| What’s Next for Bob’s Boys? Authored by Danny Thompson - May 22, 2007 - 7:41 pm
For Charlotte Bobcat fans the 2006-07 season was filled with many ups and downs as well as a dash of hope that this team can turn the corner next season. The club lost a lot of time to injuries and hopes that 2007-2008 can be the teams first playoff season in franchise history.
The Cats ended up this season seven games out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. This was without power forward Sean May who missed around two-thirds of the season with his recurring knee injury. Emeka Okafor who missed 10 games in a key stretch of the season with back problems and Gerald Wallace and Matt Carroll also suffered injuries that kept them out of games in late March and April.
This offseason is shaping to be most important in the team’s young four-year existence. With a full salary cap to use, a new coach to find and two first round draft choices, the Bobcats can use this off-season to build the final foundation pieces that can help this team be a playoff contender.
So what can the Bobcats do with all of these burning questions in the off-season?
1. With the NBA’s stranglehold on the cap over, what can the Bobcats really attract in the free agent market?
With the approximate cap for 2007-08 season being around $58 million dollars, the Bobcats have around $18 million to spend on free agents and re-signing their own players. Michael Jordan has said on a number of occasions that the team will spend money on bringing in players to help build a contender.
With that being said, two major market free agents and a few players that can be traded lead the talks of being new bobcats. Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis lead the free agent market but talks of bringing those guys in on contracts could cripple the team for a long period of time.
Carter, who could will be on his final large contract and is one the best 10-15 players in the league could demand a lot more than the team could offer him without keeping the team in tack. Carter could ask for around $14-16 million per season and I’m hoping that isn’t in the best interest of the team.
Lewis on the other hand is looking for his big payday. At $10-14 million per season risk the team would acquire a shooter who can score on the low block but his defense is shaky and he hasn’t been a big player on the boards in his career.
Players that could be dealt this summer include Sacramento’s Mike Bibby, Detroit’s Chauncey Billups and Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal. Out of those three, Bibby could be the most likely to be acquired but that would take a gutting of the young nucleus of guys that the team has on its roster. O’Neal reportedly wants to be in New York with Isiah and Billups would prefer to stay in Detroit.
So what to do?
Well, Gerald Wallace is a free agent and would like to re-sign here because Charlotte has turned him into a rising star in this league. Yes, Gerald will never be that big time superstar but he is the most hard working player on the team and he is the one that does all of the little things and plays defense on the best player on each team every single night.
Matt Carroll was a D-league find two seasons ago and has turned into a regular starter and big minute guy for the last two years. He might not be the best defensively but his shooting ability and willingness to be a team player is everything you want a player to have on this team.
Finally, there is a player who isn’t a free agent but you like to have re-signed before he becomes one, Emeka Okafor. Re-signing him is a no-brainer. He is the team’s franchise player and a year or two away from being the one of the best big men in the league. These three guys deserve their bigger paydays depending on who you’re talking about. Re-signing those three players would cost the team around the same money it would take to bring in a Carter or a Lewis.
Now Mike, if you are reading the words that are in this article please don’t pull a Washington front office move and get rid of youth for name players. Remember these two words, Richard Hamilton.
Any questions for me or any comments can be sent to me at QCbigcat21@aol.com. |
