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Rasheed Wallace and the Bobcats?

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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.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Detroit Pistons, Portland Trailblazers, Rasheed Wallace, Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace, Rumors, Player Movement, Charlotte Bobcats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.