The Bobcats Did Right, and Are All Right

Walk up to an NBA blogger at Blogs With Balls and ask them who the best NBA writer on the web is. The pound for pound best writer about the NBA whose work is strictly web based. Not the best blogger (Abbot), or the best stylist (Shoals), or the best (insert whatever term I’d have to make up to get Skeets on here). But the best writer and Kelly Dwyer will come pouring out of their mouth as if he were the seventh shot of Bullit. He is prolific, and brilliant, witty and fair. And now that I’ve kissed his ass for a paragraph,  you’ve likely figured out that the crux of this post is to disagree with him. I see my clever ruse has failed. Drats.

Dwyer, as you probably know and have read, assassinated the Bobcats following their sweep to the Orlando Magic. It’s the kind of post that makes me want to use the term “curbstomp” but since it originated with a neo-Nazi in American History X, that’s probably not appropriate. It was a crowbar job, though, completely leveling the franchise after its first playoff appearance. Ever.

In the past, I’ve made the mistake of making snide remarks at Dwyer for what I perceived to be preferential treatment of certain teams. Which is, quite honestly, immature and beneath me on my part. When I sat down and watched the Lakers create seven possession in a row where they created great shots and were big and talented enough to capitalize on all of them, in an important game, I started to get it. The guy just loves great basketball. Likely a product of having grown up with the greatest franchise of the past 20 years in Jordan’s Bulls. I come from the polar-opposite. I gravitate towards the mediocre (Paroxi-wife: “You’re not happy unless someone is winning flawed.”). Which is probably why I found myself irked from the get-go this year with Dwyer’s feelings towards the Bobcats. Preseason he pegged them for 19 wins. 19. Daaaamn. And it reads much like today’s dissection. It’s probably some ingrained sense of defense of the underdog that causes me to get all snarky, or perhaps it’s just that the Bobcats routinely (coming into this season) beat the Lakers. Plus they play in a small market and are an expansion franchise. In another life, I would have been a ‘Cats fan.

Dwyer’s primary argument, from how I read it, is that the team deserves scorn for setting its sights low. It sacrificed long-term prosperity for just-above-mediocrity-like-by-an-inch, brought in players with bad contracts, didn’t put together a good offense, and generally were just bleh. It’s really important to note that Dwyer is far from the only person to think this way. Tom Ziller, who’s the secondary dry-heave to that best writer question above, also pegged them as the bleakest of the bleak back in 08. And since then they added Stephen Jackson’s absurd contract and Tyson Chandler. It’s not like I’m here to say that they’re set for the future, that things aren’t that bad. They are that bad. Theo Ratliff starts at center for God’s sake. I see what they’re saying.

My objection, instead, is that they made a mistake in what they’ve done. That they were wrong to go down this path. That they cannot be succesful with this group, or that this organization underperformed even if the team overperformed and  the team should be dismissed. Instead, I think Dwyer and I agree that they got exactly what they wanted. But I disagree that they should have wanted something else.

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It’s remarkable that so many of us tend to laud certain organizations’ approaches as genius, complimenting the small parts, the little things, while ignoring the fact that there’s a neon-green radioactive elephant hosing itself in the middle of the room. For instance, ask me who the executive of the year was, and I’d probably say Hammond but my instinct would be to say Presti. Because Presti drafted James Harden who fits, and Serge Ibaka who serves a need, and most importantly, didn’t screw with anything. He’s the anti-Pritchard (KP as the hot property is so 2008). But whether it’s Pritchard, Presti, Popovich, whoever, you’re still talking about guys who landed at the top of the draft and got game-changers. The Thunder didn’t even have to choose between Durant and Oden! Pritchard got LMA, then Roy in the same draft! Even Hammond took Jennings who turned out to be brilliant. More and more I’m convinced that the draft is an abject crap shoot. I pulled for Tyreke Evans hard last year, while everyone was talking about Ricky Rubio and Brandon Jennings and Stephen Curry. And I look right, a whopping 10 months in. Meanwhile, in three years, Curry could be an MVP candidate, Rubio could be leading the league in assists and Jennings could be in the Finals at this pace. All while the seven foot guy with crazy athleticism in a sport where everyone says you can’t teach length looks like an abject disaster. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.

What there is rhyme and reason to, however, is that Charlotte got one shot, and then never got back. They start operations in 2004. They start a year earlier and get a top three pick as is required for expansion franchises? Sure, they may have gotten Darko. But if they didn’t we’d be looking at them differently. They get the #2 spot in 2004. Orlando takes Dwight Howard. They take the other guy, who despite what a lot of people thought, didn’t really excel once he got out of Charlotte. 2005? Raymond Felton. Still with the team. Not Jameer Nelson, obviously, but passable, and you know, typically, taking North Carolina guards works out pretty well. Just sayin’. 2006 was a car wreck of a draft and well all know it. The Ammo pick was bad but I remember when the same words in discussion of Stephen Curry’s shooting ability were used to describe Ammo.

The point is that there are tons of ways that the Bobcats could have traded for more picks, done more to load up on young talent, but no guarantee any of them were going to pan out. And eventually, just to stay afloat, you have to put together some wins. The team was on the edge of a cliff going into this season. It needed to be able to prove itself as something that wasn’t a laughingstock.

I’m a firm believer in establishing a winning atmosphere. It helps with ticket sales, sponsorships, coaching, free agents, re-signing players, the works. Even if you’re only two wins over, you can still say you made the playoffs. You’re not a complete joke. You’re not the Clippers. The Bobcats made a concentrated effort to try and make something of their franchise, to get that playoffs run under their belt and let people know in Carolina it’s safe to come back inside the NBA house. And to do that? You’ve either got to do what Presti and Pritchard did and load up on picks and expendable contracts, or get aggressive with pursuit of trade assets you can acquire. And if you go for the picks option and screw up? You’re the Timberwolves. Tons of picks! Lots of young options! AND NONE OF THEM ARE AN IMPACT PLAYER.

The other option is what the Bobcats did. And they did it partially because of the demands of their coach, the first really great coach they’ve had on staff. Brown’s a guy that likes veterans. He wants guys that know what they’re doing that he doesn’t have to destroy into tiny pieces (in his mind). So they liquidated the youth (that sucked anyway) in pursuit of older guys. And so what? Chandler’s an injury magnet but fine when he plays. They needed offense. At the beginning of this year they had one of the worst offenses in the league. And instead of sitting back and just accepting it, drifting their way to what probably would have been much closer to Dwyer’s prediction of 19 wins, they actually went out and tried to do something about it.

Let’s stress that. They didn’t just undercut, go cheap, and struggle. The wanted to make the playoffs, so they went out and got a scorer. Was it an elite scorer? No. But those are rarely available. And when they are? They turn out to be Ben Gordon. What was worse, acquiring Ben Gordon or Stephen Jackson? Gordon, right? Because he’s younger. But he’s also more expensive (Jackson’s contract-expiration year, when they can move him, is still only $800k more than what Gordon made this year), doesn’t defend nearly as well, isn’t a leader, and his contract gets more expensive the older he gets. If you’re looking to improve now, Jackson’s not a bad investment.

The Bobcats made the playoffs. They picked up more fans, brought themselves some legitimacy. They’re not the Lakers or Spurs, but they’re also no longer the Clippers, or, well, the Bobcats. Furthermore, the two things that have been evident the last two years is that no one is unmovable. The team can continue to tinker, continue to adjust, keep moving veteran pieces for other veteran pieces.

Now, part of that is severely damaged if the reports are true that Brown’s gone, which he probably is. Fits his profile, family’s in Philly, a management job is less stress. (Note: If he does stay everyone’s going to owe him a big ass apology.) And starting over with this kind of roster could be bad. But at least Jordan, for all his faults, you know will want to field a contender. He’ll be willing to invest to make the team successful. If something goes their way? Great. If not? They’ve at least built themselves into an actual NBA team, in a small market, in a major recession, and they did it by acquiring a team full of guys you won’t see on posters, but who work their ass off every single night. And if I’m a fan of that team? I’d much rather see that than a team that doesn’t give a crap.

Contending for greatness doesn’t just take skill and money. It takes opportunity that must be granted, timing, and luck. The Cats haven’t had any of those things. But at least they’ve stabilized the core. To laugh them off stage because they ran into the team that wound up with the other guy, and who have built a monstrous team around him (including, I might add, a veteran everyone thought was disgustingly overpaid when they signed him, and then also Hedo Turkoglu who is now overpaid, and now Vince Carter who people say the same about; it’s not like outside of Howard they’re full of young guns) is a bit unfair, and ignores the success that they’ve had. No, it’s not a championship ring. But it’s a start, a real start. And for fans in Charlotte, it’s at least something to make them feel good and give them hope.

Sometimes you gotta start small.

Oster-Tags: Charlotte Bobcats, Larry Brown, michael jordan, stephen jackson