Phil Jackson, you will need all of your quote-unquote zen like abilities to turn Adam Morrison into an NBA caliber player.

A couple of issues right off the bat.

• In the video below Phil mentions that Adam is a good spot up shooter. Good spot up shooters don’t miss 64% of their shots. 
• Adam has confidence issues. Can a player who hangs his head after every missed shot ( and there are plenty of them ) survive with his sanity intact around someone as maniacally demanding as Kobe? Doubtful.
• From a defensive standpoint, There was a gigantic glowing bullseye on Adam every time that he stepped on the court. It was obvious that he couldn’t stop anybody and everyone on the other team knew it

While I think unloading Morrison was long-overdue, I think it might’ve been nice to deal an expiring for an expiring to give us more offseason flexibility. I will say this, while Radmanovic isn’t a superstar, he can actually contribute and knock some shots down, which – sadly – Ammo was no longer good at. I think in light of the injuries to Bell and Crash and the uncertainty of Felton’s situation, it’s interesting to see how we’re trying to keep the season afloat by cobbling together a team on the fly…I think we can all admit that Cartier Martin has been a pleasant surprise so far, so we’ll see what we can get with Vlady

 Big Slam

Kobe is going to eat Ammo alive.
If Ammo had a confidence problem before, he’s sure as shit in trouble playing with a perfectionist who has no problem in chewing his team mates out openly on court during play while the network cameras are on him.
I wish him well though. I was a big fan of his at Gonzaga and I hope he can find himself in LA.
I’m just glad we can start to put that blown draft pick behind us and start to move forward.

Matt Carroll and Ryan Hollins are on their way to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for center Desagana Diop.

The general reaction in our forums is relief that we didn’t have to give up Raymond Felton in order to add Diop to the roster. With Felton not involved, this is a trade that is much easier to live with.

Both Matt and Ryan were quality guys that were great with the fans and the community and they will be missed, but neither one was making much of an impact on the court this season.

What we hope to see from Diop is a player that can give us strong rebounding and defense as a dependable backup to Emeka Okafor at center. If he can give us that then this deal is a win for the Bobcats.

So what do you guys think? Was this a good deal or a bad deal for the Bobcats?

If you’ve got to trade someone, you traded the right guy….I guess

I can’t say I fully agree with the recent trade between the Suns and the Bobcats. As a Bobcats fan, I feel like we kind of got screwed with one caveat: We really weren’t lighting the world on fire with J-Rich and Dudley. The 3 players received in return, Diaw, Bell and Singletary add up to more than Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley and a 2nd round pick in 2010. It just sucks when everyone who knows anything about the NBA nationally says “Suns stole Richardson from hapless Bobcats.” Hollinger over at the worldwide leader broke it down pretty well. Biggest point I got from it was that the money worked without Dudley. Why throw him in? It’s tough to say how this went down, we get very little information and quotes out of the Charlotte front office. Bobcatsplanet member/trade and contract guru Tamburello compiled a nice list of comments from involved parties. You know, we can analyze this trade until we’re blue in the face but we can’t change it. “Would you do it again?” Who cares? We can’t, wouldn’t be proposed again, and couldn’t send players back to either team for 30 days right?

If there are two things I can completely confirm is that Jason Richardson is a great guy, great player and if I had to pick to trade away him or another one of the “core” of this team, I’d pick him over and again. All the rumors out there involved Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton and hopefully one of the trio of disaster: Carroll, Mohamed or May. Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley were never mentioned as far as I can recall. But you know what? I’m pretty glad it wasn’t Gerald Wallace or Raymond Felton. Jason Richardson is sort of a dime-a-dozen-type player. Not really dime-a-dozen but maybe nickel for half a dozen? I don’t know. He’s awesome but you can replace his output with either a few others stepping up or another player just stepping in. I’m not belittling the guy because he’s gone; Phoenix has a legit 2nd level 2 guard. He’s not quite a dominating force, he’s no slouch either. He’s the Glen Rice of this generation. Great talents, scores lots of points, will have a long career but will only be an All-Star once or twice, if he’s lucky, in his career.

The two guys I mentioned that I’m glad were not traded, Wallace and Felton are in fact, special. In my estimation Wallace fills up a stat line like few in the league do, not just because he’s on a “bad” team as I’ve seen my diabolical nemesis say but because he’s a hustle guy whose athleticism and determination drive him to. Last year there were 3 guys in the league who averaged as many points steals assists and rebounds and that was Lebron James, Dwight Howard and Gerald Wallace. He’s a special Small Forward and he means a lot to this team, the fans and the community as evidenced by the recent outpouring of sympathy and well wishes from this board in particular.

Raymond Felton’s role is a bit more nebulous. 3 coaches in his 4th year in the league. He’s a SG, PG. He’s worse than Jeff McInnis, he’s better than Chris Paul. Ok, he’s not better than Chris Paul but he is a very serviceable point guard and shooting guard. Right now he is 16th in the league in assists per game and that’s with his ever shifting role.

While I felt like we should not trade any of the “core” (Wallace, Okafor, Felton, Richardson) of those 4, Richardson is the most expendable. If the parts we got in return are worth his loss….that remains to be seen….and I haven’t even mentioned Jared Dudley!

Wow…

Its not every day that you trade away your teams top scorer along with one of your “glue” guys.  At first glance this deal leaves a bad taste in your mouth if you’re a Bobcats fan, J-Rich and Dudley were both good guys and fan favorites. Lets look at this deal a little closer though, A fes things that this team desperately needed was  toughness, defense and someone who could guard quick, agile power forwards.

Lets look at the toughness and defense issue first. Raja Bell has long been known as a lockdown defender. J-Rich can give you 20ppg in his sleep and his 3 point shot was as beautiful as Beyonce in a thong bikini but  when its time to lock somebody down, Raja has him beat by a mile defensively. And as far as toughness, anyone who is willing to clothesline Kobe Bryant… in a playoff game no less definitely has a set of these.

As far as someone to guard the athletic power forwards, Boris Diaw is the guy. He has the reputation of being able to guard anyone regardless of position, and he is going to get the chance to prove it here with the Bobcats.

Its early and we’re still digesting this deal. What are yout thoughts? was it a good move or a bad move? 

Just more evidence that Charlotte Bobcats fan’s have the most brainpower 

BobcatsPlanet member AmpSportsDuo:  

As we’re discussing Gerald Wallace, the uncertainty is amply applicable. With Crash being oft-mentioned in trade rumors, he has admittedly become affected, not in the Spinoza’s Ethics III way, but in the psychological sense (pre or post-cognitive still up for debate). His poor performance (the affect display) against Toronto (the first game) can be explained by his introduction to the stimulus of trade discussions. Because the effect was significant, we can determine that the true cause was the Observer Effect, which often gets conflated with the Uncertainty Principle.

The negative response should be seen as a positive for Bobcat fans, because the introduction of the stimulus garnered a negative affect display, meaning he has positive feelings about playing for this team.

Erwin Schrodinger, renowned for his love of the Cats, worked to provide further clarification on the Uncertainty Principle, but turning to another uncertainty provides some clarity on this issue. If Gerald Wallace is placed on… err, in the trade block and people continue to take all of these rumors seriously, every night he’s both traded and not traded until the moment someone sees him on the court in the Bobcats uniform.

For the record, the Nobel Prize winner Schrodinger was a big Raymond Felton fan.

Quantum mechanics, philosophy, and psychology. Allow me to raise my right arm to maximum amplitude and let my phalanges dangle as I saunter away.

To understand how we worked our way to this bizarre tangent, you’ll need to check out this thread on our forum. 

Enjoy!

 Let’s all get a grip. No one is going to be giving us the next KG for Gerald or Matt. A trade for a big is something that needs to be done but that doesn’t mean we should take anything for some very valuable assets that we have. Eddy Curry is a guy who has infuriated the Knicks front office by reporting to camp well over 300 pounds after he was told to make sure he got in shape over the summer if he wanted to play in D’Antoni’s system. He has had health and weight problems his entire career and does anyone really think that he can be transformed into a Larry Brown type of player? We already have one Sean May- we don’t need two!

 As for the Sean Williams rumor, I like the trade  because it frees up cap space in a big way. Not that we are getting close to the cap but it’s nice to have even more flexibility if you can. Matt is owed around $5 mil a year until 2013! That’s a lot of loot to be spending on a guy who went undrafted out of college and is basically just a glorified shooter.

 Trenton Hassell is owed $4.35 mil this year and next year and Sean Williams is on his rookie contract and if it doesn’t work out with him he could be off the books after next year as well. He fills our need for an athletic big and if nothing else he will provide us with some exciting dunks and blocks. I definitly don’t think he is a long term solution because the guy’s head is screwy and his game is so raw and unpolished. You never know though, it’s a low risk- high reward move and if I’m MJ, I’m doing it.