You know how one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure? In their enduring, Through-the-Looking-Glass style, the Bobcats have managed to create a scenario in which one man’s trash is the same man’s treasure. A year ago, Emeka Okafor laughed at a $12 million-per-year deal. This year, he signed basically the same deal (and I’m guessing he did so with gusto). Similarly, the Bobcats entered this off-season convinced their offer was way too high and appeared committed to playing hard-ball with Mek…until the less-accomplished Andrew Bogut and Andris Biedrins signed comparable deals with their teams. All of a sudden, $12 a year to a tweener forward/center with limited range and offensive skills seemed like a bargain to management. Ultimately, both Okafor and the Bobcats pulled the contract out of the toilet and placed it on their mantels.

“You need that big guy to defend the Tim Duncans, the (Shaquille) O’Neals, the (Kevin) Garnetts,’’ GM Rod Higgins told the Observer. “The big guys control the game in the post, and that’s our guy when it comes to doing that.” I agree with Higgins, but I really wished he hadn’t named names, because he left me with no choice but check out those guys’ splits to see how they performed against us last year compared with the rest of the league. Against us, Duncan averaged about 6 more PPG than his season average (Garnett averaged about 3 more, same with O’Neal), and the shooting percentage of all three Bigs was up as well. And with the exception of Shaq, rebounding, blocks, and even assists were better for those guys against us compared to season averages. And unfortunately, once I let the cat out of the bag, you know I just had to keep rummaging: Chris Bosh scored more against us…Dwight Howard scored a lot more against us…Yipes, even Bogut scored more against us. Thank goodness Samuel Dalembert and Eddie Curry underperformed against us relative to their average, otherwise I would have needed to sign my own personal 6-day, 72 milligrams of Xanex contract. Maybe Higgins was just speaking abstractly, or perhaps he implied that without Okafor, things would have been much, much worse. I guess like the contract itself, this is all a matter of interpretation. My own interpretation is that I need a drink.

Beyond the numbers, however, signing Okafor sends a signal from ownership that they at least sort of care. Remember in high school, there was always that one kid who had parents who just didn’t care what he did? We had him, and the great thing about him was every weekend–if nothing else–we could always party in his basement. We didn’t even have to figure out a way to buy booze—his parents would just get it for us! Best of all, whenever I asked my own unsuspecting parents if I could go to this kid’s parties, and they asked me if his folks would be there, I could honestly answer “yes” every time. Bob Johnson is those parents, and the GM’s office has been his kids on a Friday night. Which makes we the fans the, ummm…the neighbors who have to deal with the noise and the garbage? I don’t know, this analogy’s gone off course.

The point is, it’s one thing to not spend money on one player if there’s the perception you’ll spend it more effectively on a younger, better player. It’s another thing entirely to not spend money on one player and just keep it for yacht maintenance, which is the impression Bob Johnson has done a good job cultivating throughout his tenure. In Okafor’s case there really wasn’t anyone else out there who could provide a rebounding/defensive presence, so letting him go would have been the equivalent of a parent shutting the door to the basement after the delivery guy tries wheels a keg of MGD downstairs (See, I brought it back!).

Anyway, whether or not we paid too much for Okafor, at least now we can form a better conception of the team’s capabilities. Until now, it’s been awfully hard to analyze this team without knowing Okafor’s status. Talk about conflicting perceptions; without Okafor under contract, the Bobcats were a Rorschach test that really did just look like a big ink stain. Now that the lead domino has fallen, we can see the pattern of strengths and weaknesses develop. And the ripple effect is that teams with mobile big men are going to continue to give us trouble, and therefore Sean May and Jarred Dudley are going to have to be ready for more responsibility, Nazr Mohammed is going to have to be more circumspect with his fouls, and someone from the Davidson-Hollins-Ajinca hydra is going to have to come forward and contribute 10-15 serviceable minutes a night. Larry Brown should be able to facilitate all of this—at least, better than Sam Vincent did. And Johnson can tell the fans that while he’s never going to be parent of the year, he at least took all the kids’ keys before he let them downstairs.

Restricted free agent Emeka Okafor’s contract negotiations has been the primary topic of discussion for Bobcats fans for the past few weeks. So today we decided to bring you something completely different. Drumroll please…………….

The Emeka Okafor Photoshop Tribute

Pope-afor – I believe that Emeka would make a good Pope. I can guarantee you that Pope Benedict XVI can’t do this to Ronny Turiaf.

I looked with great relief toward Saturday’s televised Summer League game with the Knicks, mostly because my ears were still ringing from the cacophonous mess or The Dark Knight, which I’d seen the night before.  By the way, anti-props go to the Charlotte Observer’s Lawrence Toppman for his review of the film.  I suppose it’s technically impossible to have a “wrong” opinion of something, but still, when Toppman writes that director Christopher Nolan “keeps the focus tight: All events take place in Gotham over a couple of months,” I can’t buy anything he says from then on.  First of all, the movie didn’t take place completely in Gotham; there was an extremely long sequence in which Batman goes out to freakin’ Hong Kong to bust a bad guy.  This wasn’t just a brief interlude, either—there was a lengthy build-up, complete with airline arrangements, a fresh new Bat-suit made especially for the trip, an elaborately-staged yacht-escape sequence, and the whole thing culminated with a (barely comprehensible—along with just about everything else in this movie) fight scene.  How did Toppman forget about this?

News, rumor, lies, truths, half-truths and innuendo concerning the Emeka Okafor / Charlotte Bobcats contract negotiations which are rumored to be falling apart by the second.

Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer gives us a few sign and trade options in case a deal with Okafor cannot be worked out. How would Shawn Marion float your boat?

Rufus on Fire says “do not trade Emeka at any costs”. He also says  that the main problem with people’s perception of Emeka is that he isn’t Dwight Howard… but then again, who is?

Over at Hoopsvibe, some uninformed assclown comes up with the idea of trading away Emeka Okafor & Gerald Wallace for Luol Deng and table scraps… My advice to this joker, pick something else to write about.

Charley Rosen says of Emeka Okafor that $10 million per year is “thoroughbred” money, but Mek is just a “quarterhorse”

PistonFever is resurrecting the Rasheed Wallace trade rumors.  I was really hoping that we had put the ‘Sheed nonsense behind us.

As expected, Queen City Hoops does a superior job breaking down the Okafor trade possibilites.

There is Okafor to the Knicks discussion, Okafor to the Heat discussion and even some humorous Okafor to the Mavs discussion.

So tell me, Will we find a way to keep #50 long term or is he gone?

Rather then forcing my first post on this site, I decided to wait until I actually formed an opinion on my own on the direction the Bobcats are heading this upcoming season. I was added to the staff a few days ago, but now feels like a good time to get going on this site, and I’m really excited about it

What finally bothered me enough about the Bobcats that finally provoked me to write about them is this apparent gamble the Bobcats are taking regarding the power forward and center positions. Emeka Okafor has proved that he is a center in the NBA, or at least that he is more effective at that position. If Larry Brown keeps him at center, it leaves a gaping hole at the 4 spot. If he plays him at power forward, the 5 spot is now the responsibility of either Nazr Mohammed or other unproven options.

The first option Brown could turn to is the injury-prone, unproven Sean May to play power forward. With weight issues certainly involved, relying on Sean May to be a starter at power forward all year would be assuming a huge risk. Besides the fact that he gets hurt a lot, May hasn’t even proven that he could be an effective force in the NBA. I’m not doubting that May could be effective, and I loved watching him play at UNC, but we do not know how he is going to bounce back from this injury, much less how much he could amount to overall. Big risk if you ask me.

With the recent departure of Othella Harrington, that leaves the Bobcats with Jermareo Davidson as the only true power forward left. I saw Davidson play in person and noticed the potential he has, but he will not be able to answer Charlotte’s short term issues. Larry Brown apparently expressed a willingness to maybe play Gerald Wallace at the 4. I find it humorous that Larry Brown’s solution is to play the guy that is probably going to get traded at power forward at some points in the game. Even if Wallace stayed, he’s already said that he would rather not play that position.

The other option would be to play Emeka Okafor at the 4 position, and play Nazr Mohammed or Alexis Ajinca at the 5 spot. Nazr Mohammed is only going to give you so much each game, and he’s gotten to the point in his career where he should not start for any team in this league. I’m a lot more optimistic about Alexis Ajinca then a lot of analysts are. Most analysts are obsessed with the 5 points a game he averaged in the French league. By no means has Ajinca been anything spectacular in the summer league either, but he is not a finished product, which is why he can not start. Ajinca’s got a great frame to add muscle too and some of the longest arms in the NBA. I’d just like to see him bang down low a little more and stay away from shooting so much. He needs to get tougher.

So he solution to this power forward dilemma? It may not be trading Gerald Wallace like many think. Like Sean May, Adam Morrison is technically unproven as a starter to come in and play for Wallace, and Matt Carroll is a great bench player but struggles on the defensive end. Even so, no team is really going crazy over trying to acquire Gerald Wallace. It might hurt us emotionally a bit, but it may have to be Raymond Felton that goes. A lot of teams are looking for point guards these days, and who better then Raymond Felton. Felton is a young, experienced point guard. Having something expendible like that gives you a valuable trade option.

After all, DJ Augustin must be good enough to start if the Bobcats were bold enough to pass up on Brook Lopez in the draft. Augustin kind of has that Chris Paul swagger to his game, and has certainly shown in his time at Texas that he can be a leader on the court. Trade Felton for a solid power forward and have a complete group of starters, so when it comes down to the end of the game, you have 5 guys out there you can trust.