Bobcats 2014 Trade Deadline Scenarios – Part Two

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We’re just three days away from the Trade Deadline and the suddenly Playoff-determined Bobcats are on the clock. We return with Part Two of our plausible trade scenarios list (find Part One here) …

The Righting the Wrong Fit Scenario

TRADE: Charlotte sends Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Brendan Haywood and Portland’s 1st Round Pick to the Warriors for Harrison Barnes and Marreese Speights.

Barnes is a volume scoring distance shooter miscast as a backup in Golden State. Kidd-Gilchrist is a rim slashing defensive stopper stuck on a team desperate for spacing. They’ve both struggled this season and this trade would not only upgrade their respective teams’ needs today but could also raise the ceiling on both of their careers long term.

The Warriors have made defense a priority and MKG’s tenacity on that end either as a sub for Iggy at the three or as a small-ball four could do wonders for Golden State come Playoff time, especially when Andrew Bogut checks out. On offense, Kidd-Gilchrist would have a tremendous amount of space to slash to the rim or post up while playing with the Splash Brotherseasy buckets and a reduced offensive role could build MKG’s confidence as he works on his perimeter game.

In return, the future Hornets receive Jamal Mashburn 2.0, a multi-talented scorer who can both stretch the floor and create his own shot. They’d also be betting Coach Clifford can extract some of the defensive potential Barnes has flashed since playing at North Carolina.

The cost of this swap – sending out a late first rounder and taking on an extra year of Marreese Speights – is more to the ego than it is to the team. The Cats’ front office would be admitting that it made a mistake in the 2012 Draft and is now paying interest on the penalty.

 The Helping a Friend Hit Restart Scenario

TRADE: Charlotte sends Ben Gordon and Portland’s 1st Round Pick to the Cavs for Luol Deng.

Cleveland basically paid the same price for Deng just a couple months ago – back when they had a different general manager who thought (or was instructed to think) his team was on the verge of something. The Cavs are currently three games back of Charlotte for the 8th Playoff spot and sports an ugly -5.3 point differential. Deng has also let it be known through back channels that he will not be re-signing with Cleveland in July so if the Cavs are going to recoup anything on their investment, they’ll need to do it quick.

The Cats do the deal betting that a combination of Al, Kemba, Clifford and cap space will be enough to lure Luol back in July. In the meantime, Deng instantly becomes the best small forward in the franchise’s history (I’m not discounting Crash, Deng is that good). His defensive skills are well known and, having played under fellow Van Gundy alum Coach Thibs in Chicago, should be able to fit right into Clifford’s scheme in Charlotte.

Offensively, Deng can hit from distance often enough to keep teams honest (career 33%) and has the right combination of personality and chops to either drop twenty a night or facilitate for other players. Deng turns 29 in April and the Cats would likely pursue a two year extension at around $12m per – timing it perfectly with MKG’s restricted free agency.

The Intriguing Salary Dump Scenario

TRADE: Charlotte sends Ben Gordon, Bismack Biyombo and Portland’s 1st Round Pick to the Celtics for Jeff Green and Brandon Bass.

The Blazers pick should be enough to get this one done – as perpetually intriguing as Green’s talent is, he turns 28 in August and is owed $18 million for the next two seasons. The Celts fast forward their rebuilding efforts by dumping a combined $25 million and add yet another late first rounder to their stockpile – if any team can make a run at Kevin Love this summer, it will be Boston.

Charlotte gains a Small Forward who loves the corner trey and who has traditionally defended that position well. We covered Bass’s pick & pop capabilities in Part One. Charlotte’s overwhelming needs heading into the deadline were to upgrade the Power Forward position and add floor spacing. This trade does both at a relatively low cost.

ASChin

@BaselineBuzz

 

Bobcats Defeat Thunder After Slow Start

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Charlotte Bobcats vs Thunder 3/17/10

The Bobcats scored another win, 100-92, over the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.  The Cats had to overcome an awful start that had them down by as much as 19 points late in the second quarter.  Stephen Jackson led the Cats in scoring with 20 points; Kevin Durant led all scorers with 26.

AP recap here |  Box score here

The Bobcats poor start seemed to be due to a general malaise; meanwhile, the Thunder were making it all look so easy.  The trio of Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant did most of the damage as the Thunder built their big lead.  But the Cats woke up for a quick 11-0 run in the last couple minutes of the second quarter to seize the momentum.

They kept it going in the third quarter, winning the frame 30-19 and overtaking the Thunder for the lead.  As usual, the run was keyed by the defense.  When the Cats weren’t racking up blocks inside, they were forcing contested jumpers outside.  Durant may have led all scorers with 26, but he needed 26 shots to do it (9-26 FG, 0-7 3PT).

The Thunder threatened briefly in the fourth quarter, cutting the Bobcats lead down to one at one point.  But Stephen Jackson soon responded with a three and the Cats were able to keep the Thunder at arms length the rest of the way.

Stephen Graham

Dude gets his own section.  After setting a new career high in last night’s loss to the Pacers with 19 points, Graham got another start for the injured Gerald Wallace… and responded by tying his new career high with 19 again (7-9 FG, 1-1 3PT, 4-6 FT).  Graham added 5 rebounds and a block to go along with his efficient offensive performance in 30 minutes of playing time.

In the three games Graham has started for Gerald, he is averaging 16.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 30 minutes per game.  Huge.

Tidbits

  • In case you missed it, the NBA’s board of governors unanimously approved Michael Jordan’s bid to but the Bobcats today, so it’s all nice and official now.
  • Speaking of, apparently bobcats.com will be posting a Q&A with His Airness in the morning, while Stephanie Ready has scored the first on camera interview since he became owner; this will air during the Hawks game Friday night.
  • The Cats are now 35-32 overall (25-8 at home) and alone in 6th place in the East.  5th place Milwaukee just lost, which brings the Cats to within a game-and-a-half of them.  Behind the Cats, the Heat were off Wednesday and are just a half game back.  8th place Toronto won a thriller to keep pace, while Chicago lost their ninth in a row to fall further out of the race.
  • The Bobcats (and Gerald’s ankle) have a day off before a tough Southeast Division road back-to-back in Atlanta and Miami on Friday and Saturday.  Good luck, Cats.

-Dr. E

Charlotte Bobcats @ OKC Thunder 4/10/09

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Bobcats fall to Thunder, Chad Ford Loves the Thunder

1. The Playoff Hunt is officially over for the Bobcats as they fall 84-81 to Chad Ford’s favorite team (OKC) Friday night.  The team stands at 35-44 with 3 games remaining in the season.

2. Ugly, ugly, ugly game for the Bobcats.  Charlotte shoots a combined 33% from the field (29 of 87) and commits 14 turnovers.  Quick question:
Name the 6 Charlotte Bobcats Players who shot:

  • 4-13
  • 8-21
  • 1-5
  • 3-12
  • 4-16
  • 6-16

Answer: The 6 guys who played the most.
The starters sucked it up bad and then DJ came in and sucked it up in reserve.  It wasn’t like the Thunder were playing Championship Defense (although the OKC broadcast team thought so).  The Bobcats as a team just couldn’t get the ball to stay in the basket.  I lost count of how many fast breaks, put-backs, easy 2-footers, etc that just didn’t fall.  And no disrespect to the Thunder, they played very good defense (notably 2008 Bobcat 2nd Round Pick Kyle Weaver on Gerald Wallace) but hardly the kind that should inspire 33% shooting.

3. So, is Thunder GM Sam Presti secretly just taking orders from ESPN.com’s Chad Ford?  Seriously, take a look at OKC’s roster:

  • Kevin Durant (phenom in the making)
  • Jeff Green (Scottie Pippen meets Dwight Howard in the making)
  • Russell Westbrook (ESPN Insider equivalent to The Hottest New Band Nobody’s Talking About)
  • Nenad Kristic (Super-skilled Euro Center with strange male-pattern baldness)
  • Thabo Sefolosha (Euro wing defender, kind of a young Raja Bell)
  • DJ White/Kyle Weaver (late first round gems in the making)
  • Shaun Livingston (former Chad Ford idol; 6’7″ PG making a comeback at the ripe old age of 23)

Add this to the fact the OKC has about 37 first round picks in the next two drafts and we can all rest assured that Portland’s Kevin Pritchard will be receiving far less bon-bons and roses from Mr. Ford this June.

4. Jeff Green (btw) looks fantastic.  He finished the game with 10pts and 11rbs but scored his 5 buckets in every way imaginable.  Kristic was the real surprise though.  Even though he came back from Europe looking like a Rasho Nestorovich mannequin, the dude really lit it up with 19pts on 9-12 shooting and made Emeka look pretty useless all evening.

5. Speaking of Okafor, how is it biologically possible that a human being as atheletically endowed as Emeka can’t jump more than four inches off of the ground?  Someone please explain this to me.  Looking at the guy, you’d think that he’d be able to out-jump assistant coach Capel but in reality…  no dice.  And isn’t his inability to put back a shot (while jumping) completely incongruent with his proficiency at blocking opponents shots?  Rebounding?  I have a theory on Emeka and it goes something like this:
A few years ago Emeka Okafor read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink.”  He then decided to dedicate his life to doing the opposite of whatever that book had to say.
I honestly think that Okafor is too damn intelligent for the NBA – his mind is just too analytical and he doesn’t have the ability to shut if off when he’s on the court.

6. OKC’s crowd went into this game (their home court finale) like it was Game 7 of the Finals.  Seeing the arena jam-packed and the crowd completely attentive and excited brought back some fond memories of the old Charlotte Coliseum and the glory days of LJ, ZO, and Muggsy.  [HEY!  RON GREEN, SR. stop hacking into my computer!]

7. Speaking of the old Hornets, OKC’s pre-game interviewer (their version of Stephanie Ready) is none other than Matt Pinto, who served as the Charlotte Hornets radio announcer (and Gerry Vallaincourt’s radio co-host) back in the early 90s.

8. Bright spots for the Bobcats?  Well, Dontell Jefferson came in and played very well in a cameo scoring 6pts in 6 minutes.  Other than that…well Radman had a steal in the open court early in the first and then finished it off with a reverse EURO-JAM! but then proceeded to brick a bunch of threes and get burned on defense by guys getting paid an eighth of what he does.  Hmm…more bright spots?  Maybe I’ll have some for you after Saturday night’s game in Chicago against the Bulls.

Till then, enjoy the loss Bobcats Fans…

-ASChin