Some thoughts, a week removed from a sweep
— Did you watch the Orlando Magic virtually double the Atlanta Hawks? That should make you feel better in this regard:
The Magic are just a better team, maybe the eventual NBA champs. That doesn’t mean the Bobcats should disregard what went wrong, but when a team that won a round gets drilled by more points than the margin of the entire Orlando-Charlotte series, maybe it’s as much about Orlando as it was about the Bobcats….
Charlotte Observers
DeSagana Diop – 09-10 Review
$6M+ this year for DeSagana Diop – and $6.4M+ next season – and $6.9M+ in 11-12 – and then a player option for $7.3M+ when his contract finally runs out in 2013. Diop played just over 260 minutes for the Bobcats this season, with none coming after February 16th. I will not do the standard critical note of calculating dollars per minute (or point scored) – but at the same time, a review of Diop has to start here, with his contract because there is not getting around that the Bobcats did not get their money’s worth out of the investment this season. With 3 years and over $20M remaining, the Bobcats need more from Diop going forward.
One reason for optimism regarding DeSagana? Nazr Mohammed…
Queen City Hoops
Report Cards!
Front Office:
When you can turn an aging, injured shooting guard on an expiring contract (Raja Bell) and a sorely overpaid, worthless, shooter playing power forward (Vladimir Radmonovic) into a Top 10 shooting guard (Stephen Jackson) and another tradeable asset (Acie Law IV), you automatically had an above average season. But Michael Jordan, Rod Higgins, and Larry Brown didn’t stop there. In the offseason, they signed Flip Murray to be a serviceable 6th man for just under $2 million. In essence, a bargain. But he wasn’t the only bargain. Stephen Graham, who filled as a starter 8 times, was signed for the league minimum. Not too shabby. The Bobcats also picked up Gerald Henderson and Derrick Brown in the draft. While neither received much playing time, both showed flashes of their talent in limited minutes. When they received over 20 minutes in a game, Henderson averaged 11 points, Brown 9.7 points. But not even a solid draft, free agency, and a great trade to start the year would make the front office lazy. At the trade deadline, they picked up Theo Ratliff for what amounts to nothing and Tyrus Thomas came in for Murray, Law, and a protected 1st. Ratliff started 26 of his 28 games in a Bobcats uniform, and his 1.5 blocks per game in Charlotte helped propel the team to it’s first playoff birth. While the result of the Thomas trade has yet to be discovered, he showed stretches of brilliance on the road to the postseason. Not to mention, Bob Johnson sold the team to Michael Jordan. All in all, a great year in the front office…
Final Grade: A
Bobcats Planet
