free agents?

[gman15]

do the bobcats have ANY money to spend on free agency? and if so, what kind of money range can we go for? i'm assuming jamison and arenas are waaayyyy out of our league right?

[dnbman]

do the bobcats have ANY money to spend on free agency? and if so, what kind of money range can we go for? i'm assuming jamison and arenas are waaayyyy out of our league right?

We don't have much, especially after we resign Okafor. Basically, we're looking at the MLE for any pick ups or some kind of trade.

I'd keep FA expectations low.

[gman15]

what if okafor doesn't resign, will we be able to sign a bigger free agent then?

[dnbman]

what if okafor doesn't resign, will we be able to sign a bigger free agent then?

Not until he actually signs or we renounce his rights, like Orlando did with Darko last year before signing Rashard Lewis.

The chances of Okafor resigning elsewhere are very slim. No team can offer him as much as we can or a longer contract than we can. And no teams have the money to really push the issue and make us let him walk. Basically, he'll probably sign for around the same price we offered him last year.

All of the talk by draft analysts and management seemed to suggest Okafor was staying. Notice you didn't hear any "if Okafor" leaves talk by anybody who is paid to write about basketball. (Of course, they also commented that he was a natural 4, which is debatable.) I just don't think he's leaving, and there aren't many FA players I'd want to pay to replace him at this point.

Given how effective Wallace was for Detroit, I think we got the perfect coach to take Okafor's game to the next level.

[dav7z]

We picked up Davidsons contract next year. We all so extended quilifing offers to Hollins and OK50. We will be sending five players to the summer league on the roster. Dudley, , Davidson, And the three rookies acording to Bobcats.com.
I think about all we have is the MLE to sign free agents . Acording to Bobcats.com depending on how good A.A. does in the summer league will determine if we add a big man vetran player to the roster.

[tamburello]

There are few options. Before DJ Augustin pick, I was hoping for Chris Duhon and Sebastian Telfair (he won't be extended qualifying offer so he'll be unrestricted FA) for backup PG positions. But since Augustin is in town and Felton is staying -as of now-, they should not be considered.

Big names are out of consideration, at least in my mind. Jamison or Arenas or some others. I'm looking at some more reasonable ones, such as Fred Jones and Jamaal Magloire. Actually I would want some high profile backups, like James Posey and James Jones, but they will have so many suitors and probably demand a great portion or full of MLE.

By the way, this summer we'll have mid level exception and bi-annual exceptions to use, unless Okafor is signed by another team and we do not match it, which is very very unlikely.

[WarioVsMooChicken]

Lets Sign Herrmann Back!

[Dunk]

Najera? Kurt Thomas?

I'm tossing bigs that we could sign for for 2 years for a reasonable amount of money. Assuming we don't make a trade and that we can't sign Brand or Jamison.

[swetooth9]

i'd sign both of those guys

[ELEVATION]

I would sign Antwan Jamison. He is a product of Providence High School in Charlotte. He went to UNC (connection with Larry Brown and staff) and he has a home in the Charlotte area. Jamison would be a solid addition..I think he would work with the Bobcats on a reasonable contract (MLE,etc.)

[Dunk]

There's no way Jamison would sign for the MLE based on the production he had last year.

[davcbow]

There's no way Jamison would sign for the MLE based on the production he had last year.

Id love to have Jamison on our team but MLE? dont think so....:o

[spectre]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3467806

Wizards close on 4-year, $50 million extension for Jamison

That boy ain't leaving Washington now.

[Muttley]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3467806
Wizards close on 4-year, $50 million extension for Jamison

That boy ain't leaving Washington now.

But we've got the MLE!!!!

[spectre]

A darn shame our FA thread has fallen to the 2nd page in the ONE week where it should be getting the most use.

Lakers made a qualifying offer of a little over 1 million to Turiaf...should we throw some paper his way? Not the perfect fit, but he does have some range, decent motor and seems somewhat mobile. I don't know how badly LA wants to keep him...we don't seem to be in the running for any full MLE guys...so why not? Down side it ties up our money for a week til they match.

[ammofan]

I think Frenchie will do good and I expect him to be the starter at some point this season...

[Dunk]

A darn shame our FA thread has fallen to the 2nd page in the ONE week where it should be getting the most use.

Lakers made a qualifying offer of a little over 1 million to Turiaf...should we throw some paper his way? Not the perfect fit, but he does have some range, decent motor and seems somewhat mobile. I don't know how badly LA wants to keep him...we don't seem to be in the running for any full MLE guys...so why not? Down side it ties up our money for a week til they match.

If we're not doing a trade then I don't see why not, there's only a few decent guys that are in our price range and he's one of them. Like you said, fairly mobile, plays hard, young...might not be bad for us.

[ziggy]

Lakers made a qualifying offer of a little over 1 million to Turiaf...should we throw some paper his way? Not the perfect fit, but he does have some range, decent motor and seems somewhat mobile. I don't know how badly LA wants to keep him...we don't seem to be in the running for any full MLE guys...so why not? Down side it ties up our money for a week til they match.
Hes not much from a low post offense perspective, but other than that there are a lot of reasons that he would be a good signing.
Hes a high energy guy, He plays legitimate NBA big man defense ( Larry Brown would love that ) He blocks 2.7 shots per 36 minutes:o, And he has a history with Ammo which can't hurt.... And we could corner the market on French basketball players;)

[tamburello]

A darn shame our FA thread has fallen to the 2nd page in the ONE week where it should be getting the most use.

Lakers made a qualifying offer of a little over 1 million to Turiaf...should we throw some paper his way? Not the perfect fit, but he does have some range, decent motor and seems somewhat mobile. I don't know how badly LA wants to keep him...we don't seem to be in the running for any full MLE guys...so why not? Down side it ties up our money for a week til they match.

Before the draft our biggest problem was low post scoring. Still it is low post scoring (I doubt anyone trust Okafor as a real solution). Turiaf will not solve it. As ziggy said, he's an energy guy with great hustling abilities. Also he dances well at the bench. That's all.

Signing a RFA generally means overpaying him, especially when player's current team still covets him at a reasonable price. If we offer reasonable money, Lakers would match it. If we overpay it, we overpay him and still cannot fill a gap. So Turiaf should be out of reach IMHO.

I believe we should sign Jamaal Magloire. He would fit our roster as a former Charlotte player and also would fill a great need. As a former All-Star handing him MLE doesn't bother me personally.

[jstar5]

Sadly, Magloire is but a shell of his former self. His game has completely dropped off. I really want to stay away from him and go in a different direction, not necessarily Turiaf though

[TheBeagle]

The more and more I think on this, there's going to be no easy answer at all to our persistent post-threat 4 need. It's not a secret that that Bob is on the frugal side to begin with; throw that in with the fact that we aren't all that flexible with the cap since Nazr, and Charlotte isn't an attractive destination for anyone at all. At 4 we can have Jermareo, Alexis, and even Nazr depending on the matchups, and farther down the line, the ultimate question mark, Sean May. That just isn't going to cut it, likely. We can hope that Jermareo has made a quantum leap and is ready to start next season, and that Alexis is NBA ready to at least be a serviceable if not productive first backup at 4, and maybe by some miracle, May can get healthy, then stay healthy long enough to play 10 or so minutes a game. What would be even greater would be if say, Othello Hunter could make a name for himself in the SL, and be something of a Reggie Evans for us, but with a better offensive game. True, that wouldn't be the panacea we're looking for, but having a high energy guy like that come off the bench would provide a necessary jolt that the 2nd unit could use and feed off of.

Fact is, there's nobody out there that will make a significant difference, that we can persuade to come here and play, on the FA market, plain and simple. If something significant is going to get done, it's going to take a trade to make it happen, but then we run the risk of getting hosed and/or filling a need only to create an all new all different need at another position.

I have no easy answers or solutions to propose aside from relying on hope that Jermareo, Alexis, Sean and maybe Othello can one, two, three, or all show signs of being ready to contribute at a consistent NBA level, and maybe keep us in the running for a playoff berth until the following year, when we can try again, or see even more improvement from the guys. Lord knows this franchise and its fans could use some luck for a change, so let's hope one of these guys shout out starting 4 material during the SL and training camp later on. The reality of the situation isn't pretty, but anything can happen.

[tamburello]

I suggest all of us to expect nothing from Ajinça this season so that we would feel less bitter. He might spend the entire season in D-League.

Maybe Nenad Krstic would be considered. He is soft but has a decent offensive power. Nets are apparently looking to get rid of him. And we know that Nets are trying to avoid contracts longer than 2 years in order to acquire LeBron in 2010. If we offer a portion of MLE at length of 3 or 4 years, I don't think they would match.

[BIGCatBobcat]

I suggest all of us to expect nothing from Ajinça this season so that we would feel less bitter. He might spend the entire season in D-League.

Maybe Nenad Krstic would be considered. He is soft but has a decent offensive power. Nets are apparently looking to get rid of him. And we know that Nets are trying to avoid contracts longer than 2 years in order to acquire LeBron in 2010. If we offer a portion of MLE at length of 3 or 4 years, I don't think they would match.

I may be dreaming but I don't find our "bigs" problem so big that we should reach for Nenad Krstic. Nazr is a good hole plug for us right now. The rest of the guys over 6'9" can just cruise for now, we aren't going to find an answer this year, nothing right now in the off season looks good enough to do anything other than coach up what we've got.