After reading further through the forums I have to say that I am impressed with most of the comments; the readers here are obviously well informed about their team and are not shy about sharing their thoughts.
That being said I have a question or more of an observation of sorts that I would like to present; I will be very curious and a little eager even to read your comments.
The concerns at point guard are clear. Whether or not the team should have let Raymond Felton go we will not truly know until the season gets going and we see what D.J. Augustin and Shaun Livingston are able to accomplish.
Stephen Jackson appears to have found a home after his first season with the team. Last season he had career highs in points per game (21.1) and rebounds (5.1; tied with 2008-09 season for career high), and seemed to compliment Gerald Wallace well.
At the forwards, with Wallace and Thomas, the Bobcats should be deadly next season. Anyone that averages a double-double over the course of the season is just a joy to watch in my book (18.2 points and 10 rebounds). In Tyrus Thomas’s short time with the team he showed some real signs of promise, and will likely be even better after going through his first training camp with the team. With Boris Diaw coming off the bench the Bobcats will not be hurting for quality play at the forwards.
However (and this is where the question comes in), I don’t know if I could say the same for the center position.
I was a little surprised that they traded for Erick Dampier from the Dallas Mavericks for one. Many of you in the forums have referred to his salary; while I recognize that as a concern, I think his play is questionable as well. His best days are well behind him (2003-04 with Golden State). His numbers have been in a steady decline along with his health. If the Bobcats could dump him on someone else through a trade I don’t think anyone would cry.
Then again the other options the team has on the roster really aren’t much better. Nazr Mohammed is obviously not a scoring threat for the team nor would he likely to be called upon to do so with players like Wallace and Jackson on the court, but he does not exactly provide the team with many second chance opportunities (2.0 offensive rebounds and 3.3 defensive rebounds last season).
DeSagana Diop is a big ole’ boy and maybe he’ll produce better than he has with more minutes. In 11 seasons in the NBA he has never averaged more than 19 minutes a game and has had the lack of production to go with it. He is definitely a much bigger body than two of the guys that the team has let go elsewhere, Theo Ratliff and Tyson Chandler.
Diop could do well as the starter. Having been in the league for 11 seasons now does not exactly make him an old man, but he is not a spring chicken either. However, when you look at his stats he has not played a whole lot over the span of his career so he can’t be beaten up too bad.
I do not write this to just bad mouth the players that the team has on the roster, and I don’t have a solution to offer either. Mostly I am interested to see what the Bobcat loyal think about their centers and what the team should do (or not do) about the position. Should they stand pat with what they got and see what happens or is there a player available in free agency worth picking up?
“Diop could do well as the starter.”
If that’s the plan then my nightmare offseason would be totally complete!
I think you’re misunderstanding about Dampier…there’s absolutely no way we pay that salary (13+ million) this year. He will either be waived outright or traded. If he’s on the team it’ll be at a much smaller rate.
Everyone knows this FO puts it’s faith in trades to get better. I doubt seriously if this year will be any different.
I’m not sure we are in a much different spot than we were last season. Yes Tyson isn’t on our roster and we won’t have his 5 alley-oop dunks per game..errr…wait we never got that last year either. I honestly think that we could get the same production out of TT with 10 mpg in the Center position to surpass what we lost with Tyson. Does that mean I think TT plays Center and Diaw stays on the roster past the trade deadline? only if we experience an extended injury by another big.
Damp’s contract had little to nothing to do with his actual ability to play Center in this league, it had everything to do with $13M expiring BEFORE the season begins. Obviously whatever trade they intended to lure in, didn’t happen, but then again, the 60 day (multi-player..hello Sept 11th) trade date hasn’t come and gone yet either.
Finally, Nazr was, by far, our only Center since….Melvin Ely, that actually has a ‘back-to-the-basket’ low post move that could consistently have a chance of going in on a regular basis. Tyson didn’t have one, Emeka didn’t have one, Primoz didn’t have one, so I guess you realize I’ve never thought much of the expected production from our Centers.
Do we still need a Center? sure, but if we don’t get one and Nazr stays happy until the trade deadline, we will be just fine at that position.
This is your like 3rd article in 3 days… You gotta chill out!!!
I always think its stupid when people ask if we should look for a trade to fill any position cause the answer is always yes! Because there is always a player that will fit your team better however 99.9% of the time they are just not available. Everyone complaining about Calderon… what if he is the best pg out there available u know. Same thing with the centre position
Defensively I wouldn’t have much of a problem with Diop as the starter, but on the offensive end Spectre has it right.
If this is the lineup of centers that we are going into the season with, then we have to hope that Nazr has been drinking deeply from the fountain of youth all summer long and that he can stay healthy enough to play heavy minutes for 82 games this season.
I really hope we don’t start Diop. I mean, he is just terrible. Nazr played really well for about a month when Chandler was out with the ankle injury last year. I like him at center and Tyrus at PF if we cant get any better players. I also feel comfortable with DJ starting and Livingston and Sherron Collins competing for backup.
But, in my opinion there is one option that makes us playoff contenders. We should trade Dampier and Boris Diaw (and maybe Gerald Henderson) for a really good center, like Chris Kaman or Al Horford. Diaw is good, but not near as productive as he should be. He works best in transition (thus his value in PHX). Anyway, if we have a really great center then we can have Nazr and Eduardo Najera filling in at 4 when they’re needed. If we can do that, and assuming DJ plays well and defends a little better, then I think we would have a great shot at going to the Eastern Conference finals.
I think any other route will get us into the playoffs with probably the same result as last year. It is way to early to be making predictions though.
Either way, last year’s success got us on ESPN’s schedule for two games this year!
With Boris and T-Time on the roster, we could always go small at Center. This roster is a work in progress, so evaluating it at this point in the off-season is a waste of time. Many of our questions will be answered 2-3 weeks before the season starts.
Even though Boris is just 6’8″, rumor has it that he weighs as much as a center these days.
Rumour has it his stomach makes up Shaq’s weight by itself.
I say if we can land Calderon, we then send DJ to Sac for Thompson. He is a young Center with promise and he wouldn’t have to step right in and be the man. We would still have Nazr and Diop and trade the Dust chip for Calderon. Maybe even get in on the NY and Denver trade and try sending Diop and the Dust chip out and get Billups, Azubeka and Curry(yes Eddy Curry) out of the deal. He has a 10mil expiring contract that if he doesn’t work out by the deadline can be traded for something of value.
i know this is a little off topic im new here but iv heard Josh Smith is on the block and i was wondering if anyone thought maybe we could trade for Smith and start Tyrus at C