Years later...are the bobcats still kicking themselves in the head?

As many have already stated: I don't see the Howard vs. Okafor comparison at all given that the Bobcats picked 2nd and Dwight was taken 1st overall. Okafor is a decent player, however they definitely overpaid when they extended him though. I think it's somewhat alarming that he hasn't seemed to improve at all as a player since entering the league. Sure, his numbers are pretty consistent but I think it's kind of disappointing he plateaud in the 14-10 range rather than 20-10 like he's seemingly capable of. I don't know, he doesn't seem to have that "mean streak" in him to be that good I guess. Still a solid choice at #2 though.

Morrison is the real head-scratcher and biggest mistake in franchise history. You can make a laundry list of player from the 2006 Draft that are better than Morrison, still....the real stinger is knowing you could/should have outright taken Brandon Roy and you passed on him for a guy who's best case scenario was becoming another Wally Szczerbiak. That, and not trying to package their 2005 #5 overall pick + whatever to move up a spot or two to take Deron Williams or Chris Paul.

 

Best guess is that the OP forgot the order of the draft and started the thread thinking that the Bobcats took Okafor with the 1st pick....

 

Well since the thread premise is borne of mistake, how about some derailment: The Bobcats should be kicking themselves in the head because they shouldn't exist.

Charlotte is not a great pro sports town and is probably even worse now that its banking sector/income generator lies in ruins. As far as I can tell, the only justification for giving them a team was that George Shinn was a douchebag who moved the Hornets to NO....that doesn't change the fact that Charlotte is a pretty lousy place for an NBA team.

 

Adam Morrison

over


Brandon Roy!!!

 

Years later are the Rockets still kicking themselves in the head?

one name...... BRANDON ROY

 

Obvious goof by the OP, who didn't even know the Magic had the first pick.

Like others have said, there are a lot of legit reasons for the Bobcats to kick themselves.

Sam, you are dead on. The only basketball the folks in Charlotte need can be found in the ACC.

 

LOL! What kind of "a better all-around game at this point" you are talking about?

DH is better than Okafor at every facet of game AT THIS POINT, including FREETHROW.

Maybe you should explain to Larry Brown "how Okafor has a better all-around game than DH at this point", so Larry Brown doesnt need to call out Okafor so hard in the media.

 

And yet the bobcats are playing their best basketball.

After getting rid of Morrison, they're looking forward to some good seasons, they have a solid starting five, and a decent bench and they're below the salary cap.

PG : Felton
SG: Bell
SF: Wallace
PF: Diaw
C: Okafor

Thats a good Starting lineup, except for Bell, everyone is fairly young.

 

You do know my logic is infallible?

 

That's actually two words

 

Even if I were entertain this silly notion, you would still have an overwhelming failure ratio for the white man (disclaimer: I'm white, so I automatically know my fellow white players) compared to african american 1st round picks.

 

the thread starter didn't do his research on who got the #1 pick.
Cause Tmac and Juwan tanked the franchise, the Magic got #1 pick.
The Bobcats #2

Kwame Brown was a #1 pick like Dwight, both straight from high school.
its a risk cause you have no idea how good they'll be.

Okafor went to my high school.

 

don't forget augustine is playing well for a rookie .

 

right, I get you.

 

haha first thing i thought. that saying doesnt work too well with TWO WORDS

 

Felton is a free agent at season's end. Given that the Bobcats likely don't have a high opinion of Felton considering he almost got dealt for garbage, I have a hard time seeing them ponying up and paying him. Especially with Augustin's coming out party.

I'll be stunned if Bell doesn't end up on a "win now" type playoff team by the start of next season. He's simply too experienced, versatile and good defensively to languish on a perennially rebuilding team like the Bobcats. Same with Camby.

I still see your point though. Their frontcourt at least looks set for now.

 

Charlotte did great until Shinn screwed them over and soured them on pro basketball. Robert Johnson's "be profitable by not spending any money" 5-year plan was also unfortunate.

They shouldn't regret Okafor, he's been a solid NBA starter and nearly All-Star level at PF. He's underappreciated by most since his defense is most of his game and his offense wows no one at all.

They should regret giving him such a large second contract. They're going to hate themselves when they're STILL paying him $14M five years from today.

Adam Morrison, as mentioned, has been the biggest regret for them. They can't be too proud of themselves over Ray Felton or Sean May (total attempt to woo UNC fans), but Morrison was a total bust, and is out of the league in the near future. And maybe this is me selectively picking an instance where I happened to be right, but I fully expected Morrison to bomb in the NBA. His college game was amazingly dependent on leaping into traffic and jacking up half-wild shots, and I didn't think there was any way he could get away with that in the league facing uberathletes every night.

Brandon Roy was right there (but he wasn't going to be a SUPERstar like Morrison), Rudy Gay would have given them exactly what they wanted (a 2/3 that could play next to Wallace and give them a true scoring option).

 

Who was not available with the second pick of the draft

 

I think Dwight and Okafor are very much similar to Shaq and Alonzo Mourning as the 1st and 2nd picks of their drafts. Dwight's game is similar to Shaq's and Okafor's is similar to Mourning's.

Okafor is definitely not a franchise player but is still very solid big man nevertheless.