, Othella Harrington (T), Jeff McInnis

I doubt We resign any of those players, which will free up roughly $6 million.



Here's some players I'd put serious interest on, even with our tight cap.


Guards:
Tyronn Lue
Chris Duhon
Shannon Brown
Flip Murray
Carlos Arroyo
Beno Udrih

Forwards:
Not much....


Centers:
Patrick O'Bryant
Elton Brand
Voskuhl (hey...we need a banger ok?)

[wil]

Love your enthusiasm Bumpsy :biggrin: But i don't think any of the player you've mention is gona help us, matter of fact not even mj coming out of retirement to play for the cats will help.. the charlotte bobcats are hopeless case, let's just love the bobcats and accept them for who they are, their Losers! As the the saying goes, you can't have winners w/o losers, we are the later im afraid so... :afro: Go Cats, like the jhonny walker slogan, "keep losing"... ::)


PS: i hope you don't erase this thread like you've done before because we share different opinions, let respect each others point of view and prove that no bias exist in the bobcats planet as some would think.. :g:

[Muttley]

Let's see.

I agree with dropping all the Unrestricteds.

Also think that Ryan's time is about up. I hate it for him, because he's got a lot of energy and really wants to play, but he's not gonna take us anywhere. I would get those other two Restricteds though.

Of course this all depends on (or effects) who and how we draft, but looking at the FAs, I would be pleased to see the following in Orange/Blue/Grey-with-orange-trim-(?) next year:

Duhon - He seems fairly dependable. We need that on this team. The only Bobcats averaging fewer TOsPG according to ESPN than Duhon are Nazr and Carroll of the ones who play enough minutes for this stat to be meaningful. This might be said about a lot of folks though.
Flip Murray - I had hoped he would be a part of the Nazr trade.
Arroyo - Averaging 82% from the charity stripe. Plus, he seems to pull out at least one circus shot in every game I watch him play.
Beno Udrih - Played well as a starter in place of Mike Bibby. Could conceivably start here.

The Centers:
Brand - yeah... maybe if we don't sign Emeka.
Voskuhl - He is a banger.

[ohara831]

I still hold to my opinion I've had for a couple months. I think we need to completely tear down and reorganize. Trade Ray and Okafor for good draft picks. Retool around J-Rich and Crash. I think Dudley, Jermareo, Morrison, Hollins and Carroll will be OK off the bench. If May's knee is OK, he can come off the bench and be helpful, or if not healthy, retire. All in last yr of Contract can walk, but maybe we hold onto Boykins as a back up PG if he will sign cheaply.

I know most do not agree with my idea, but I really think that would be the best route to go. If we have one pick in the Lottery, one in the mid Teens and another in mid Teens to early 20s, we can get 3 very good players. We just need to have someone selecting who can be a good evaluator of talent. Otherwise, we will pick the wrong people again like in the past.

[davcbow]

PS: i hope you don't erase this thread like you've done before because we share different opinions, let respect each others point of view and prove that no bias exist in the bobcats planet as some would think.. :g:


You're opinion wasnt why the thread was deleted, it was the name calling you guys resorted to calling each other. Im not a Mod but I did read that thread that night and that kind of language is uncalled for in this forum, plain and simple, we have young people, adults, male and female posters in this forum. Opinions are welcome, name calling isnt..... :g:

[MattD]

the charlotte bobcats are hopeless case, let's just love the bobcats and accept them for who they are, their Losers!


what a horrible outlook

either way, I think this team needs major some of it must be via trade because we arent losing that much otherwise. I think the only one I keep is Jermareo. Yep bye Mek. He and this team have melted down to no chemistry or workings. Keep Jrich and Gerald, everything else is movable. Get to work!

Maybe keep Earl, he hasnt really had a chance to show how skilled he is, and would be a nice PG off the bench.

and obviously, I would offer whatever I possible could to Antawn, even if it is a lowball, just to let him know we would give him everything we possibly could to sign him. Maybe somekind of sign and trade or something.

[dav7z]

I must not think we are as far away as most of you talent wize.
If we could some how steal Jamison whitch i think we can . Draft a nice point with our 1st pick or center if it's a s[pecial one left.If we get a center add a nice veteran point at the min. This should contend.
1.. Felton , Draft pick , Or a good vet for a mim contract.
2.. Rich, Carroll, Morrison
3.Wallace, Dudley
4. Jamison, May, Davidson
5. Oak, Nazz, nice draft pick.
All of a sudden this team becomes very competive, Being healthy and adding Jamison .Of corse a new coach too. I think that line up could cotend for the east.


I would all so like to add in a decent two guard if it was possable.

[MattD]

I dont really like the felton okafor dynamic, something about it just isnt right, doesnt seem to work.

[ohara831]

That is why I have been wanting to trade both Okafor and Ray for quality draft picks. If I was inclined to keep one, it would be Okafor. He at least shows promise of being a consistent double double guy. But I have lost any real confidence in Ray being our PG. He can be a strong back up PG and play a Combo Guard quite well; but he is not a PG. On and off for 3 yrs, he just has not demonstrated the ability to do it night in and night out. Occasionally he has a real good game, but they are far to few.

[MattD]

yep and you called that one ohara

[ohara831]

Look at Ray tonight. Great 1st Half scoring with 18 pts, but only 2 assists and 4 TO's. That is not PG material, it is SG mindset.

[MattD]

and McInnis started. I hate Sam Vincent. Either way, Ray should be 6th man combo guard off the bench.

[dav7z]

When the coach took Carroll out tonight when we cut the lead to four points with over four mins to go. Then he puts Mcinnis in. He all so starts Mcinnis.

If he just had to take out Carroll why not put in Oka.

Serious question PLEASE GIVE ME A SERIOUS ANSWER.
Do any of you guys think Coach V is sand baging for next year or is he really that stuipd ?

[ohara831]

Ray played a great 2 guard tonight. Great to score 29, but 8 assists to 6 TO's is not PG material. He is a very good Combo guard tho, either for us or for trade material.

Dav7z: That is a very interesting theory you are laying out. Is he sandbagging, hoping we get passed by a couple more teams and get a top 4 draft pick? If it was decided by mgmnt to allow such, then it could be happening. I just dont think mgmnt would allow that though. Think of last year. We were going to be around pick nubmer 3, and in the last month of the season, others tanked and we did not and we fell back to the 8th pick. I'd be surprised if mgmnt allowed it, but stranger things have happened.

[MattD]

I would be pissed if he was tanking, and then he doesnt get fired. I dont care, but as a fan, I feel change is needed ASAP. So if he gets left in I will feel really betrayed. I dont see it happening though, MJ is way to competitive. Tanking games betrays theyre small fan base, it would be crazy, as for now, I think we just suck

[amour217]

Serious question PLEASE GIVE ME A SERIOUS ANSWER.
Do any of you guys think Coach V is sand baging for next year or is he really that stuipd ?


The only sand bag he's got is in place of his brain

[bizzlecatz]

No, Radio is not tanking, he's just that bad,but I also think the lottery is rigged, so what do I know :)

Think about it in a business way, why did Portland win the lottery last year. I'll tell you why, because of their attendence record, there for David Stern rewarded them. Win or lose their fans support their team.

The Bobcats doesn't have a chance of winning the lottery based on attendence.

[davcbow]

Ive often thought something was up with the lottery.....I often think something is up with the way the refs call games....I always wondered why when a team is getting their butts kicked why the bench players are sitting on the bench laughing and joking instead of having a defeated look on their faces.... :g:

[spectre]

Ohara you keep talking about his stats not being PG material...he played SG for almost the entire night and was basically our #1 offensive option! Since he was the only perimeter guy "on" he had to look for his shot and try to make something happen.

I didn't care for the 6 TOs either and there were times he didn't make the right decision...but there is definitely a different mentality when your first priority is to score vs. setting up others to score.

I'm not as optimistic as I was that he'd develop into what we need, but I do know you can't expect a guy to play SG for over half a season then in a game or two turn into this great distributing PG.

[ohara831]

Understood Spectre. I guess I am looking at the full 3 years. I know he played some PG and some SG. But Bernie is knowledgable, and we all seem to agree on that. If he thought Ray had it in him to take the reins, dont you think he would have played him more in that role than BK? We have to look at the full history. Everyone in the organization cannot be wrong. If he had the stuff of which PG's are made of, he would have been the starting PG well before Vincent came to town.

[spectre]

Understood Spectre.  I guess I am looking at the full 3 years.  I know he played some PG and some SG.  But Bernie is knowledgable, and we all seem to agree on that.  If he thought Ray had it in him to take the reins, dont you think he would have played him more in that role than BK?  We have to look at the full history.  Everyone in the organization cannot be wrong.  If he had the stuff of which PG's are made of, he would have been the starting PG well before Vincent came to town. 


Nah...we don't agree on Bernie being knowledgable AT ALL.  I think he sucked as a coach and was a subpar GM.  In fact, I see a lot of Bernie's coaching in what Vincent does, which leads me to believe that those two have been talking.

What Bernie could do was motivate the guys to put their all out on the floor.

At first Bernie used Felton for only about 15 minutes a game backing up Knight.  Felton did get opportunities however which led Bernie to say that he had to "put his best 5 players on the floor".  I might be a little off on the timeline, but remember at first we had Bogans who was subpar...then we got Princess Rush who was 1) streaky and 2) always hurt.  Bernie plugged Felton into the 2 spot to replace those guys...THAT'S when Felton starting getting real PT.

Throughout that 1st year Felton got only spot minutes as PG and most of the time at SG (Knight played 69 games that year...2nd highest ever in his career).  We were sorely lacking for offense during that season, so instead of bringing Felton along as a PG Bernie went with the then current team need...scoring.  Vincent has done the EXACT same thing; ignored the near future team need for "winning now".

IMO Bernie would have used Chris Paul or Deron Williams the exact same way.  They probably would have handled it better than Felton (because the really good players seem to rise to the top regardless of the situation), but I don't know that "non stars" would have.  Regardless, I can't just give up on the guy until he has a good run at running the PG position solely...and that's not 2 or 3 or even 10 games.  That's for at least a half season and preferably for a full season.

[Alex]

I think Elton Brand is a serious solution, think how good he would be in the East. What we really need though is a PG who we feel confident in having out there on the floor every night. Every time I see Chris Paul on TV and then I think of Felton + May combo I cry and get in the fetal position.

[amour217]

I think Elton Brand is a serious solution, think how good he would be in the East. What we really need though is a PG who we feel confident in having out there on the floor every night. Every time I see Chris Paul on TV and then I think of Felton + May combo I cry and get in the fetal position.


I agree that Brand is a beast, but 1) Can he stay healthy? and 2) How much will he command on the open market regardless of his injuries?

[tamburello]

First of all, it sucks to finish this season too early and begin these free agent talks. I'm so upset with our current situation..

It'd be better to break down our salary situation before beginning the discussion.

We'll have 8 players with guaranteed contract: Richardson, Wallace, Mohammed, Carroll, Felton, Morrison, May and Dudley: $ 43.8 million. Also I believe Davidson will have his option exercised, too. Total: 44.5 million

All of our free agents, excluding Okafor, would be renounced. Okafor would count against the cap the 250% of his previous salary, which is $ 13.568.265. Also we'll probably have a 8th overall pick in the draft. Last year's 8th pick, Brandan Wright is earning 2.3 millions.

Considering next year's cap will be around 58 millions, without doing any operaiton, we'll go over the cap. We'll only have our MLE. You cannot sign Elton Brand with your MLE.

In my opinion, our most glaring needs are are a back-up big man and a pure point guard. For PG, my candidates are Chris Duhon and Beno Udrih. For big man, old friend Jake Voskuhl, Michael Doleac, Jamaal Magloire (as starting center), Franciso Elson can be considered.

But for PG, I'm rooting for a trade to acquire Luke Ridnour. He'd fit in here.

But of course our draft selections will affect our free agency strategy directly.