As always, Ray is a class act. He could have scorched the earth Dan-Gilbert-Style, but he took the high road and praised his time with the Bobcats. We all wish him well in the Big apple playing for Mike Dantoni… It should be interesting.

To yesterdayeeeeee…….(cooleyhighharmony, y’all).

Raymond Felton, Ray-MOND Felton!  We will miss you, sir.

Nothing official at press time but it’s likely that the man from Latta, SC is likely bound elsewhere.  To me this is sad in a way.  Disappointing that after 5 years the Bobcats are so willing to depart with a solid point guard while we have no real options outside of DJ Augustin who has been serviceable but not quite what you’d expect to start on a (former?) playoff team.

Can you blame Raymond at this point for not signing to an extension last summer?  Read this quote from Cory Elfrink at Rototimes.com:

The timing couldn’t be better for Raymond Felton. Although he’s had a mediocre five seasons, he finds himself atop a very weak point guard class and has a long list of suitors. A year ago, he would have had to compete with Jason Kidd, Andre Miller, Allen Iverson, Mike Bibby, and Jarrett Jack for consideration. This year it’s Kyle Lowry, Luke Ridnour, Jordan Farmar, and Steve Blake.

Mediocre, yeah ok I can accept that classification.  Ray has been nothing but a rock solid PG and player.  Great work off the court as well.  His work with the Second Harvest Food Bank has been fantastic.  When I was doing a bit of research for this post I came across his intention to play in a celebrity golf tournament down in Myrtle Beach.  The guy got an award at the Black Tie Gala, which yours truly attended of course.  I got to meet the man that night and I’m glad I did.

Mediocre?  Did I say that’s an ok classification for Ray?  Wrong….Among active players he’s tenth in assists per game (not among PG, ALL active players); and with 1.4 steals per game, among active leaders.  He rebounds, plays the entire floor, plays hurt, defensively pretty much as much as you could ask for.  Larry Brown loves him, Gerald Wallace loves him, I love him.  So?  He didn’t like the $6 mil/year he was offered last year?  That hurt Rod Higgins, Michael Jordan and whoever else that makes decisions feelings?  Is that what I’m hearing?

Here’s a little insight from Raymond’s agent, Tony Dutt:  ”We are moving forward with the understanding Charlotte does not want to spend any more money, Raymond has enjoyed playing in Charlotte.”  Tony has been gracious enough to email me back a few times today.  I really appreciate it, not really having credentials or whatever but he just answered my questions.  I understand their position.  But I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the team’s side of things but I just can’t get there.

I guess, it’s as Spectre said: Yes we need him (TJ Ford ain’t no upgrade), but we don’t have the space to re-sign him.  I figure we’ll let him walk due to financial considerations.  Didn’t Shinn get blasted repeatedly for letting FAs go because of money?

While I don’t think it’s along the lines of letting Alonzo Mourning walk, it’s a big deal. The team is at $59 and half million, that’s no Ray, I don’t even see D. Brown hitting under that number for some reason. The cap is projected at $56.1 million.  While the luxury tax threshold is around $65 million, the Bobcats have no desire to get near it.  I’m no CBA expert but I know you pay twice for every dollar over the number, it’s just not gonna happen.

So, we move on, Raymond moves on.  Sorry to see this guy leave the team and the city.

You want to feel even worse?  Lots of interest for Tyrus Thomas!  I just saw this from Hoopsworld’s Yannis Koutroupis:

“Thomas is someone the Knicks have had their eye on for months. He’s currently a restricted free agent for the Charlotte Bobcats, but his value is quickly rising above the $6.2 million qualifying offer made by the ‘Cats. For instance, the one-dimensional Channing Frye is sitting on a 5-year $25 million offer from the Suns in hopes of getting more from another team. If Frye, Gooden, and Darko are worth nearly the full MLE than the Knicks could definitely justify giving Thomas $7-8 million a year to pry him away from the Bobcats.”

This feed is killing me:  Hoopsworld…  Since I started writing this Alex Kennedy posted that Minnesota is highly interested as well as New York and not only that but they’re now reporting that Channing Frye is being offered $30 million from the Suns!  $30 million for a guy who can’t do a whole lot more than shoot.  Meanwhile, we have DeSagana Diop on the books for the next 3 seasons at about $7 million each!  Ahhhhhhh!

Sorry I’m done, can’t get over it and don’t want to make it any worse.

First things first this Gerald Wallace windmill dunk was a thing of beauty, check out the video below and enjoy it for yourself. I’ll wait…

See, now that was worth it, wasn’t it?

On to the game. Because of the Knicks’ up-tempo style it was a fun game to watch. Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton combined for 11 steals. With the exception of some early hot perimeter shooting from Chris Duhon, those three tortured New York’s backcourt for the majority of the game. With all of the positives, the Bobcats still managed to find their selves in a 6 point hole with 4 minutes to play. In the past this would be the point where the Cats folded it up and called it a night. This incarnation of the Bobcats handled it like playoff contenders, finishing the game on a 15-2 run and sending the Knicks home with an end to their 4 game win streak. In the Charlotte Observer, Stephen Jackson said that last night’s win reminded him of his time with the Spurs

In San Antonio, we won an awful lot of games like this,” said Jackson (24 points, three steals, four rebounds and four assists). “We feel we’re better than them – that we’re a playoff team and we’ll get to the playoffs

Let’s keep it going tonight against the Pacers!

The Charlotte Bobcats open things up tonight, what’s that? News just in to BCP, the Bobcats already played one game. Who knew? 58 points sounds like a women’s college score. Let’s just breathe though because this team is capable, what’s that? News just in to BCP, Raja Bell and Flip Murray are still out. This is getting scary.

The Knicks don’t present a tremendously daunting task. They have barely made an off-season move. I think athleticism wins out on the front line, with Tyson Chandler matching up with David Lee. The point guard battle is somewhat interesting with New York coming in with Chris Duhon and Nate Robinson, however I think the tandem of Raymond Felton and DJ Augustin is a little deeper and a little bit more balanced. I’m reading that Danilo Gallinari will be starting tonight after a strong showing in the Knicks 115-93 loss to Miami on opening night. Gallinari put up 22 points against a Miami team not known for defense but I’m sure it still makes Mike D’Antoni happy to see his project and first Knick Pick do well.

Listen, I am not going to break down the starting line up anymore than I have. I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight. All I know is there is NBA ball to be seen in my hometown and I’ll be there with 18-19000 of my friends and we should get it rocking in the Time Warner Cable arena. You won’t seen the old pics of Jason Richardson, Adam Morrison or Primoz Brezec on the outside of the building. I’m sure the timeline with Mek, Fatty McMay and some of the others will still be there. This is a new year, a new lineup and a 2nd year under Hall of Fame Coach Larry Brown. Larry has molded this team into a more workable talent base for himself. Injuries are going to hamper things for a while. I just don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m psyched to watch it unfold,what ever may come. BRING IT!

If the NBA draft lottery is fixed, what would be the results that would make David Stern the happiest? For this exercise we’ll focus on the teams 1 through 3.

Here we go.

1.  Oklahoma City Thunder – With the #1 pick this will allow the Thunder to draft (from their own backyard) Blake Griffin. Pairing Blake Griffin along with Kevin Durant solidifies their frontcourt (and their new fanbase) for the foreseeable future.

2.  New York Knicks – This will be the team that beats the long odds and moves way up the draft board… and this is why. With the #2 pick in the draft the New York Knicks select Ricky Rubio.

There have been rumors that Steve Nash would like to find his way to New York so that he could be reunited with Mike D’Antoni, but why get the old Steve Nash when you can have the next Steve Nash? Letting Rubio run the show next season in Mike D’Antoni’s offense would be a treat for the basketball senses and if he does a decent job then it would also give the Knicks a little added leverage at the end of next season during the “Summer of Lebron”.

3. Washington Wizards – The Wizards had an awful season, a slew of injuries (again) and approximately a zillion dollars tied up in Agent Zero who hasn’t exactly been the picture of health over the last two seasons. So lets just say that David Stern decides to throw them a bone. With the third pick in the draft, the Wizards select Hasheem Thabeet. The Wizards need inside help, they are in Big East country and with Arenas, Butler and Jamison they aren’t in desperate need of wings.

So that it, David Stern’s dream scenario. What could he like better than that?

The Charlotte Bobcats defeated the New York Knicks Saturday night behind an ATD (almost triple-double) by Gerald Wallace (23 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists ). On a side note the Bobcats have to hold some sort of record for “almost triple doubles”. Gerald has been close several times this season, Raymond Felton had a few ATDs a couple of weeks back, Boris Diaw has been close multiple times since he was traded to the Bobcats this season. Its hard to believe that in this franchise’s history we have never had one. The closest that we have probably ever been to one was 2 years ago against the Knicks in Madison Sqaure Garden when Emeka had a 10 block shot night, double figure scoring, but only 9 rebounds. It doesn’t get any closer than that one.

Emeka Okafor had a solid night finishing up with 13 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Boris Diaw was his usual Boris, he finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists but 4 turnovers. Raymond Felton struggled tremendously. He missed shot after shot after shot after… wel, you get the point. He finished with 6 points on 3-17 shooting, 6 assists and 6 turnovers, It was rough game for Ray. Fortunately for us DJ Augustin was able to pick up the slack with 19 points and 4 assists on 8-9 shootng in just 25 minutes of game action. If we could somehow implant DJ’s shot into Ray, we would have one hell of a point guard. Someone get the geneticists cracking on that.