#13 Charlotte Bobcats

Essay #3 in the series. Sorry for the delay but writing about the Hawks last month was too painful. All Hail Michael Jordan! Let’s look at the basketball wreck that he is now running called the Charlotte Bobcats.

Last Year in Review
It’s unfair to call the Bobcats an institutional mess, if only because they are so new. When the team was rewarded the finalists came down to a team led by Larry Bird & the eventual winner led by Bob Johnson of BET television networks. Johnson is a billionaire, but apparently didn’t get that way by spending money like Mark Cuban. To date, the Bobcats are the cheapest spending franchise in the league.

The GM and coach is Bernie Bickerstaff who is coaching his fourth team. Charlotte has won 44 games in its first two years. Bernie has a career record of 382-468 and 12-21 in the post season. His teams have not won a playoff game since 1989.

The facts about last year:
Record: 26-56, missed playoffs, tied for last in Southeast Div.

Scoring 96.9 vs. 100.9 ppg
FG%: 43.27% vs. 47.81%
3 pt shooting: 428/1261 .339 vs. 458/1285 .356
Rebounds 39.8 vs 44.0
Assists 20.9 vs 22.9

Steals 10.02 vs 7.04

Blocks 4.32 vs 5.38
Turnovers 13.6 vs 17.4

The lone bright spot is the point guard play of Brevin Knigh and Ray Felton. Together they accounted for 14.4 assists versus 4.7 turnovers a night for a very good 3.0 assists per turnover ratio.

Best players last year:

Gerald Wallace 15.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.51 spg, 2.09 bpg

Brevin Knight 12.6 ppg, 8.8 apg, 2.28 spg

Primo Brezec 12.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg

Ray Felton 11.9 ppg,5.6 apg,

That’s about it really. Okafor averaged 13.2 points and 10.0 rebounds but in only 26 games. Kareem Rush averaged 10.1 ppg and was so well liked he was cut with a few weeks left in the season. Jumaine Jones averaged 10.5 ppg and little else.

This is the make-up of a losing team sporting a payroll of $33.5 million which was 30^th in the league.

2006/2007 Prospects

They are young, but have suspect talent outside of Wallace, Knight & Felton. Okafur missed most of last year with an ankle injury. He played 73 games his rookie year after the Magic passed on him at least partly because they were worried about his back. (Howard over Okafor was a risk at the time and may go down as the finest draft decision in Magic history.)

The real question is what the arrival of Jordan means. Is Bickerstaff gone as GM? Will the franchise start spending money on players? The franchise stretched a bit taking Adam Morrison, or did they? They left two very good SGs in Roy and Foye on the board to take a SF which is the position Gerald Wallace plays.

Games vs. Magic
4 games. Last year Magic were 3-1 vs Charlotte losing the last meeting in Charlotte in March.

Nov 18

Dec 14 at Charlotte

Jan 5

Mar 12 at Charlotte

Odds and Ends

82games.com says Charlotte earned $35.6 million of their 33.4 million salaries last year. That is at least a moderate sign that they are well coached but limited in talent, NBA experience and salary.

Prediction:
24-32 wins, last in Southeast Div behind Hawks, miss playoffs.