Even after tonight’s heart-breaker against Orlando, the Charlotte Bobcats have big plans to bring professional basketball back to Charlotte in 2009.

This concept became apparent during tonight’s game when our professional basketball coach called a time out; huddled his team; sketched a play on his whiteboard without saying a word; then simply asked his players “Got it?…Everyone got it?”

Over the past 5 years, fans attending Bobcats exhibitions could only experience professional level basketball from the opposing teams. Last season, during the “Vincent experiment“, Nazr Muhammad looked like the only professional on the squad; probably because he was a veteran with a “role” in the Vincent “system”.

Even this season’s roster was full of jokers until we had to blow shit up to schlep together a roster of professional basketball players.  Considering the team’s current depth chart, it appears that only three players are unproven in the NBA – the D-League standout Cartier Martin, rookie Alexis Ajinca, and the injury-plagued Sean May.  However, there’s less gamble with these players on the roster, considering that they’ll be on the bench playing behind real professional basketball players.

The Bobcats are still a distance from the Playoffs, but it doesn’t seem that implausible that they could go 40+ wins next season.  Watching the Bobcats this season has been more enjoyable than any, because the casual fan can pick up on some of their professional basketball plays.  The refs respect them like professional basketball players.  They might even recognize some of our players since they have been playing at professional level around the league.

The latest moves by the Cats are not a scramble, but a series of strategic moves to form an identity – something this team has yet to define. However, it does appear that they have finally joined the NBA and defined themselves as Charlotte’s new professional basketball franchise.

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a mash-up from Mike15 and Deesdale