Bobcats maybe making a run at Baron Davis

Posted by Royce Young

Things are getting moved around in Charlotte right now. First it was Michael Jordan assuming ownership of the team last year. Then it was Larry Brown being shown the door. Next was Paul Silas taking Brown's place with Charles Oakley joining the staff.

But all of that doesn't directly affect the personell on the floor. Well, the Bobcats are maybe getting to that.

There has been some chatter about Charlotte blowing the whole thing up and starting over by sending Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace elsewhere. As mentioned in today's Shootaround, according to Yahoo! Sports, Jordan and the Bobcats might go a different direction. Reportedly, Jordan is considering sending D.J. Augustin, DeSagana Diop and Matt Carroll to the Clippers for Baron Davis.

The trade works in terms of salaries, but I'm sure Neil Olshey and the Clippers front office feels like it can do better than that. Reality is, they probably can't. Davis is still owed over $40 million through 2013 and isn't exactly playing great basketball. It would be a cost-cutting move for the Clippers and a major play towards a full-on youth movement. It makes complete sense for the Clips. Hand the reins to Eric Bledsoe and Augustin, let them lob to Blake Griffin and get out of the way.

But why would Charlotte do this? Jordan is likely banking on a new scene giving Davis a kick in the pants to start playing how he's capable. Davis first played for Paul Silas in 1999 when Silas was the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets who drafted Davis fourth overall. Davis played his first five seasons with the Charlotte Hornets so maybe a little nostalgia and reunion will bring back the talented Baron Davis.

It's a long shot and reeks of desperation if it happens. Baron Davis can certainly still play, but that's a lot of money to take on for a player that may or may not help you. You're not sending off too much in Augustin, Diop and Carroll, but you lose some flexibility and now have a big contract on the books for three years. That's risky.

But Jordan may feel like he has to take this shot before he blows it up. He still has Jackson and Wallace so maybe he's thinking he's got to at least try to do something. Remember, this was a playoff team last season. The loss of Raymond Felton proved to be far bigger than anyone could see coming, so Jordan is trying to find an apt replacement. Problem is, that replacement is going to cost.

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22748484/26611019

 

i just can't believe that Bobcats picked DJ over Brook Lopez. DJ is a backup point guard at best. DJ is bascially a dirt poor version of Aaron Brooks...

 

Acquiring Baron wouldn’t help Bobcats much
Charlotte Bobcats, L.A. Clippers

About a month ago, I jokingly tweeted that the Bobcats should trade for Baron Davis. I wasn’t really serious, even though the Bobcats need better point guard play and the Clippers need to shed Davis’ contract, which will pay him a combined $28.7 million in the two seasons after this one. I just thought the Bobcats’ roster, already filled with a nutty combination of players who all seem to be either 6-7 and 6-8, could stand to get a little nuttier. Some nostalgia for the 2006-07 Golden State Warriors would be a nice bonus.

Now the Bobcats are actually thinking about this, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that Charlotte is “considering” a proposal that would send D.J. Augustin, DeSagana Diop and Matt Carroll to the Clippers for Davis.

This would be ridiculous trade on just about every level, up to and including the fact that the Bobcats somehow managed to end up with both Diop and Carroll through a series of moves that started when they signed Carroll to his current six-year contract and ended when they took him back from Dallas in July as the price for acquiring Erick Dampier’s non-guaranteed deal. It would be a ridiculous trade because it is at once maddening and meaningless. If the deal ends up as a 3-for-1 trade, it won’t cost the Bobcats much in terms of salary this year or in the future. The contracts belonging to Diop and Carroll expire (assuming likely option decisions from both guys) at the same time as Davis’ deal, and Augustin’s rookie options run out one year earlier. The trade would actually cut the Bobcats’ total salary by about $320,000 this season and $162,000 next season, according to salary data on ShamSports.

In that sense, dealing Davis doesn’t change the Bobcats’ capped-out situation in any damaging way. So, fine, go ahead and trade for an (almost) 32-year-old who is shooting 36 percent and dealing with chronic knee pain.

Of course, this is not what the Bobcats should be doing. They should be exploring any and all available trades for Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace and Boris Diaw, who will make nearly $30 million combined next season on a team going nowhere but either the lottery or a first-round massacre. In pure basketball terms, the right thing to do is detonate this roster and start over.

But as Wojnarowski notes, Michael Jordan and his staff probably aren’t thinking in pure basketball terms. They might be thinking about their tenuous hold on the Charlotte market — about all those new season-ticket holders who got excited by the team’s first playoff appearance last year and thought this gritty bunch might do even better down the road. Who knows what might happen to the local fan base if the team shipped its most recognizable names out of town for assets with no name value.

And that’s an important aside, by the way: Jackson and Wallace might not have much trade value in this market, with a new collective bargaining agreement around the corner. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer broke the news last week that the team was shopping both players, and that rival executives were taken aback by what the Bobcats wanted in return. Almost every team dealing solid veterans wants young talent and draft picks in return. If the Bobcats can’t get those — or cap relief — you can understand why Jordan might shrug and deal for Davis when the salary numbers are about equal.

Davis has been mostly awful this season. He is attempting nearly four three-pointers per 36 minutes despite hitting just 19 percent, and, by his own admission, he’s dealing with some nagging knee pain. He’s still a beast to handle in the post and he’s a dynamite passer, but the Baron Davis we’ve seen this season — the guy with a lower Player Efficiency Rating than John Salmons and Josh Powell — is not a difference-maker. Barring a major improvement in play, Davis is not turning the Bobcats into anything they’re not already.

It’s also worth noting that the Clippers have a full 15-man roster after signing Ike Diogu to a non-guaranteed deal this week, meaning they’d have to jettison at least two players if they make a 3-for-1 deal. They can do that pretty easily because they have three guys (Diogu, rookie Willie Warren and Jarron Collins) on non-guaranteed deals, but that’s a lot of tinkering for a deal that’s going to cost you almost $500,000 over the next two seasons. Maybe the potential savings in 2012-13, when Augustin’s contract would be off the books, is worth it — along with the prize of getting rid of Davis. But for the inconvenience alone, the Clippers should push to include Brian Cook, who has a $1.3 million player option for next season.

Should MJ go for it? Probably not. But it might not make all that much difference in the end.

 

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2010/12/23/acquiring-baron-wouldnt-help-bobcats-much/