January: Not Bobcat Love Month

Following our holiday hiatus, here's a state of the union for our beloved Charlotte NBA team.

The Bobcats started off a brutal four week stretch by facing the defending champs Boston Celtics at home, and knocking them off! Wooohoo! Yay! They can rest on this for about seventeen minutes, because they’re heading to Cleveland, where they’ll attempt to be the first team to knock off the Cavs at home this season. The Bobcats will be travelling for the second half of a back to back while Cleveland has been resting at home for two days after the Crab Dribblers came up short in Washington. As if it’s not bad enough for the Cats, they had three starters: Emeka, Boris, and Rayfel playing 44+ minutes, and the Cavs will be debuting their Fizzif jersey of the season (HT: BDL). Good luck boys!

Assumed out for this game once again, Sean May. Even if he was active there’s a tremendous chance he’d be inactive by tip time after mistakenly thinking Lebron’s chalk was the innards of a gigantic Pixy Stick. In discussion with some friends, the question of how does the Sean May saga end in Charlotte came up. It’s hard to imagine him remaining a Bobcat until the end of the season, because it appears that both sides have given up on the other. May declared, ‘He feels he's in much better shape and capable of playing 6-7 minute stretches before being taken out’ (NBA). Let’s assume he’s exaggerating (all men embellish about how long they can go, right?) and it’s more like 4-5 minutes. Sean, that’s not in game shape, not even close and that’s why he always looks oh so comfortable in his suits. May could end up as a throw-in piece of a trade or let go, but seeing him in a Cats jersey ever again seems remote. Instead of being remembered as a Final Four MVP, for many fans he’ll instead be remembered as the Derrick Coleman of the Bobcats, and that’s not a compliment.

Looking ahead at the remaining month of January, the boys have as tough a road to hoe of any month this season. After tonight’s visit to Cleveland, they have two of their most winnable games, against Philly and Washington, but both are on the road. They finish up this roadie with in Auburn Hills, where AI and co. seemed to be figuring things out, winning eight of their last ten. Their four remaining home games feature the Blazers, The Spurs, a Memphis team that the Cats embarrassed the last time they met, and finally… J-Rich’s return game. Some folks may remember J-Rich lighting up the Warriors for 50 when he played against them for the first time in a Bobcats jersey. To close out the month the Cats have three brutal road games, Denver, LA (Lakers), and Portland with a trip to Indy thrown in. Larry’s kids are nine games under .500 (13-22) and to stay there through January would be a coup.

The NBA trade deadline is about five weeks away, and the Cats should not be done dealing. The prime candidate for the team to trade has to be Raymond Felton. The team is committed to DJ Augustin and if Ray remains on the team, he’ll likely end up walking at the end of the year with no return. If he remains on the team through the deadline, the Cats need to be involved in getting him back, even if it means trading him a year down the line as DJ continues to develop. To allow a top 5 pick to walk away with little or no compensation would be a tremendous lapse on behalf of the front office. The only exception would be if he got a monster offer from someone that they couldn’t match, but one would hope that they’d be aware of the market for Ray to prevent this. Personally, I don’t see Gerald Wallce, who previously had been the prime trade bait, being moved. With J-Rich’s contract being shipped out, unloading one of the team’s contracts to give some flexibility has been accomplished and Wallace, after some initial struggles has made some tremendous plays down the stretch in games for this team. The Cavs or Lakers would be foolish not to inquire about Gerald’s availability, but his contract may prove too much.