One way for Charlotte to build a team will be through an expansion draft. "There will be an expansion draft. Each NBA team gets to protect 8 of their current players, and then Charlotte will then select a player from the list of un-protected players." -Shapecity- So looking at the current rosters of teams in the NBA who would you protect and then if you were the Cats who would you take? For Example. The 8 protected players for the Mavs might be Antawn Jamison Dirk Nowitzki Jiri Welsch Steve Nash Michael Finley Raef LaFrentz Eduardo Najera Travis Best Which would leave: Tariq Abdul-Wahad Raja Bell Shawn Bradley Marquis Daniels Danny Fortson Josh Howard Chris Mills Jon Stefansson Walt Williams If I were the 'cats I'd take Raja Bell. So here are the rules. Name your team, name your 8 protected players, and then who you would take from that team were you the Bobcats' GM. Try not to pick a team that was already used.
For now I'm just looking at who people think are the best players on each team thatwon't be protected so we can start to get a sense of who the 'Cats might have come this time next year. However you do bring up a good point shapecity. It is important to look at how much a player is worth before signing them when you are hampered by a lower cap than the rest of the league. No matter what anybody says, one star does not make a team. Also I'm leaving it to your discretion as to who will be on the protected lists. Please remember that this is meant to be an intelligent forum and as such I do not expect to have people leave the Tim Duncans, T-Macs and K.G.s of the league un-protected in this thread. Thanks
I want to keep this realistic as well. Raja Bell will not be a Maverick next season, and it looks like Walt Williams won't be re-signed either. Also Chris Mills, Marquis Daniels, and Travis Best will be Free Agents, which would make them ineligible as well for the expansion draft.
Well it is a little difficult to guess who is going to be on any given team this time next year. As you've shown, you can name with a fair amount of certainty the players who will not be on the team but there is no way of knowing who they'll be replaced with. I just figured that the easiest way to go would be to use the present roster. You're right about Bell (...and the others. Thank you for your rigor?) so I'll take Best off the protected list replace him with Howard and send Forston off to NC. Who are your pics?
I would select Shawn Bradley. He's a quality individual and his salary isn't, too bad at $4M per season. The lack of big men in the NBA makes his height attractive for a new team. Despite his disappointing career, Bradley has his moments and is a recognizable face for fans. Bradley still demands trade value and if he didn't work out, I would ship him off for a draft pick or an expiring contract.
Ok, I want to make it clear that we're not just talking about my pics or the Mavs. You can pic any team you want, choose 8 players for your protected list and then take one of the remaining players to Charlotte.
Next Team Cleveland Cavaliers: Protected Players: LeBron James Ricky Davis Darius Miles Zydrunas Ilgauskas Dajuan Wagner Carlos Boozer Jason Kapono DeSagna Diop Unprotected Players: Michael Stewart Chris Mihm Kevin Ollie Ira Newble Bimbo Coles J.R. Bremer Bruno Sundov Following along with size, with the first pick, I would select Chris Mihm. He's a solid defender to play alongside Shawn Bradley at 7 feet. A big plus is his expiring contract after year 1.
Minnesota Timberwolves Sam Cassell Ndudi Ebi Kevin Garnett Troy Hudson Michael Olowokandi Latrell Sprewell Wally Szczerbiak Gary Trent (FA) (if he resings) Fred Hoiberg Ervin Johnson Felipe Lopez (FA) Mark Madsen Kirk Penney Rod Strickland (FA) Bobcats would take Felipe Lopez, if he doesnt sign a monstourous contract... he has show flashes of talent, solid defender and has experience. He seems like a player would end up on an expansion team.
Orlando Magic Tmac Drew Gooden Juwan Howard Gordan Giricek Reece Gaines Steven Hunter Grant Hill(because he will likely opt out of his contract if he isn't healthy, and that would give the magic plenty of salary cap to get a max fa the following year) Zaza Pachilia(like everyone is saying you need a big man) Pat Garrity(his only problem is a 5 year 15 mil contract) Andrew Declerq Jeryl Sasser Keith Bogans Britton Johnsen Rick Apodeca Tyronn Lue Well everyone is choosing big men, so the bobcats might as well draft a pg. tyronn lue is a good solid pg who has good defensive skills, so i think the bobcats would take tyronn lue. btw great topic.
Toronto Raptors Guarded players: Vince Carter Chris Bosh Antonio Davis Alvin Williams Michael Bradley Morris Peterson Jerome Williams Lamond Murray Expansion Draft fodder: Milt Palacio George Williams Ken Johnson Chris Jefferies Jerome Moiso Michael Curry Rick Brunson Mengke Bateer The Cats take Jefferies. I'm fairly new here. How do we get more people to participate??
To get more people to participate, Private Messaging them would be a good idea. You said not to talk about players like Kevin Garnett, but Kevin Garnett will be a Free Agent and the Bobcats have a chance to sign him because they will be one of only five or six teams with enough cap room to do so. Grizzlies: Protected - 1)Pau Gasol 2)Jason Williams 3)Mike Miller 4)Shane Battier 5)Lorenzen Wright 6)Stromile Swift 7)Troy Bell 8)Dahntay Jones Unprotected (Least desirable to most desirable) - 1)Michael Dickerson 2)Czezary Trybanski 3)Theron Smith 4)Brevin Knight 5)Ryan Humphrey 6)James Posey 7)Earl Watson Free Agents - 1)Wesley Person 2)Robert Archibald 3)Chris Owens I think that the Grizzlies will leave Posey unprotected because he is a generic Shooting Guard who will recieve a hefty contract starting in 2004. The Bobcats will likely not want to hassle with that. The only current Grizzlies who I think have chances of becoming Bobcats are Wesley Person and Earl Watson. Person will provide veteran leadership and a three point weapon while not asking for much money. Earl Watson is the NBA's best kept secret. This season he will be in the rotation over both Brevin Knight and Troy Bell. He is the Grizzlie's heart and soul as well as last second key option. He also has a very small contract. If the Expansion Draft is held after the real draft then I think the Grizzlies will protect their 2004 Pick and let Jones go. It is unseen how Jones' rookie season will go so it is also unseen whether or not the Bobcats would draft him Hawks: Protected - 1)Shareef Abdur-Rahim 2)Theo Ratliff 3)Nazr Mohammed 4)Boris Diaw-Riffiod 5)Dan Dickau 6)Chris Crawford 7)Travis Hansen 8)Jason Terry/Stephen Jackson (Whomever is a Hawk) Unpotected - 1)Alan Henderson 2)Terrell Brandon Free Agents - 1)Randy Holcomb 2)David Anderson 3)Jacque Vaughn The only players that the Hawks have to offer are players with expiring contracts that the Hawks wouldn't mind losing sooner than expected but the Bobcats will likely not want to deal with.
Thank you for the suggestions Wave. I want to clear one thing up. When I said that I didn't want to see players like KG mentioned what I meant was that I didn't want to see people leaving a team's best player unprotected just to be cute. I started out at JBB reading the Raptors Forums where there's been some silliness and I wasn't looking for that here. I hope that clears-up my intention. Thanks for playing!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting How_High78:</div><div class="quote_post">Thank you for the suggestions Wave. I want to clear one thing up. When I said that I didn't want to see players like KG mentioned what I meant was that I didn't want to see people leaving a team's best player unprotected just to be cute. I started out at JBB reading the Raptors Forums where there's been some silliness and I wasn't looking for that here. I hope that clears-up my intention. Thanks for playing!</div>Ah, I see what you mean and indeed there is some silliness in the Raptors Forum. They have the entire country of Canada in there, the smart and the not so smart.
Yes it is a problem in Canada that we teach everyone to read and write. We then have to deal with opinions that aren?t always aligned with?conventional wisdom. However I assure you that the smart people of this country have better things to do leaving it to us "not so smart" citizens to voice our opinions with our southerly neighbors. Hope you don?t mind us coming to play. We?ll try not to track snow all over the place.
Expansion Draft sucks for teams like Spurs....with bench depth of Carter Hedo Mercer Rose Willis Horry will lose some of those guys So Spurs will keep Duncan Parker Manu Rasho Bowen Rose Hedo Horry or AC? DAMN bobcats
I did some research on the Heat and found out that they will only have five players who are not Free Agents that offseason, so unless they decide to let Jones go they won't have to really fear anything. Sonics: Protected - 1)Ray Allen 2)Rashard Lewis 3)Jerome James 4)Nick Collison 5)Luke Ridnour 6)Ronald Murray 7)Vladimir Radmanovic Unprotected - 1)Antonio Daniels 2)Vitaly Potapenko 3)Calvin Booth 4)The rights to Joseph Forte Free Agents - 1)Brent Barry 2)Ansu Sesay The Bobcats might want James, but I doubt it since he makes around sixteen million a year. Barry is actually an exciting Free Agent to obtain. I think he'd do good in Charlotte. He wouldn't ask for too much money either.
Kings Protected- Mike Bibby Bobby Jackson Chris Webber Peja St Brad Miller Doug Christie Vladie Divac Gerald Wallace Unprotected - Lawrence Funderburke Tony Massenburg Anthony Peeler Darius Songaila Brent Price (FA) Jim Jackson (FA) Mateen Cleaves (FA) If they resign Jim Jackson if i were the bobcats thats who I would take
So far in the Charlotte Bobcats? expansion draft we?ve selected: Shawn Bradley, Chris Mihm, Felipe Lopez, Tyronn Lue, Chris Jefferies, Earl Watson, Terrell Brandon (Possibly), Anthony Carter, Antonio Daniels with Brent Barry and Jim Jackson as possible FA pick-ups. Do we have any more suggestions or comments?
Protected: Rose Hinrich Curry Chandler Marshall Unprotected: Fizer(RFA) Crawford(RFA) Corie Blount (FA) Fred Hoiberg (FA) Rick Brunson (FA) Trenton Hassell (FA) Lonny Baxter(FA) Roger Mason, Jr (FA) Eddie Robinson Now, Charlotte can draft Crawford and or Fizer, which would mean that they would theb become UFA. Crawford might want to remain a Bull, so if the Bulls match the Hornets offer, he'd likely stay in Chicago. Fizer likely wont be matched. Chicago has Chandler, Curry, and Marshall upfront. Fizer isn't of need, since Baxter can be a solid backup. Chicago wont pay him to keep him. Id expect Fizer to leave for Charlotte, or go elsewhere. Eddie Robinson COULD be taken by Charlotte. Its important to have a good fan base for a first yer franchise. Eddie Robinson was a fan favorite in Charlotte. He would provide the athleticism and excitement needed to draw in fans. It will depend on whether or not Charlotte wishes to gamble on him.