January 25th, that’s the deadline. Between now and then we have to make a big decision. Do we extend the contracts of DJ Augistine and DJ White?

DJ Augustin

DJ Augustin was our 9th pick just a few years ago and was supposed to be our point guard of the future, even though we had drafted Raymond Felton three years earlier (who was also our “future point guard”). We decided not to extend Raymond though and gave him a one year deal. Now its 3 years after we drafted DJ, and we have drafted another point guard in Kemba Walker.(but seriously, this time he is our future star…I think…3rd time lucky?) Last time we never extended Ray, perhaps because of the strong rookie season DJ had. Dejavu anyone? However, no two situations are ever exactly the same.

DJ is having an up and down year, but I think overall we would agree that he is having his best year yet as a pro. The myth that DJ was a just a scoring point guard has been answered in my opinion, even when DJ is having off shooting nights he is delivering assists. He seems to run the team a lot better this year. But remember, in accordance to the Bobcats slogan“prepare today, OWN TOMORROW” we have to think long term. I am not going to get into a debate about Kemba being the future of the team, that is not what this article is about. But, to get down to the point I think we should offer DJ an extension, at a reasonable price. The “Mike Conley” affect as I call it has inflated the price of point guards in the league. I think something around 19 million over 3 years would probably be a justifiable amount to pay him. There are rumors that he has asked for 23.5 over 3 years, thats not a stupid amount of money, maybe a bit over his worth, but kudos to him for trying. But lets look at this thing in the bigger picture.

So we all saw that horrible game against Miami, and if you didn’t count yourselves lucky. If you speak to any fan they will say that game was just awful. However, I beg to differ, now I understand if your sitting there thinking what? We equalled our worst ever loss (39 points). But I approach this game like most of the season; I am not that bothered about the basketball we play right now, it means nothing. Silas will have moved on I reckon after this year, and I imagine we will go with a new young coach a la Miami with Spolstra to start a new era. Perhaps Stephan Silas? Matt Rochinksi told me, that Reggie Williams told him (we were obviously playing Chinese Whispers at the time) that Everyone in Golden State was devastated when Stephan Silas left and that all the players really miss him to this day. Apparently they had never liked a coach as much as him. Sorry, I got sidetracked. Back to why I think the game against Miami was successful. Kemba Walker had a good game and set a career high of 17 points, as did Biyombo with by far his best game so far. However, I don’t want to talk about either of these guys for once, did I mention they are the future of this team? Oh ok… well they are. I want to talk about the Bearded One (DJ White) and his role on this team.

So DJ White set his career high in points and went 10-12 from the field against a pretty impressive Miami team and hit his first ever 3. This game has got the debate about our “starting power forward” into full swing. Now I do acknowledge that DJ White was absolutely balling and deserves every minute he gets. The naked mole rat aka Rick Bonnell has written on it, Silas has spoken to the media about it and the forum has been discussing it. Most are saying the same thing, DJ White will start and Tyrus Thomas will come off the bench and is going to have to really step up his game. He has to stop being so inconsistent and win that starting spot back. With the way DJ White has been playing, and I fully understand that point of view.

However I believe this is WRONG.

Two games into the season, we can’t really make too many assumptions about how well we will do. However, what I can tell you is we are fun to watch. Like many in the forum have said this week, these last two games have been 10x more exciting than last years team, especially under the dark days of the Larry Brown era. However, a question that I have thought about since day one of drafting Kemba was finally answered this week. “Who will be on the floor when the game is on the line in the 4^th quarter, DJ or Kemba”?

Since we drafted Kemba, there have been people calling for him to start, and to trade DJ for a 1^st round pick in this year’s draft. Those same people are also going to be very frustrated Kemba didn’t play at the end of the Miami game, as we all know he is a winner. So here is the big debate that I knew would happen at some point, I just didn’t realize it would be so early on in the season. The way I see it, DJ is still the Veteran on this team and Kemba is a rookie, so maybe it’s as simple as that. DJ is the safe option, granted Kemba will make mistakes, but he will learn from them as well. I know many of you are thinking what have we got to lose if Kemba does lose the game due to his inexperience, were not going to make the play offs anyway and potentially losing could help us to get a better pick in this years draft which many people are saying is the key for our long term success.

On Thursday night we all got what we had been waiting for since the draft, there was a massive amount of anticipation to see Bismack Biyombo in a Bobcats jersey. Perhaps one of the most joyous days for Bobcat’s fans this summer came after the contract issues with Fuenlabrada were resolved. The news that Biyombo was going to play this season was exciting. As many of you know, Kemba and Biz are the future of this franchise; we gave a lot up to get that 7^th pick.

After watching the game I understand that some of you may be disappointed with Biz. However, I hope you Bobcats fans realize that Bismack is not going to come right in and contribute as many 7^th lottery picks would. Most importantly I hope you understand that he was never going to. Bismack is just 19 years old, he was drafted on potential. He has unrivaled physical tools, that’s what he was drafted for, not his tekker’s (English slang term for skill, I’m bringing it to the US). For those of you who watched the game, or those who just looked at the box score I’m sure you will have been slightly disappointed by Bismack. You just have to understand that he is very very raw and it will take time for him to adjust to the NBA. He has been playing in Spain where he has got by on his athleticism. You look at any player coming from overseas it takes time to adjust. However, did you see his two blocks he had? Bismack absolutely erased two shots.  This, my friends is a glimpse of what Bismack is capable of. I expect for him to get in all sorts of foul trouble and to turn the ball over a lot on offense. However, he will learn how to keep himself out of foul and TO trouble. You cannot teach outrageous blocks and athleticism. I am just saying lets be patient on this guy. We cannot judge him on his performances this year; we have to wait for him to develop. I think what we should look out for is how much and how quickly he will develop.

So we are back training, the coverage from Matt Rochinski on training camp has been pretty good so far. He has managed to get a lot of interviews with players and even one with MJ. However one thing that really frustrates me as a fan is I feel I have seen the same thing over and over. The same vague answers, I have heard them all before. “What did you work on this summer” answer = “errrr everything” or “how is everyone doing at training camp” = “everyone is playing really hard”. These generic answers annoy me, as it’s a chance to see what they have to say and they get away with basically saying nothing. Did you guys see the MJ video? Ask yourself what you learned from watching that, I learned nothing which frustrated me. I am sure he has a reason for giving these “politically correct” answers but sometimes fans just want to here the truth, I would have more respect saying it how it is.

Anyway rant over, it’s been a busy week in the Bobcats front office, I’m going to run through a few of the moves we have made (or haven’t) and give my opinion:

See you later Kwame, and thanks for Stopping by.

Kwame Brown signed in Golden State for one year at 7 million. First of all I want to congratulate Cho, as I think if MJ and Rod were still at the helm we would probably have chased Kwame and paid him. I see this as a success; we are being clever here by not overpaying (because 7 million is way too much). Instead we have signed Melvin Ely, an offensive minded big which should be a bonus as post scoring has always been a rarity in Charlotte. I am not saying this guy will be just as good as Kwame by any means, but he is a big body who hopefully Silas will rejuvenate in the same way he did with Kwame last year.