Can Danny?

The Charlotte Bobcats have been the model franchise when it comes to piss poor management. This team peaked at 33 wins and looks like they might be ready to decline. They have no superstars, nobody who looks like a future All-Star, and are close to capped out for the next few years. How does this happen?

1. Don't Add Any Names in the Expansion Draft

The Bobcats did a good job of wheeling and dealing with their expansion picks, getting a first rounder from Cleveland for Aleksander Pavlovic, moving from #4 to #2 in the draft for Peja Drobnak, and were wise to grab Gerald Wallace. What they failed to do, however, was add any solid players. The team took over showing extreme financial restraint. It was a bad decision as a) the team had limited cap space to start so they could just sign a bunch of free agents and b) who wants to sign with an expansion team? I'm not saying that Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, Jerry Stackhouse, Eddie Jones, and the other available players would have made the team a playoff contender but at least they'd have some marketable names with a little trade value.

2. Waste Your Draft Picks

After adding bench players in the expansion draft, the Bobcats went into phase 2 of Project Pathetic by ending up on the losing end of every draft pick they made. They traded up to take Emeka Okafor. A good move but that draft was a deep one and they would have been better off by trading down and getting multiple picks. Still Okafor was a prospect and the Cats needed a name so they made the choice. You can't complain TOO much about that one.

A lot of people give the Bobcats the old "What might have been..." with the 2005 draft since they just missed out on Chris Paul and Deron Williams. The problem with that thinking is that the Jazz ended up with Williams and they had the pick AFTER the Bobcats. How'd they do it? They dealt the #6, #27, and a future draft pick for the #3 pick. The Bobcats could have easily trumped that deal. Not only did they have the #5 pick, but they had the #13 pick as well. So the team doesn't trade down to get more picks in 2004 but then won't trade up to get an elite pick in 2005. Instead they added Raymond Felton and Sean May.

In 2006, they grabbed Adam Morrison over Rudy Gay and Brandon Roy. Really, that's all that needs to be said.

In 2007, they dealt their lotto pick and gave up their cap space for Jason Richardson. They had an offer of the #17 pick for Sean May but turned it down. They then took Jared Dudley with the #27 pick they had from an expansion draft deal. Dudley is nice, but the guys who went directly after him were Wilson Chandler and Rudy Fernandez. Fast forward less than two years later and the Bobcats have just traded both guys so they essentially turned the #7 and #17 picks in the draft into Raja Bell, Boris Diaw, and Sean Singletary.

This past year, they confounded most by taking DJ Augustin with the 9th pick. Not only did other players fit Charlotte's needs better but they also still had Raymond Felton. Also, they probably could have traded down a bit and gotten Jarrett Jack and the Blazers pick (a deal that the Pacers took for their #11 pick). Making matters worse, the team then passed on a number of falling prospects to take project Alexis Ajinca.

So here they are. A team that has no stars and a lot of regrets.

3. Waste The Precious Cap Space

This is where everything comes together. In the expansion draft, the Bobcats focused on not wasting cap space. Ever since then, they don't seem to mind it so much. They gave up a lotto pick and cap space to get a good but not great Jason Richardson. They threw 4 million a year at Matt Carroll. They never really have seemed thrilled with Gerald Wallace but tossed him 10 million a year. And Emeka Okafor proved to be less than a stud but the Bobcats gave him a close to max deal anyway. But perhaps the oddest move was when they two small, short term contracts for Nazr Mohammed and his deal that had three years, 19 million left on it. Nazr Mohammed isn't going to do much for the Bobcats. If they desperately needed a center before the deal, they still needed one afterwards (yet still passed on Brook Lopez in the draft). For all of their talk of financial responsibility, the Bobcats passed on marketable stars to start their team with but are now sinking their team with overpaid role players.

And with that, you have a team that is destined to make the lottery and not make much of a profit (if they make money at all).