What can the bobcats do to be relevant?
Lockout is over and Bobcat basketball is on the horizon. The problem is very few people around the league or hell around Charlotte care. The Charlotte Bobcats are an afterthought. If we lost the year unfortunately most people wouldn't even care. The Bobcats under Michael Jordan have done a tremendous amount for the community and hopefully the community starts to take notice. But there is really only one thing that the community will take notice to and that is wins.
So what can the bobcats do to become relevant?
1. No short cuts or quick fixes.
A. Free Agency has been a horrible thing for our young franchise. Who wants to come here and why? Small market teams must overpay and large market teams can get a discount for a chance at a championship.
B. Trades have been at times successful and at times complete busts for us. We now put our confidence in Cho and we all hope that will make a huge difference. We need to take care of the cap which we have never done before in an effort to "Win Now".
2. Drafts. I read on here and other forums about tanking for a high draft pick for next year and that makes a lot of sense but how many pieces are we missing? Do we all think we are just one "Superstar" away from being a relevant team? I do not know a lot about the 2012 draft but is there many can't miss stars in the making? If so the 2012 draft will be the most important in Bobcat history. If we draft a great complementary player, we are back to 7th/8th seeds and middle of the road draft picks.
Honestly it depends on the way the league responds after the lockout. If we have the super power teams in large markets with small markets getting the leftovers, the Bobcats will suffer. I hope that these teams with large named stars fail and the team aspect comes back. If it does we are in good shape. I for one am glad basketball is back and can't wait to see our new team and new draft picks. It might be a long season but we can't bet against the Bobcats or Jordan.
Draft a superstar. It's as simple (and difficult) as that.
People HATED the Thunder when they moved out of Seattle. Hated the name, hated the colors, hated to ownership. Then they drafted Kevin Durant and now everyone loves and has forgiven them for everything.
That's what we have to do
I think Davis, Barnes and Drummond have the "superstar" potential. But I think that the picks for the rest of the Lottery will be high impact players who can help right away and if they exceed expectations a little could become pseudo superstars. Then, there are likely another 5-6 players who will be able to be quality players in the NBA for a long time. I fully expect a Top 5 pick in 2012 as I think MJ will play our young players this season. I think we will be trying like heck to make a trade for another mid range 1st in an effort to get 2 major players in this 2012 draft. My feeling is that we will be using DJ or the 2013 1st from Portland as part of the trade bait to get that 2012 pick also.
You take Hendo, Kemba, Bismack, and add 2 young potential starts from the 2012 pick, and I think you have a very solid nucleus. That is how we become relevant in any talk of being a contender. I would hope to keep DJ here, but my thinking is he would be gone as part of any package to get the additional 2012 pick.
Last edited by ohara831; 11-30-2011 at 10:37 AM.
The problem is that you can have a solid, even great nucleus. And it won't matter one bit until you get a superstar.
You could have this starting unit
Steph Curry
Eric Gordon
Danny Granger
Serge Ibaka
DeMarcus Cousins
And still not win. All of those players are great secondary pieces, and an awesome nucleus. But without that superstar, they have just about no chance of winning. We need to draft and draft and drat until we get that superstar. After that, everything else falls into line much easier
I Agree with what your saying that team would be fun to have hahah!! But a team like Memphis had no superstar when they went on their playoff run..... Obviously lacked that superstar quality in the end!!
How likely is it that we can get 2 top 15-20 picks picks this year??
My advent calendar for December now says 25 days til ball season!!!!!!
English Bobcat Fan
Swedd I completely agree and that is what worries me. We really need to hit homerun and find our superstar I'm the next year or we run the risk of falling in the same situation of being good enough to be average. I do believe we have some good complementary pieces but need to find that player or players that can just take games over
2012 pick is crucial but it shouldn't make us immediately better as we need to draft well next year too. Luckily this years draft is deep so many teams will get better. Superstar with a bit longer learning curve is pretty much what we would benefit from the most this year.
I would rather stay away from scenarios counting on us acquiring another pick this year. It's wishful thinking because of the crop and lack of our assets. And reality can suprise us as last time when Cho pull off that draft day trade everybody should love.
We are bound to make a leap in 2013-2014 not before. Expirings of 2013 as trade assets or cap space, most likely two picks and all the time to test young underrated players and find some keepers in then previous two seasons (2011-2013). Possibly Silas Jr. being with the nucleus from their day one would be groomed to take the keys by that time too.
Realistically? Very slim. The 2012 draft is perceived to be very strong. For us to get another mid round pick, we'd have to send out some talent or cap space and get less in return. And that's something I just don't want to do at this point. Keep in mind that we still have Portland's protected 2013 pick.Originally Posted by anton273
That's what makes it so difficult to be a great NBA team. There are maybe 5-10 players in this league that can be the first piece of a title contender. All we can do is keep trying and trying until we get lucky enough to take that superstar. Had Orlando stayed with Mek, we'd have Dwight. Had the coin flip changed or we went through with a trade, we'd have CP3, had we got a team a year earlier, we could've had LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Melo, etc.
But we can't complain about that now. All we can do is keep trying until we get that guy. We sure have waited long enough!
Truth is, we are atleast 2 offseasons away from really being able to do anything. Our cap is a mess and we don't have a lot of talent that can bring anything of value back.
We could have a pretty solid nucleus already in place. (Kemba, Hendo, Tyrus, Bismack- that 4 pieces to a pretty solid 8 man rotation- assuming DJ won't be around next season)
PG- I think that Kemba has special ability and could be an all start level PG eventually (not every year but a 2 or 3 time all star doesn't sound far fetched)
SG- I really like Henderson and think that he could be a solid starting SG in the league for the next 6-8 years. (A double digit scorer with a good mid range game and lock down defense)
SF- Needs to be addressed in the Draft- Hopefully we get our superstar here in this years draft that is loaded with SF's
PF- Tyrus and Bismack together should provide us with the Defense and rebounding and will be as atheltic as any PF rotation in the league.
C- HUGE HOLE, Unless we land Drummond in the Draft- I'm not sure what we can do here besides overpaying a free agent.... This needs to be priority # 1 but, the options are so limited, that it could stay priority #1 for a few seasons and still not have a long term solution.
Bench- We really need a Combo Guard that could allow Kemba to get some minutes off the ball and defend the other teams SG. We also need a three point threat to stretch some defense out.
i've come to terms with the fact that we will be stuck in irrelevancy until we are contracted.
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