| Bernie Has A Plan Authored by David Mosley - July 3, 2005 - 4:48 am
What were you doing on Tuesday, June 28th? If you call yourself a basketball fan, you were doing the same thing I was, pacing in front of the television, yelling and screaming at it in hopes of influencing your team’s pick in the NBA draft. Did it work?
Since the Bobcats held the 5th and 13th picks in the draft, I had two chances to scream at GM Bernie Bickerstaff on this night. Raymond Felton was the player I desperately wanted the Bobcats to take at number 5. David Stern walked up the podium to announce the 5th pick. At this point I’m was past yelling and screaming. I’ve had my head in my hands peeking through my fingers at the screen. I can’t take it. “If we take Martell Webster I’m gonna die.” “With the 5th pick the Charlotte Bobcats select Raym….” That’s all I needed to hear. I jumped up and ran around the room, just like I’d done two months earlier when the North Carolina won the national championship. Go figure. I’m a true blue Tarheels fan.
I looked over at my wife, who at this point thinks I’ve just spontaneously transformed into some sort raving crack fiend. I said to her, “It’s over now. I don’t care who we pick at 13 since we’ve got Felton.” Even my cat knew I was lying.
Somewhere around the selection of Ike Diogu, my buddy, a fellow Tarheels nut, called me up. We exchanged a couple of “HELL YEAHs” and reveled in the genius of Raymond Felton. It’s also about this time we realized that something strange was happening in this draft.
Then the Lakers took Andrew Bynum with the 10th pick. “Oh my god, we might get Gerald Green,” my buddy said in disbelief. Next, the Magic took Fran Vazquez at #11, which caused a stream of Dr. Pepper to shoot out of my nose. The Clippers picked the Russian kid, a move that shocked nobody, except maybe Dick Vitale, who, at this point was shrieking in a voice only a dog could hear.
Our sights were now firmly set on Green, the player that most “experts” said we would pick at #5. Of course, I’ve never really seen the kid play outside of a high school all-star game, but Jay Bilas says he’s an “insane athlete”. Who am I to argue with Jay Bilas? He went to Duke. Duke grads are smart. Insane athletes win basketball games… or so I’m told. My buddy and I were like a couple giddy of teenage girls with backstage passes to a Poison concert. This was unbelievable.
Here we were at the 13th pick, a pick I had just said I didn’t care about anymore and I’m about to hyperventilate. It’s amazing how quickly things change. David Stern again approached the podium to announce the Bobcats pick. My buddy and I were dead silent on the phone. “With the 13th pick the Charlotte Bobcats select… Sean May.” I heard my buddy throw the phone across the room as he yelled out a few phrases that cannot be repeated in this article without the use of the top row of the keyboard. I was frozen in shock for a solid minute and a half.
The Bobcats passed on high school wonderboy Gerald Green for Sean May, another Tarheel, when they already have Emeka Okafor. Even as a huge May fan this was confusing at best. What was Bernie thinking?
After a few days of reflection on the events of June 28th everything is much clearer now. I finally understand Bernie’s plan. Sure he’s been babbling about it every chance he gets for the past year, but I guess I wasn’t listening. I’m sorry I ever doubted you Bernie. In case you are confused like I was, let me enlighten you on what Bernie is doing.
THE TAO OF BERNIE (in Bernie’s own words):
1. Build with players that are proven winners, have high character, high basketball IQ and a great work ethic.
• “I don’t think you can overlook the culture of an Emeka who won a national championship, Raymond, Sean winning national championships; they know what it takes to win.” (on Felton and May)
• “In Seattle we had Avery Johnson. Avery evolved into a great, great basketball player. He was a winner. Intelligence with skill is a serious weapon. Both of these young men have a very high IQ on the basketball court.” (on Felton and May)
• “We wanted to find guys (who) were playing on very good basketball teams and were acclimated to winning” (on players selected in the expansion draft)
• “You’ve got to have talent, you’ve got to have skill, but what kind of person you are says a lot about what you can bring to this team.” (on the kind of player he is looking for)
2. Demand effort, defense and unselfishness.
• “We want to be a defensive presence and we want to be unselfish.” (on the way he wants the Bobcats to play)
• “The one thing that we’ve been consistent about in demanding is a commitment to effort. That was the one staple throughout this entire season is the fact that every night the guys had a professional attitude when they stepped on the floor.” (on the past season)
• “The consistency of effort, the commitment to effort, that’s what I’ve been harping since day one. I think the culture in terms of Bobcats basketball has been defined by these young men.” (on the past season)
• “If you watched us throughout this season, our reputation around the league was that we work hard every night. If you have a reputation that that’s the team you’re going to be, you’ve got to have players who are capable of doing that. The only way to do that is to test them, challenge them, see what their effort is.” (Blair Bickerstaff on the bobcats demanding draft workouts, which are said to be the toughest in the league)
• “We feel the fans will appreciate a young, exciting team that will compete hard every night, defend and embrace the team concept. He’s (Okafor) a tough guy. … The guy just represents everything that we would like to become, in terms of his competitiveness. This guy we can build around and we want to be a defensively-oriented basketball team. Defense controls the game. He can get you possessions, he can prevent baskets and he has a great outlet pass. And as Bob (Johnson) alluded to, he’s a quality human being.” (on Emeka Okafor)
3. Be patient, build through the draft and preserve cap flexibility.
• “Basically we were looking to acquire draft picks. We wanted to have salary cap flexibility.” (on the expansion draft)
• “The one thing we think is that cap flexibility is really important. That’s why we took a lot of restricted free agents.” (on the expansion draft)
• “It was also important that we keep an eye firmly focused on the future with a long-term vision that allows for maximum roster flexibility." (on the past season)
• “We want to build again through the draft. We think we’ll get a couple of good players out of the draft.” (on the 2005 draft)
• "We're just not ready for that. That's a move you make when you think you're really ready to take off and (one player) can make the difference. ...I just don't feel we are there." (on signing a big free agent this summer)
As you can see, Bernie has a plan. He’s had the plan in place since last year’s expansion draft, long before Gerald Green came to town for his solo workout. Bernie hasn’t changed his plan one bit. He’s obviously not impressed by “insane athletes” that refuse to compete against others in draft workouts and are too young or too stupid to know who the Knicks drafted with the #1 pick in 1985 (in Green’s defense Martell Webster was also utterly clueless on this question that was posed by Stuart Scott).
How does Sean May fit into Bernie’s Plan?
1. May is a well spoken, extremely intelligent, unselfish player with a tremendous basketball IQ and a desire to be great.
2. May is a proven winner. He was the MVP of the final four and dominated college basketball in 2005.
3. May is a fantastic rebounder. Rebounding is the foundation of a good defense.
4. Bernie said a week ago if he drafted a guard with his first pick he would draft a big man with his second pick. May was the best available big man at #13. Once again, Bernie told us what he was going to do and followed through.
Bernie is going to keep adding players with winning attitudes, players who are smart, honest and hard working and when in doubt he’ll go big. He is going to demand that these players play with effort every night and he is going to stress defense and unselfishness. When the time is right Bernie will actively pursue that one free agent he feels can turn the Bobcats into a powerhouse. Until then he is going to keep adding talent through the draft and sticking with the plan.
How many teams actually have a plan…5, maybe 10? Those 5 or 10 are also the same teams that are picking in the 20’s every year. Why? Because they have a plan and they stick to it. You can’t just abandon your plan every time a Bonzi Wells, Qyntel Woods or Rodney White is dangled in front of you. If you do, you’ll end up wandering aimlessly through the lottery, year after year, drafting players based purely on their “upside”. There is a lot more to winning than putting 5 former lottery picks on the court and throwing them a basketball.
Let’s give Bernie a chance to see his plan through to completion before we jump all over him. |
