Yeah, gotta leave room

I always come up the title first and then the post.  That’s a fact.  You may read many first paragraphs of mine and say “He sure does like puns!”  And how.  When I wrote the title above, I immediately said to myself “Bobcats Moves?  That’s like saying you had moves at the middle school dance.  Sure, on some level, they’re moves.  But in reality, no one appreciates those ‘moves’ outside of you and your mom.”

The Bobcats, Bucks, Warriors, Timberwolves, Jazz and Wizards are in the D-List of NBA teams that get their roster needs met long after the A-List teams like the Nets, Knicks, Heat and Celtics, oh and the Lakers.  Haves and Have-Nots as always rule the day, especially in today’s NBA.

Now the rumor is Dwight Howard will be traded to the Nets, as he wanted at the trade deadline but for whatever reason, signed his player option with the Magic.  I read on another site, something about a Red Head being in flames, that the Bobcats could and possibly should try to act as a facilitator in this travesty.  Of course, it likely won’t happen as latest reports have the Cavaliers and Clippers are happy to step in and receive a little something for throwing a pick or player.  I’d say this just keeps teams like that suppressed.  The Magic will be bottom feeders for years to come except when they’re rewarded next year at the draft lottery.

No, I am not bitter.  I just don’t get the subjugation of NBA teams and they’re happy to get scraps.  Like the Magic making a move to let their second best player last season, Ryan Anderson go in a sign and trade rather than just a RFA move.  It’s almost like the idea the Bobcats had a few years ago, influenced by the classic Mark Cuban theory, to be good in the NBA you have to get real bad first.

Yeah, keep the t-shirt Kidd.

If I asked you for your ultimate set of maneuvers that shaped the Bobcats roster the day after the NBA Draft, would Ben Gordon, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeff Taylor be your additions?  Not many if any would have said “Yes, please!” Incredibly, the second overall pick wasn’t traded, not to any of the 5 teams with standing offers, not to Cleveland for the 4th and 24th or whatever was being offered.  The Bobcats stood pat on both of their picks.  At press time, Adam Silver is still calling names and it remains to be seen if they trade back in for another second rounder, but it’s unlikely.

I’m not as disappointed as many of the regulars to our draft chat.  I don’t think that Rich Cho took the night off or that Michael Jordan had much of anything except to approve what his front office team had come up with.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist isn’t the overall second best player but he might be just what the Bobcats need.  All Chad Ford said in his analysis was “Hardest Worker in the draft.”  He takes pride in his defense and scores enough to seem like he’s got some offensive game.  But no one will accuse the Bobcats of stealing the draft.  This isn’t like a Kevin Durant to Greg Oden’s Anthony Davis, but the Bobcats got a “character,” “motor,” guy to play at small forward, which may be exactly what they wanted all along.

You sure it's me and not Higgins? You know, we're both named Corey, mine with an "E"

Oh Corey, sweet, sorry, injured Corey.  We barely got to know you as a Bobcat, and now, you are gone.  Stephen Jackson and Shaun Livingston to swap picks and bring in Maggette, last year on draft day, worked.  It was worth it to get Bismack Biyombo, or was it Kemba?  This time around, Corey Maggette for Ben Gordon and a protected first round pick, might just be crazy enough to work.

My question is, did Cory Higgins demand the trade because he has to be the only person named Cory or Corey on the team?  How would that conversation go?  ”Dad!  I’m tired of the coach saying “Corey, get in the game!” and then he looks at me and Maggette getting up and tells me to sit down!”

No, that probably wasn’t it.  I wondered aloud if this was a trade for trading’s sake, sort of to kick-start the week of the draft.  That was immediately met with “Nah, Rich Cho just loves him some draft picks.”  Very true.  Rich Cho is all about acquiring assets.  As “assets” go, conditional first round picks seem pretty easy to come by, if you have a guy that is that puzzle piece that a team thinks they need.

It’s interesting to me that Maggette was traded the same week as Kevin Youklis of the Boston Red Sox.  If you have read or seen “Moneyball,” you know that Youklis is the “Greek God of walks.”  Similarly, Corey Maggette is the “Greek Sub-God (if that’s a thing) of going to the free throw line).”  When he came in, a quick glance at his numbers would tell any Bobcats fan that he gets to the line a lot for a guy who doesn’t average as many points as a superstar or has the cache to draw fouls like a superstar.  His attempts jump off the page at you as probably the one thing he did really well.

I trust any coach with a crew cut.

Who the hell is Mike Dunlap?  Well, he’s the new coach of your Charlotte Bobcats, ladies and gentlemen!

No, for real.  Who the hell is Mike Dunlap?  The Bobcats have hired one of the lesser known candidates that they interviewed.  He wasn’t on the “narrowed down to” list that Rick Bonnell reported last week and that I, apparently needlessly, broke down in a post.  No one got excited about him when it was mentioned he was a candidate.  I was more excited about the possibilities of Dave Joerger or Nate Tibbets and I know they garnered a bit more attention than Mike Dunlap.  Dunlap was an assistant on a college team, not an NBA team, the St. John’s Red Storm.  He did step in for Steve Lavin while he dealt with prostate cancer last season, so he was an associate or interim head coach, more than assistant, that’s what I’m selling anyway.

Not Jerry Sloan, who withdrew his name over the weekend.  Not Brian Shaw, who Tom Sorrenson was pushing in the Observer (and our own Blogcat has learned to love to hate).  Not Quin Snyder, who we were all told was on the short list.  Not Patrick Ewing, who “friend” Michael Jordan supposedly let down easy a couple weeks ago.  Nate McMillan didn’t impress in his interview, who everyone had as an early leader before the interviews even began.

Jerry Sloan, Brian Shaw and Quin Snyder.  So, you can almost start the name plate on his office door, it will be an “S.”  Yeah, I figured out that much so far about what this means.

ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard reported it first and then Ricky B! corroborated it with a league source.  Look to them for the facts, I’ll tell you what it means.  Out of 11 known candidates to interview, we’re down to 3, I doubt there will be any surprises outside those three and legitimately Rich Cho and Rod Higgins have talked to enough people already.

These are some serious candidates.  In Sloan, you are looking at a 23 season veteran coach that weathered sea changes in a single franchise to lead his teams to 19 straight seasons of playoff apearances and 2 Finals appearances, only to lose to Michael Jordan in his prime.  Shaw is the young (for a coach) cerebral (recent) former player, who has been one of the most sought after assistants to head coaching candidates over the past few seasons.  Quin Snyder was successful as a college coach who started over as an NBA assistant.