For the Beasts: Charlotte Bobcats Season Preview

I meant in an NBA uniform, to ball in the NBA. Why not bring in some post presence?

Though that is highly unlikely, I would love to see that too. Our post play is a word that is still a lesson in sessions in Charlotte. I think I'll train Biyombo all season to get him work downlow.

I like the Billups and Martin signings if they go ahead, should be worth the investment. Agree on Lopez, will likely be matched anyway.

I would think so too. I'm also considering bringing back Reggie Williams since he'd most likely come in cheap and I'm still looking at Renaldo Balkman because of his defense. What do you think?

Report: Williams has 'no interest' in re-signing with Charlotte

Ex-Charlotte Bobcat Reggie Williams has stated with a firm tone in his voice that he will not be re-joining the Charlotte Bobcats for the upcoming season.

"What's the point? These guys are losers who don't even have a coach worth listening to. There isn't any mutual respect either. MJ is equipped with 'yes men' that bend to his every demand and I see no future for me being there.

Williams had an 'okay' season with Charlotte last year, getting about 8.3 PPG in about twenty-three minutes-per-game. Though, the area in which Williams is thought to excel in, his three point shot, is where he struggled. Williams had a very pedestrian, even bad percentage from the three point line only hitting on about 31% of those shots. That may have discouraged coach Paul Silas to play him more than what he was used to.

When prompted by questions, President of basketball operations of the Charlotte Bobcats, Rod Higgins replied, "His absence is of no matter. He believe he's a hotter commodity than what he actually is right now, and I don't see him signing on another team if not with us. We have other options though, we're even close to bringing a player from the 2003 Kings out of retirement. Reggie is no longer in our interest."

Though it's already been rumored that Charlotte has interest in Chauncey Billups and Kenyon Martin, this news sounds like it has to do with former Hornets swingman, Peja Stojaković.

I dunno if you need Balkman, depends if you want him for story purposes haha. I would rather have Martin and Billups, so if you say that Martin doesn't like Balkman, may not be worth the risk.

Billups to Hawks, Peja Stays out, Interest in Nazr


The Atlanta Hawks have recently announced the signing of point guard, Chauncey Billups, ending all plans the Bobcats had to sign the soon-to-be 16 year pro.

Rumors arose after Bobcats owner, Michael Jordan, and Bobcats President, Rod Higgins, had a last minute interview and expected to sign the veteran. They had hoped that they were in the lead for the player when, just in day two, the Hawks announced the signing. Charlotte didn't expect to have to have a backup plan for a new backup, but now they'll have to turn their attention to other places and put their backup hopes into rookie Peyton Siva.

In addidtion, retired ex-Hornet Peja Stojaković has told reporters that he has no interest in returning to the league.

"I already retired once because I can no longer take the strain of a full season, and after a year, it is even less of an option to try and push my body for another 82 games."
Now with this rejection, the Bobcats may put their sights on Renaldo Balkman. They had interest in the swingman earlier in free agency, but lost it completely after the interveiws with Billups and Kenyon Martin. Without much other options, Balkman doesn't seem like the worst idea.

Finally, rumors have arisen for ex-Bobcats bigman Nazr Mohammed. Mohammed played for season with the Bobcats before being traded as an add-in for the Byron Mullens trade last season. Mohammed hasn't had many opportunities to play for the same team multiple amounts of times in his 19 career. He may be a good teacher for Bismack Biyombo and other Bobcats bigman as their veteran presence down-low.

Any way for the likes of t-mac, balkman, and/or Jermaine O'neal to make it to that bobcats squad?

I dunno if you need Balkman, depends if you want him for story purposes haha. I would rather have Martin and Billups, so if you say that Martin doesn't like Balkman, may not be worth the risk.

May be used for story purposes. I still mostly want him for his defense though

Any way for the likes of t-mac, balkman, and/or Jermaine O'neal to make it to that bobcats squad?

It is unlikely, O'Neal is on the Celtics and T-Mac is still signed for another year right now with the hawks.

[NBA Layup Lines]
Quick one-liner NBA News from free-agency

July 14

Cleveland Cavaliers talk Yao Ming out of retirement with 3 yr. $14.81 M
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Boston Signs Jermain O'Neal and Keyon Dooling with 2 yr. $1.09 M and 2 yr. $1.88 M respectively
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Greg Oden returns to the league with a 1 yr. $480K with Los Angeles (Clippers)
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Josh Howard re-signs with the Utah Jazz for a 1 yr. $519K
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Samuel Dalembert signs with Houston Rockets for a 2 yr. $3.82 M
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July 15

Chauncey Billups signs with the Atlanta Hawks for a 1 yr. $2.94 M
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Nets re-sign Brook Lopez for a 4 yr. $50.98 M
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New Orleans re-signs Eric Gordon with a 4 yr. $49.84 M
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July 16

The Charlotte Bobcats sign Nazr Mohammed and Kenyon Martin to a 1 yr. $695 K and a 1 yr. $1.28 M respectively
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Brooklyn Nets sign Chris Kaman to a 4 yr. $29.85 M
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Atlanta signs Andrei Kirilinko for 2 yr. and 3.48 M
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Minnesota re-signs Michael Beasely for 5 years with $60.96 M
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July 17

Dallas signs Jeremy Lin with a 4 yr. $26.5 M
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Charlotte signs Renaldo Balkman to a undisclosed two year deal with a team option
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July 18

J.R. Smith signs with Phoenix for a 1 yr. $3.44 M
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New York signs Jeff Green to a 4 yr. $19.67 M
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Rockets re-sign Courtney Lee to a 4 yr. $24.48 M
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July 19-End of off-season free agency

O.J. Mayo and Darrell Arthur re-signs with Memphis with a 4 yr. $32.03 M and 1 yr. 3.01 M respectively
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Boston signs Shannon Brown to a 4 yr. $16.12 M
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Miami re-signs Dexter Pittman to a 1 yr. $887 K
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Lakers sign Corey Joseph to 1 yr. $480 K
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Sacramento signs Jonas Valanciunas to a 1 yr. $6.48 contract
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Orlando re-signs Ryan Anderson to a year with $3.42 M
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Brooklyn signs Donatas Montiejunas to a year with $2.27 M
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Denver re-signs Rudy Fernandez to a 1 yr. $3.18 M contract
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Brandon Rush re-signs with Golden State with a 1 yr. $4.09 M contract
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Robin Lopez signs with Phoenix for 1 year with $4.01
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Minnesota re-signs Anthony Randolph to a 1 year $4.05 M deal
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Toronto signs D.J. Augustin for 1 year with $2.77 M with a $3.44 M team option

Yao Ming? OMFG he gonna lose them feet. Too bad Billups decided to take his talents to Atlanta but you did sign K-Mart and Mohammed. Also Balkman? He's gonna be bad for your locker room. You could've signed Agent 0 to mentor Kemba.

Yao Ming? OMFG he gonna lose them feet. Too bad Billups decided to take his talents to Atlanta but you did sign K-Mart and Mohammed. Also Balkman? He's gonna be bad for your locker room. You could've signed Agent 0 to mentor Kemba.

Yup got Balkman, Kenyon, and Mohammed. Balkman is gonna play, but mostly brought in for story purposes. What was weird about Chauncey is that I offered him about two million more dollars to be my sixth man. Guess he REALLY wanted to start in order to take that paycut.

I'm thinking about for next year to use a generic draft class and then getting all the user-submitted NLSC draftees and put them into the class for next year. I like the idea myself because some players in the draft class are repeated again in the next draft class and I don't want to worry about finding the same player and then taking them out manually so I'll just go generic.

'Cats "excited" about free agency class


Rich Cho of the Charlotte Bobcats relayed his feelings of this years' draft class as 'exciting' in Charlotte's first interview since the end of the draft.

"I'm truthfully excited about some of these guys. Kenyon Martin has really impressed us and looks to have really matured. Throughout each of our interviews, he appears to be a vet willing to train up some of these guys. I'm happy to have been able to bring Nazr (pronounced "Nazzi") back as well. I hope he can anchor downlow, depending on Paul's gameplan and is a another player that can teach the young big-guys as well.

"I like the defense Renaldo Balkman brings to us as well, of course Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is a capable defender, but Balkman may help him learn timing, and when to nab at the ball. None of these new guys are here for offense, that really wasn't our outset, we wanted good defenders to teach our guys. Of course Bismack can still learn offense from Mohammed, but we still want him focusing on defense and the fundamentals of basketball for now and watching him excel in the future."

Sports reporter, Stephen A. Smith, commented on the Bobcats' direction as a team as well.

"Of course their still going to be terrible, but the players they were able to get this year should pay in a gratitude of sums in the future. With Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson, and Bismack Biyombo just geting better, this team has nowhere else to go but up. I think I'll actually watch a few Bobcat games if they are aired on tv this year."

The players brought in this year are Kenyon Martin, Nazr Mohammed, and Renaldo Balkman. Each with the defensive end as their main forte, they should all be able to mentor every player on this team and could be seen to return next year.

Nice! may we sign up for the draft?

I want 15-8-2 from MKG and 19-2-7 from Kemba.

Nice! may we sign up for the draft?

You can, I'm still using your older draft info so you can put in new information for a new draftee

I want 15-8-2 from MKG and 19-2-7 from Kemba.

The 19 points and seven assists may be possible for Kemba, but 15 points from MKG... Idk..

Nice! may we sign up for the draft?

You can, I'm still using your older draft info so you can put in new information for a new draftee

Ok sweet! Can you just use my "Riley Gisseman" guy but make him waaay good, like top 2?

Nice! may we sign up for the draft?

You can, I'm still using your older draft info so you can put in new information for a new draftee

Ok sweet! Can you just use my "Riley Gisseman" guy but make him waaay good, like top 2?

Depends, on how I edit him once it happens.

Chapter 2...

There wasn't tension in the locker room today. The team came off of their first ever practice, and it seemed to go along well. Everyone was cheerful by the time it was time to leave, but Renaldo Balkman just didn't seem as calm as everyone else. Kenyon started asking everyone if the wanted to chill in the city, and by the time he got to Balkman...

Kenyon: Aye B, you trynna head out?

Renaldo: ...

Kenyon: Renaldo?

Renaldo: The hell you want man?!

Kenyon: Aye man chill, what's your problem?

Renaldo: My problem? I almost didn't make it back to the NBA because of you!

The yelling from Renaldo started to hinge onto the other players. Everyone became captivated with the screaming match that was in progress.

Kenyon: How is that my fault?

Renaldo: You were the one that made M.J. canceled my meeting with him. I almost didn't get signed because of you!

Kenyon: But you're here aint ya? I didn't have anything to do with whether you were signed or not. I told my impression, that's it.

Renaldo: Whatever punk, you're lucky my contract MAKES me stay calm, or I'd already be ringing your neck.

Balkman stormed out with Martin red in the face. He wasn't embarrassed, but extremely angry for being blamed for something so minuscule in his opinion. Martin wasn't going to go after him. After all, he is still a teammate. Kemba though, ran out of the locker room as fast as possible. Kemba was in the background watching the scene unfold. Kemba wasn't following Balkman as well. What for? He went straight to M.J. to tell him what occurred after practice.

Michael: I'll let Paul handle it.

Kemba: How is Paul going to handle it? He wasn't able to be the voice last year. Why do you think you had to buy out Boris? He also was blatantly disrespected by Tyrus last year, and he still didn't do anything. Why can't you handle it?

Michael: Look, we only have to deal with Paul for one. More. Season. I don't want him here as much as you do, but you know what? He's still the coach, and I'll tell him to handle it, as harshly as he can. Understand?

Kemba: Ugh, alright. I still don't want anything brewing before the season even gets started though.

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At the next practice, Paul wasn't at all nice. Kemba guessed that Jordan told him about yesterday's incident. Paul had run everyone rugged, and then some. Even at the end of practice, most of the team had to run 15 suicides. After that Kenyon and Renaldo had to run an additional 25 suicides.

Kenyon: What?! 25? That's bullshit coach!

Paul: Well, you two seem to have enough energy to chew at each other, how about we let that energy go to use. You both would like to stay in the NBA correct?

That shut both of the players up as they slugged the next 25 suicides on. When they finally finished, the just about collapsed on their benches. The rest of the team had already left, including the coach when they finished.

Kenyon: Tsk, did you notice it when he left?

Renaldo: Not for a second, we could've been stopped huh?

Kenyon: Yeah, -cough- he ran us hard today. But aye man, I don't want any hard feelings, we're going to be a team for a long time, and even if it is for just 82 games. We gotta stick together. Go that?

Renaldo: Yeah brah. I've had my own ambitions on my mind for a while, its never been about team. The time I missed though, makes it all worth while to be back. I'm willing to change that.

The two players left with a fist bump and finally hit the town.

Season preview: Charlotte Bobcats


Coach Paul Silas during the game against OKC

The Charlotte Bobcats, coming off a 7-59 season, you would hope this team would only soar upwards from there, but in this past off-season there were plenty of things addressed, and other things left into question.

Drafting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

Coming off a championship year with the Kentucky Wildcats, Kidd-Gilchrist was a sure fire lottery pick. He was the unannounced leader of a young Wildcat locker room while being only a freshman, and one of the youngest players on the roster. Kidd-Gilchrist is known for his defensive prowess, leading players he defends into mistakes and slip-ups getting steals and blocks, where he struggles though is his offensive game.

Kidd-Gilchrist struggles when it comes to scoring outside of the box, where he is very pedestrian at most. He showed signs of improvement with his shot during drills before the draft proceeded, but practice situations are different than game-time situations. We'll have to see if coach Paul Silas can get the most from this kid in his rookie year.

Can Paul Silas control the locker room?

After ending the season with the dismal aforementioned record of Charlotte. Paul Silas was quoted for saying, "you try coaching this team."

That has to come as a blow to the Bobcat players who were clearly trying their hardest night in and night out to hear their own coach talk down in such a way. Could it be that this lack of belief is why Boris Diaw accepted a buyout from Mr. Jordan and the Bobcats? How did he do? Oh, he was only a few games away from being a Western Conference champion with the Spurs months later. What about the reported fight between Silas and Tyrus Thomas? Recently it was rumored that newcomers Kenyon Martin and Renaldo Balkman had their own spat with each other. It's so surprising to see Silas return without any grasp on his own team.

Can Kemba Walker be who Charlotte was looking for?
After so many attempts at point guard, DJ Augustin, Raymond Felton, Brevin Knight, the list truly goes on. Can Kemba Walker be that player that finally changes the attitude, the aura of Charlotte? Can he be that player that attracts big names into town? Most importantly though, can he add more than seven wins in the record column? Hopefully all of these questions can be answered after he was the player that had actually gotten long starting guard Augustin kicked out of town. Kemba's second year can open eyes for everyone.

The preseason didn't help things

Charlotte' preseason didn't pan out as hopeful as many thought it would. The Bobcats went 2-5 in this years' preseason grabbing only victory against only the Bucks and Thunder There is understanding of the tumultuous record because they played against playoff hopeful teams like Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, and Portland. At times though, a fight was anything but applied in each match up. Each Bobcat player looked confused and disoriented as they made their ways up and down the court handing them loss after loss.


Let them prove themselves
We can't give up on the Queen City before the season even starts sports fans. The same coach is here two years in a row, they have young, talented players, and veterans capable of leading. Only time can tell how their season unfolds, whether it be for the better, worse or the same. Preferably better.

Balkman is hilarious!!

Just finished putting info in for the draft class. This should certainly be stacked!

Ok sweet! Excited to get this show on the road!