BRANDAN WRIGHT one of the fastest rising stars in the basketball scene.
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Pucks and playoffs
Next week, on a basketball court in Charlotte, surrounded by microphones and recorders and notebooks, Bobcats guard Raymond Felton will open his mouth. Then he will most likely guarantee again that his team will qualify for the NBA Playoffs. This season, he might be right. A year ago, Felton stood in sparkling new Charlotte Bobcats Arena, a ball tucked under one arm, and delivered that guarantee. He talked about how he had always been a winner, about how he wanted to bring his winner's attitude to the NBA, about how the Bobcats were going to play more than 82 games. He believed what he was saying. So did his teammates. Bernie Bickerstaff, then the team's coach and general manager, even joked that Felton was the "spokesman" for the Bobcats' playoff campaign. "I don't see anything crazy about believing," Bickerstaff said. Thing is, after all that hope and hype, the Bobcats didn't deliver. They slumped early and never recovered. They struggled on the floor and, because of plenty of injuries, on the bench, too. They weren't able to finish games and, as a result, finished with a 33-49 record. And they missed the playoffs by seven games. But now, all signs point to the Bobcats putting behind them an annual lottery selection and, like Felton guaranteed last season looking forward to a playoff berth each April. Just look at everything the Bobcats have accomplished since the end of last season: – Bickerstaff stepped down as coach and GM, and stepped into a less-taxing front office position. Bickerstaff is a smart basketball man, but he was asked to do too much for an expansion franchise. In his place, former NBA assistant Sam Vincent will coach the team and veteran Rod Higgins, who built the Golden State Warriors into a playoff team, will oversee personnel moves as the new GM. – On draft night, Higgins & Co. selected North Carolina forward Brandan Wright, then traded him to Golden State for guard Jason Richardson. Though not a popular move in the Tar Heel State, Richardson is a reliable scorer and, when paired with Felton, will provide an excellent backcourt. Brandan Wright, in contrast, is an exciting athlete, but is raw and lacks a slew of basketball skills. – Explosive and underrated forward Gerald Wallace and guard Matt Carroll each signed new contracts – Wallace for $57 million over six seasons, Carroll for $27 million over six – that will provide the team with stability on and off the court through 2013. During their first three seasons, the Bobcats have jumped from 18 wins, to 26, then 33. If they win seven or eight more games this season, especially in the porous Eastern Conference, they could climb to the No. 7 or 8 seed. They have improved their record in close games (they finished 20-27 last season in games decided by 10 points or fewer, as opposed to 18-35 in that situation a season earlier). And they have slowly added the right players and personnel. Plenty of teams, after all, would love to have center Emeka Okafor, forwards Sean May and Adam Morrison, Carroll, Felton, Richardson and Wallace. The Bobcats are a good team. They're young and exciting and might just play more than 82 games this season. Playoffs? Believe it. Nobody sees anything crazy about believing.
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