Note: ** This was written prior to the Carl Landry signing  

Okay, maybe Ziggy is right. There really is NOTHING going on in Bobcats Universe right now. So, with so much time to think about the team and no games to watch or news to read (the Donell Taylor signing wasn’t exactly BIG news) I have all these crazy ideas going around in my head and most of them are just that- crazy. However, every once in a while I’ll have one that I think is actually a good one. Here is the latest one: If Bob Johnson isn’t happy with the teams popularity (or lack there of) in and around Charlotte then this is what he should do: Instead of having training camp in Wilmington and playing all of the home preseason games in Charlotte, the team should have training camp in Columbia, SC at the USC campus and play one preseason game in Raleigh at the RBC Center.

Why? This is why: Wilmington is 195 miles from Charlotte and has a population of 75,00 and a metro population of 275,000. Columbia is only an hour and a half from Charlotte (about 95 miles away) and has a poulation of 125,000 and a metro area of 716,000. If Johnson wants to expand the fan base throughout the region then it makes logical sense. The fact that Wilmington is MJ’s hometown isn’t enough of a reason to ignore the Columbia market. The team should try to be not just Charlotte’s NBA team but the NBA team of both Carolinas. The Panthers have Carolina in their name and they have training camp in Spartensburg, SC every year so why shouldn’t the Bobcats follow suit? The USC campus is very nice and alot of NBA teams go to a college nearby (ex. Houston Rockets have their’s at the University of Texas in Austin).

Why does a preseason game in Raleigh make sense? The same logic applies. The Raleigh-Durahm metro area is the secong largest in the state and the RBC Center is an NBA type of arena. The NBA and NHL have similar standards for their arenas so it makes more sense than say the Dean Smith Center. Increasing your exposure throughout the reigon is something most NBA teams do. The Magic play a preseason game in Tampa every year and the Lakers are actually hosting the Bobcats this year in Anaheim and San Diego!

I’m sure Johnson will be fine financially without me giving him advice. Afterall, he did sell BET for 3 billion dollars. I’m just sayin’ he might want to think about this one.

1. The removal of Sam Vincent and the hiring of Larry Brown.

Anytime you can move from this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To This

 Then that alone is worth 6 or 7 wins by itself. Supposedly Sam was despised by the players, so much so that its rumored that they even locked him out the locker room at halftime of one of the games. As far as his coaching prowess, The man started Jeff McInnis at PG for the majority of the season… The discussion on Sam can end right there. Larry Brown has his faults, His NY Knicks / Isiah Thomas experience was unpleasant but its safe to say that LB has more coaching knowledge in his little finger than Fine Ham Biscuit has in his entire body.

  Reasons 2 through 5 after the jump

Bobcats.com has really stepped up their game over the last few weeks. They’ve provided several quality videos of the Bobcats working out over the last several weeks.

• Jason Richardson offseason workout video
  
• Adam Morrison offseason workout video
• Matt Carroll offseason workout video
• Emeka Okafor offseason workout video
• D.J. Augustin offseason workout video

Rufus on Fire unleashes his Bobcats facial hair project.

Queen City Hoops does their usual excellent job of analyzing the numbers with Looking back (and forward) at Matt Carroll

In his last post Ziggy said that there is NOTHING going on with the Bobcats. I beg to differ. I’m sure the big question on everyone’s mind is “Who’s the 3rd point guard going to be?” So, I’ve composed my list of candidates in no particular order:

#1- Darrell Armstrong; He’s 40 yrs old so he’s probably a long shot but it might be nice for the Gastonia product to finish his career at home and mentor the likes of Ray and DJ.

#2- Lindsey Hunter; another guy who’s twice as old as everyone on the team but he did play for LB in Detroit so I guess he’s a possibility.

#3- Smush Parker; talent wise he’s pretty good for a 3rd point guard but I wouldn’t touch him with a 10 foot pole; I’d rather bring back McInnis and you know that’s not happening.

#4- Mateen Cleaves; I know what you all are thinking but he DID tear up the D-League last year and he would be a 4th guy on the team to have won an NCAA tournament.

#5- Eddie Gill; I think we’re the only team in the League who hasn’t had him yet so why not?

#6- Aaron Miles; he’s steady and not flashy at all so he might be the kind of player who LB would like and he played very well the last two years in Europe.

#7- Mike Wilks; a bit short at 5-10 but he’s earned a reputation as a true professional who practices hard and he could be a good mentor for DJ.

#8- Kevin Kruger; he nearly made Orlando’s roster last year and was petty good in the D-league but his lack of experience makes him a bad fit for this team.

#9- Julius Hodge; he says he wants to be a point forward and he has ties to N.C. so he’s intriguing but not intriguing enough. Any thoughts? Who am I missing?

Because there is absolutely nothing going on in the Charlotte Bobcats universe at this time, I’d like to take a few minutes out of our (somewhat) regularly scheduled programming to present to you.

Things that Entertain me

For some reason there is nothing that I enjoy more than seeing knuckle headed skateboarders getting completely wracked. I don’t know what that says about me, I’m sure its not good and that Dr. Phil wouldn’t approve of this particular character flaw, but what the Hell, when there is no basketball to be found then its witnessing things like the incidents in these videos that make me happy.