Just saw that the Raptors released Pops Mensah-Bonsu (spelling…but ya’ll know who I’m talking about) and Mikki Moore is free as well. We have an open roster spot. Wouldn’t Pops fit well for some big man bench relief?? Just maybe. Man, with Gerald Hendo not seeing a fart sneeze of PT, I am getting more and more disappointed that LB and MJ were talked out of picking Hansbrough. That kid would have filled a huge need, and you can’t tell me that LB would’ve kept him stuck to the pine. No way. We have a quality squad. We can make the playoff…we just need a bit of big man help and we could realistically knock out any comers come playoff time. Gerald Wallace for All-Star status!!!!!!!!

Aside from our on court progress (which has a pretty limited ceiling over the next couple years), I noticed something last night watching the game on tv. First of all, they didn’t play nearly as much crap to fill the silence of the crowd, at least not that I could hear. And while the crowd wasn’t huge, there was a point in the third quarter where the crowd started chanting “Let’s go Bobcats…” with all the claps, like a college game here. Not that stupid “Let’s go cats, let’s go cats” that the PA guy tries (and fails) to start. We need more of a college atmosphere as stated here several times. This is a college basketball area and always will be. If we can capture ANY of the excitement of those crowds (Cameron Crazies, whatever they’re calling the tye-dye Deacs this days, but not the awful wine & cheese tar heels scrubs… yes I went to NC State), games will be more fun and more people will go. Even if we can’t do better than a 6-8 seed, playoff games are fun to go to. Not everyone can be a championship calibre team, and while that’s the long term goal we should at least have fun along the way. In the end, the NBA (and all professional sports) are about entertainment.

Also, is it bad to hope we draw the Cavs if we make the playoffs? They’re the only top 3 team we match up with. Boston destroys us every time (nobody to guard Garnett or Rasheed Wallace, too prone to turnovers already so their defense just kills our chances), the Magic are a matchup nightmare with Rashard Lewis and Dwight. We have 2 guys (on the court at the same time) that we can throw at LeBron. Mo Williams tends to torch us, but all he needs is an off shooting night and he’s practically guarding himself. Then it’s just a bunch of garbage.

I agree with David. It’s nice riding on a 3 game winning streak, but if I know my ‘Cats (and I do), we’ll probably respond with a 3-4 gaming losing streak soon enough.

Making the playoffs is still going to be tough.

By the way, anyone else worried that Crash and Capn Jack are playing too many minutes? Like I know that we need them as much as we can to win games NOW, but maybe the fatigue will catch up at the tail end of the season.

I understand the logic of the “wait until we’re ready to contend for a title” argument that David has made in the past, but I just don’t see it as the most realistic step. Why not go for the playoffs? So we can draft a player a few spaces higher up?

I know some people don’t like the way this team is currently built, but the team is more fun to watch than ever. No one can predict what will happen in three years (some dumbass will say he can, but I’m certainly not buying it). Like I said before, I just like watching good ball. And to me, that’s more important that starting D.J. Augustine just because we expect to lose Felton next season (only one example of the backwards arguments I’ve read on here).

Here’s what I think we can expect out of the Bobcats from here out. Or at least what we SHOULD be able to expect.

We finish the season close to .500
My guess is we’ll be about 3 games under if everyone stays healthy and we don’t beef up the bench or pick up a solid big between now and then. If we DO trade in a decent big, we’re looking at 3 or 4 games over at best.

We’re not going to present ourselves as anything but a playoff warmup for the true contenders unless we either get very lucky in the first round or luck into home court advantage for the first round. Those are some mighty long odds. I don’t think we’ll get swept, but I don’t see us winning more than a couple before we just get overwhelmed unless we bet against the Cats with some of the game refs. (Oh crap, now Stern’s gonna come gunning for me. OH CRAP! I can’t use words like gunning or TMZ will post a rumor that I"m part of Arenas’ posse.)

Next season the Bobcats are going to be slightly worse. Jordan is right. We aren’t going to improve through the draft, it has to be via the trade or FA route. With so many teams racing to open cap space for the FA Sweeps next summer, along with some contracts the Felines are simply not going to be able to unload, we won’t be doing much shopping. At best we’ll be the buzzards floating around for any leftover bits when the lions are through with their feeding frenzy. As long as we’re being real here we should keep in mind that if we can’t trade for anyone worth a crap NOW when there are mutliple teams slapping for sale signs on their entire rosters, we sure as hell aren’t going to score a healthy trade in the off season. If we hit the trade deadline this season without a significant move being made our roster come next season is going to look almost identical to what’s coming up the ramp at MSG tonight. Apart from the improved likelihood that Brown will FINALLY give some pt to Henderson, the one big potential difference will be at our point guard slot. If we keep Felton (a situation that by all indications will involve overpaying him for several years) we’ll still lose some ground because everyone on the team will be a year older/slower/banged up and the higher salary is goint to hurt our ability to maneuver under the cap. If Felton is gone it’s going to cost us some wins although it will set us up better financially for…

2011-2012
This is where the Bobcats can truly get somewhere. We’ll be offloading some of our nasty contract dollars and actually be able to position ourselves to pick up some name players. It looks like everything the FO is planning is either geared around the sale of the team or this being the year that the Bobcats truly build themselves into a powerful team ready to drive deeper into the post-season. I can’t speculate as to what the hell the unpredictable front office will DO with the opportunity because there are just too many variables (including WHO the Front Office will be at that time) for me to be able to speculate.

So it looks like this is just about as good as it’s going to get for the next season and a half. We’re going to be good enough to know whether or not the community is ever actually going to rally around in support of the Charlotte Bobcats. But we’re not going to be near good enough to make the Western Conference playoff seeds even glance at a scouting report with the name Bobcats on the front page.