Bobcats Quickly Out of the Gate

As I type this column, Charlotte Bobcats GM Bernie Bickerstaff has a big smile plastered to his face. The Bobcats have pounced onto the NBA scene, and by Thursday night, we will see how the Bobcats strategy worked out for them.

The Bobcats have been in talks with just about every general manager in the league, and will be having many more in the nights to come. The Bobcats are in trade talks with about 3 teams, the Knicks, Suns, and Clippers, and are a major factor in the Orlando-Houston blockbuster trade.

Charlotte has taken the initiative early in the NBA draft, assuring the Clippers they would take Peja Drobnjak and his large contract off their hands in the expansion draft (Tuesday, 7pm est). For this small favor, the Clippers take the Bobcats’ 2nd round pick (33rd overall) and the Clippers and Bobcats swap first round picks, knocking the Clippers to 4th and bumping the Bobcats into the 2nd slot.

That means Charlotte is in a position to take either Emeka Okafor or Dwight Howard, whomever falls to them after Orlando picks number 1. When asked if he thought Okafor would be available at number two, Bickerstaff commented, “I think there are some vacillations between number one in terms of whether it will be (Dwight) Howard or Okafor, but the one thing that I’m real clear about now is that we will be pleased starting our basketball team with either one of those young men. I think they represent what we would like to become in terms of character, competitiveness and the talent.”

The Bobcats are primed and ready to start their franchise off on the right step, and aren’t taking any risk in the salary-cap department. They have approximately $32 million in salary cap and are trying to make the most out of that.

The Bobcats have many high priced, underachievers being thrown at them, such as Allan Houston and Jerry Stackhouse, but they are directing their attention more to trades and young, less costly talent.

The Suns and Bobcats have talked about a trade involving Center Jahidi White. This trade would go down if the Suns give the Bobcats at least a first round draft pick and $3 million in cash. The Suns would then be relieved of White’s $5.9 million contract, allowing them $14 million cap space to go after Kobe Bryant and other free agents.

Charlotte is also looking at taking Antoine Walker, but only if they can work out a trade with New York. This is very hard to see happening on both sides and highly unlikely. If it does happen it will be so that the Knicks can then piece together a package to trade for Shaquille O’Neal, with Walker as part of the package.

All this talk swirls around the league and the Charlotte franchise isn’t even a day old. The Bobcats are thrusting themselves into the NBA spotlight and will either be made out to be geniuses or morons by Thursday night.

My money is on geniuses.