The Exit Roll: Charlotte Bobcats

I apologize for those people that are looking to read my witty exposition and my failure to write for you.  Anyways, so here is my next piece, or set of pieces.  I'm looking at the teams that got ousted from the first round of the playoffs and how I think they can change it.  Let's go:

The Charlotte Bobcats.  Well, they did a lot better than people thought they would.  I personally think that they got bad luck drawing the Magic for the first round.  I really think that they had a shot if they drew Boston, but instead, they had to face Dwight Howard and a rather embarrassing first round sweep as their franchise playoff debut.  So going into this post season, how can they get better?  Well, let's start at the logical place, what do they have now?

Head Coach: Larry Brown
PG: Raymond Felton, D.J. Augustin
SG: Stephen Jackson, Larry Hughes
SF: Gerald Wallace, Stephen Graham
PF: Boris Diaw, Tyrus Thomas
C: Theo Ratliff, Tyson Chandler
Reserves: Nazr Mohammed, DeSagana Diop, Gerald Henderson, Alexis Ajinca

My first reaction to this roster is simply that, I like it.  It's a good lineup full of good players.  However, a slew of "good" players don't make up for the glaring lack of excellent players.  Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson are known for their above-average defense, and if Gerald Wallace weren't so injury prone then I would call him one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and Stephen Jackson, well, he's showing his age.  Boris Diaw, well, he's not consistent, but when he's on, he's a good defender and Tyson Chandler is one of the premier post defenders in the league, but Chandler is also known to be an injury liability.  While I think Jackson and Wallace are decent offensively, the Bobcats don't really have a go-to offensive option.  Most notably they don't have a presence in the post, while Jackson is decent, he's not great and not someone I'd consider go-to down low.  Then, neither are Diaw, Tyrus Thomas, Theo Ratliff, nor Tyson Chandler.  Nazr Mohammed is decent, but I understand the reservation Larry Brown has for giving Mohammed extended minutes, we saw how that worked out in every team Mohammed's been on except San Antonio, and of course, that might have something to do with a little someone named Tim Duncan.

I like the core of Jackson, Wallace, and Chandler, and Gerald Henderson looks to be a good prospect, but they need someone, someone that can put points on the board, and given their age and injury track record, they have to win NOW.  I don't think they can get rid of Diaw, and Larry Hughes is an expiring contract, but to be honest, I can't say they have very attractive tradeable assets.  You figure that with 5 different centers they'd figure out something of a big man rotation, but given who it is, DeSagana Diop, Alexis Ajinca, Nazr Mohammed, and Theo Ratliff, they're not really tradeable.  The obvious upgrades, at least positionally, are PG or PF.  Raymond Felton and Boris Diaw, serviceable, but only if you have some offensive options next to them.  Given Stephen Jackson's underrated passing ability, maybe a score-first point guard (Gilbert Arenas?) or something...  Otherwise, a solid post scorer at PF (Carlos Boozer?).  I don't know that free agency is really an option to be frank, I don't know that they have the cap-space, so it's gotta be a trade, but they have all these bloated contracts: Diaw, Diop, Mohammed, etc...  We'll see how it works.  Hopefully Michael Jordan doesn't call too many of the shots.