Contract Grades: Charlotte Bobcats

[Porn Shop Clerk]

Nothing that isn't already known, but its nice to get some kind of news:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/contract-grades-charlotte-bobcats/

This past June the Bobcats hired Rich Cho, recently fired by the Portland Trail Blazers, as their general manager and Rod Higgins moved from GM to President of Basketball Operations. Cho proceeded to make a major trade, sending out veterans Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston, and the rights to Tobias Harris for veteran Corey Maggette and the rights to big man Bismack Biyombo. He then chose point guard Kemba Walker in the lottery. Where does that leave the Cats? That is unclear, since Cho also inherited a team with quite a few overpriced long-term deals. How quickly the team can turn around from cellar dweller to playoff contender will be in a large part due to Cho’s future decisions.

The Charlotte Bobcats have some misguided contracts they still need to rid themselves of, but it’s noteworthy that the one contract they have that is not rookie scale and extends beyond 2013 belongs to a super athletic forward (Thomas) who still has a chance to really put it all together. Even if he doesn’t fulfill the promise of his contract he will still be a valuable contributor and given the state of the rest of the contracts probably not hold the team back too much. In fact, in 2013-14 and 2014-15 Thomas is the only player under contract right now, but will be joined after the lockout by Walker and Biyombo. With over $35 million available under any kind of cap in 2013 – barring acquisitions and signings that will eat up that space – the Cats are in an excellent position to allow Rich Cho to set a new course for the franchise.

Overall Grade Looking Forward: B+

[cdandi1]

Nice find. If Kemba ends up being the man at point, look for DJ to be shipped in the near future too.

[cbarrier90]

Dump Diop and Carroll and that easily becomes an A.

Shipping Wallace wasn't the easiest move to make, but I have complete faith that Cho will make the move at least an even trade off in the next few years.

[Porn Shop Clerk]

DJ is definitely out as a Bobcat unless he starts tearing it up. We only have to suffer Diop one more season, and this would have been the season his contract would have had some legitimate trade value.

[CarolinaNut]

rich cho will turn this franchise around

[d-run]

DJ is definitely out as a Bobcat unless he starts tearing it up. We only have to suffer Diop one more season, and this would have been the season his contract would have had some legitimate trade value.

Hopefully there will be an amnesty clause that will let us drop Diop, but if we can't or don't he has a player option for the 12-13 season that he will pick up.

We will have to sign some guys in a couple weeks to fill out our roster, but hopefully they will either be veteran guys that we can get at the minimum, or young guys that we can use as building blocks with Kemba, Biyombo and Thomas.

Here are a couple young unrestricted FA's:

Yi Jianlian

Joey Dorsey

Earl Clark

Aaron Gray

Brandan Wright

Kris Humphries

Chris Douglas-Roberts

Shannon Brown

Al Thronton

Glen Davis

Not a lot of building blocks in that group. Best guy is probably Big Baby and he isn't signing with Charlotte. Brown has played well in LA, but I think he resigns with them. I wouldn't mind getting CDR with a reasonable 2-3 year contract.

Full list of free agents:

http://espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FreeAgents-11-12

[Porn Shop Clerk]

None of them can be as bad as Diop.

[cdandi1]

There is an amnesty clause..bye bye Diop. Bout time.

[HeatCheck]

Be pretty cool to reunite Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas.

Glen David doesn't really have a true position, his best game is face to the basket and his mid range jumper.

[RedMage138]

Bring back Kapono!

[HeatCheck]

Bring back Kapono!

I'm guessing a joke...

[RedMage138]

Haha I loved that guy back in the day.