During the Charlotte Bobcats' victory over the New York Knickerbockers at the Cable Box this past Saturday, Bobcats captain and leading scorer Stephen Jackson drew his 15th technical foul of the season, one short of receiving a league mandated one game suspension. This comes during a critical moment of the season as the Bobcats are battling the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks for the 8th and final spot in the Playoffs. Earlier today, a thought crossed my mind: Should Stephen Jackson force a technical call on himself?

Perhaps the question comes to you as a surprise. Perhaps you think it is idiotic. Perhaps both, but I think at the very least it offers some opportunity for discussion. We currently have 10 games left, and our schedule isn't necessarily easy. Six games are home (Bucks, Cavaliers, Wizards, Magic, Pistons, Hawks), four games are away (Magic, Cavs, Heat, Nets). Two back-to-backs are left: April 5-6 ( @ Cavs; home vs Magic) and April 10-11 (home vs Pistons, @ Nets).

The reason why I was thinking about this earlier is because Jax purposely drawing a technical foul might help us, more than harm us, if he times it correctly. Say he draws a tech, and then has to miss a game against Cleveland, Washington, or New Jersey? That doesn't sound too bad. However, what if he draws a foul and then is suspended when we face  Orlando or Miami? That doesn't sound good.

Dwight Howard is currently the only player that has thus far reached 16 techs. Jax, along with Amare Stoudemire, have 15, with several other important players nearing the suspension limit. After the 16, you continue to get suspended for every two additional techs you receive. Obviously, there are financial penalties involved with all of this as well.

Jackson has at times gone nearly a month without a drawing a technical foul, only then to follow that up with 6 in three weeks (Thanks to Bonnell for that nugget of info).

via www.beaumontenterprise.com

I didn't see anything!

The point of this post is not to argue the direction technical fouls have taken this season (inconsistent and stupid, if you want my two cents), but rather, to ponder if it's better that Jax just purposely draws one, in order to avoid the risk of losing him during a supposedly harder opponent. Considering our current situation, every remaining game is a 'must win' if we want to secure a Playoff spot, so it's best we have Jax as much as possible (and healthy, I might add).

I think both sides of the argument warrant some thought.