MVN - Most Valuable Network

Bobcats Sunday Linkage - June 8, 2008

Those who say the past is not dead can stop and smell the smoke - Ben Folds Five, “Smoke“

Bobcats Centric Links

• Calling me and others out, ziggy says knock off the Rasheed Wallace crap.
• Speaking of ‘Sheed, Queen City Hoops is thinking about it too…

Brotherhood of the MVN Links

• Michael gets, er, fanciful in his description of how the Lakers got Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies.
• James says the Lakers go down in 6.
• The Inferno is hyped over the impending arrival of Rudy Fernandez.
• As usual: Lakers Library and Celtics 17 are must reads, especially now.

Outer Hooptopia Links

• Hardwood Paroxysm and the preponderance of cynicism re: Paul Pierce.
• Hornets 24/7 wants to make a deal.
• Doug Moe was more than fish tires and goofy offenses. He could be Larry Brown’s perfect foil.
• The Association doesn’t buy Paul Pierce.
• The Porter era starts now.

Rasheed Wallace and the Bobcats?

Image details: Detroit Pistons v Boston Celtics, Game Five served by picapp.com

Rick Bonnell posited this in his column:

The Bobcats should consider trading for Detroit Pistons big man Rasheed Wallace.

Pistons basketball operations chief Joe Dumars made it clear Tuesday, after firing coach Flip Saunders, that he’s open to breaking up his team’s core to freshen the roster. Wallace, in the late stages of his NBA career, would be a logical piece to move.

Acquiring Wallace would seemingly reject the best practices of the Bobcats so far. They haven’t spent huge money on older players and have generally avoided players with attitude problems.

Now I admit, this is intriguing.

There are rumblings afoot that none of the players that will be available to the Bobcats in the draft will be a good compliment to Emeka Okafor’s defensive game. Wallace would be the near perfect compliment, with an outside game to create his usual matchup nightmare. He’s a strong complimentary defender. And Larry Brown seems more than capable of bringing out the best in Wallace, taming his legendary temper long enough to win a championship and get to the conference finals. And he’s a Tar Heel….bonus! OK, maybe not so much that, but still.

I remember when Dennis Rodman came to the Bulls in 1995. I was, well…disgusted. I don’t know if I can really express to you how much I loathed Rodman. His self serving, narcissistic attitude along with his persecution complex just pissed. me. off. But he was able to be controlled (as much as Rodman could be controlled) by Michael Jordan’s dominant personality, Phil Jackson’s coaching, and his own desire to win. He was integral to the second half of the dynasty as a rebounder and defender. And I still hated him with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.

Now my dislike for Rasheed Wallace doesn’t even approach this. Maybe only two or three burning suns. But I wonder what it would be like for Wallace to be on a team that doesn’t quite compete at the same level he was used to, both in Detroit and way back in Portland (we’re not counting that cup of coffee in Atlanta). How many technical fouls would he rack up? How many crazy postgame interviews with ‘Sheed going off his nut would we have? How long before he and Gerald Wallace came to blows over who hoisted too many ill-advised threes?

But you know…it would really shake things up around here. He would really be one of LB’s guys, and he would be a real difference maker. He’s no star, and doesn’t want to be, but would become the focal point of every media scrum from the moment he entered the practice facility until the ‘Cats are eliminated from playoff contention or the playoffs. And that would, of course, piss him off.

I’m leaning toward “let’s do it and see what happens.” If it fails, you blow it all up and start over. If it works, you’re in the playoffs, which was your goal all along.

Bobcats Sunday Linkage - June 1, 2008

Dog days of summer, heat haze and bad temper….-Tracey Thorn, “Nowhere Near”

Bobcats Centric Links

• Check out another Bobcats blogger, Ethan at Bobcats Baseline
• The Bobcats Ford LTD in full regalia.
• Buried in Tom’s search for a PG for the Kings, some more about the Wright-Richardson trade.
• D.J. Augustin? More tiny point guards for us!

Brotherhood of the MVN Links

• Christopher discusses the Kobe-Jordan comparison and….Doug Collins? Wha…? Just go read.
• Amar looks at the Cavs’ path to LeBron’s pathetic supporting cast…it’s not a pretty journey.
• ManchVegasBob and the surreality of the Celtics returning to the finals.
• Billy Knight leaves, Rick Sund comes in: a net positive for the Hawks, says Chase.
• Mick looks at the wreckage of the Piston implosion and decides is might be time to send Flip Saunders packing.
• Ed and Josh have really been cranking ‘em out at Lakers Library. Go, er, check something out.
• Chris Douglas-Roberts to the Hornets?
• Timberwolves radio broadcasts go back to KFAN.

Outer Hooptopia Links

• Tom Ziller again: this piece on combo guards is a must read.
• In-depth info on the Pacers from Indy Cornrows.
• Blog-a-Bull is comfortably dumbfounded. I say again: Doug Collins? Really?
• BDL’s breakdown of the Pistons-Celtics tilt.
• Free Darko sometimes confuses me, but it’s worth the read anyway.
• Wages of Wins goes after the NBA Draft.

The DeAndre Jordan problem

Face it, the time before the draft is exciting. All these young guys strutting their stuff, hoping to make it as the next big lottery pick. Who’s going to be the next Dwight Howard? Who’s the next shunned star, like Paul Pierce or Caron Butler? And who’s going to be a bust?

I talked about the Bobcats draft possibilities in an earlier post. And the name that evoked the most fear (besides Kevin Love) was DeAndre Jordan.

Everything I looked at about Jordan made me say “no…please, no.” Yeah, he’s a legit seven footer. Yeah, he’s got the kind of athleticism GMs dream about. Yeah, he’s…not earthbound. But when I look at what other people have to say about him, I don’t see Dwight Howard. I see Kwame Brown.

Jordan was a big time prospect coming into Texas A&M. 7′0″, 240 pounds (said to be at 260 now), quick, “pteradactyl like wingspan,” the total physical package. And he came out of the gate fast: he set a Big 12 record with 17 consecutive made field goals. In November, Draft Express was drooling all over him like Chris Matthews over W after the mission was declared “accomplished”:

DeAndre Jordan is a special player. You can tell the second that you see him on the court. He is a legitimate 7’0 and at 240 pounds doesn’t have to do as much work physically as many young post projects. His athleticism and quickness are stunning and he possesses athletic ability that recalls Dwight Howard and LaMarcus Aldridge. However, apart from his NBA ready size, he already has some NBA ready skills on the offensive and defensive end.

Heady stuff. But it all got tempered down as the season went on. Jordan played progressivley worse as the Aggies worked their way into the NCAA Tournament, and his showing against UCLA (15 minutes, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 4 turnovers) were the capper on what was undeniably a disappointing season. The carnage was so bad that Draft Express essentially had to backtrack on everything nice it had to say about him in November:

Jordan did not finish off the season very well at all, scoring in double-digits just four times in all of January, February and March, after he was able to do so nine times in November and December. It’s pretty obvious by now that Jordan is a project with a capital P, one that will demand a great deal of nurturing and patience before he’s able to contribute much of anything in the NBA. He obviously needs another year in college to help prepare him for the pros, but the danger of not improving enough and damaging his stock badly may be too much to risk, even if it’s rumored that he is currently leaning towards staying.

And the rumor is now floating around (hopefully, if there is anything good and holy in this world, quashed by now) that the Bobcats have given a promise to Jordan that he will not get past them at #9. Because what the Charlotte Bobcats need is a physically talented, but unmotivated 19 year old who apparently has never been told he doesn’t know how to play the game to have his first 2 or 3 seasons playing for the most demanding coach this side of Greg Popovich and Pat Riley.

Right.

As much as he likes to be seen as a teacher of the game, LB hates projects (see Milicic, Darko). DeAndre Jordan is as big a project as Milicic, even though his upside is greater. And honestly, if he can’t contribute any more than Ryan Hollins, it’s not going to help at all. And by the way, he’s a 43% free throw shooter, and despite that wingspan and quickness, not much of a shot blocker.

Here’s the rub though: no GM want’s to be the guy who passed someone like Dwight Howard again. Jordan will tantalize a GM into thinking “we can fix him!” And he ends up on a team that needs him to play many more minutes than he really deserves, takes a beating physically and mentally, and is a journeyman by the time he is 23.

Sound familiar (cough*KWAME*cough)?

These days, it’s tough to find a guy this deep in the lottery who can contribute right now. And guys like Jordan have the ability to validate a GM’s work in one fell swoop. But I believe that if the Bobcats take Jordan, it will hasten the departure of the other Jordan in the organization unless Brown can lead this team to the playoffs noisily and quickly.