Man alive, I just had a scary thought. With David Stern and Billy Hunter, and all their subordinates, headed to a meeting on Wednesday, what if they just figure it all out and end the lockout this week? Dream on, right? But where do the Charlotte Bobcats sit right now, in the world of the NBA? It’s got to be discussed. Even if the lockout doesn’t end this week, because there is no business, no discussions between teams and players whatsoever, the situation will be the same as today.
Let’s start from the top down. The owner, Michael Jordan enters his second full season as majority owner. A lot of people have called for MJ to have a more significant role in, well everything. People who assess the league and this labor situation have, in the most simple way, expected Jordan to be more involved in the discussions of the CBA. Being a former player and the only one to become a majority owner, he has a distinctly different viewpoint, that’s easy to see. It’s even easier to blame Michael if he doesn’t step up or step in and get involved. It’s not his M.O. to do that. He’s not going to do that because he knows, whatever room he enters he instantly becomes the focal point. He doesn’t want to draw unwanted attention. Call it reverse modesty, call it whatever you want but that’s my read and why I figure you won’t see him at any meetings.
So, if it bothers you, his lack of involvement, you don’t like Michael Jordan as owner of the Bobcats. I’m not so concerned with that myself. I don’t need him wearing a
smedium t-shirt, taking shoot-around with the team every day and acting as general manager. We saw that in Washington, didn’t work there. I’m happy with him sitting at the end of the bench, hat sorta low, getting on referees when needed and talking up whichever player happens to be sitting next to him. My issue came when his laissez faire ownership was coupled with poor personnel decisions. He became quite the homer there for a while, hiring his old Carolina buddies and former teammates, worst of which was Sam Vincent as head coach. Well, as things have and haven’t worked, the Bobcats have had a good bit of turnover. Rod Higgins has been the constant. Well, Jordan stepped out of his comfort zone just before the draft this year and hired someone he hadn’t worked with in new general manager, Rich Cho.
Rich Cho, only had that one year, actually not even a year, hired just after the draft and then fired about a month before the next one, worked in Portland and before that, for a long time, as assistant general manager in Oklahoma City and Seattle. He’s a sharp guy, everyone is happy with him being hired, many calling it Michael Jordan’s best decision as the owner of the Bobcats. He is certainly analytical and calculating. He worked the trade that sent Gerald Wallace to Portland and now he has to deal with the other side of it as well. His hire promoted Rod Higgins, but I feel like they work hand in hand. Between Rich’s analysis and Rod’s basketball acumen, I think they have one of the more intriguing front offices in the league. Rich is a bit of a rising star, I’m not sure he’s proven he can be the man, although he didn’t do bad in Portland, he was fired after all. The combo is what I think will help in the long term. They already worked a draft day trade that was somewhat epic and I think the draft went incredibly well. If the team is set to rebuild, rebuild. Gather assets (Rich’s word) and make it work as well as you can and I think those two will do that.
When we look at coaching, I don’t think it’s that sort of “sexy” coaching staff that elicits “oohh” and “ahh” out of casual observers. Paul Silas was a great back-up plan to Larry Brown and his staff. I couldn’t be more happy that they actually cleaned house and rehired the entire coaching staff rather than promoting some of the guys further down the bench from old man Brown. All of those guys were “his” guys and wouldn’t be enough of a change to help last year. There was a definite difference between pre-deadline and post-deadline as far as on-court production went for Paul Silas and his team. I don’t think that’s his fault. I also think that he’s somewhat disconnected from the front office, which can be a good thing. I say that because just before the trade deadline, once rumors started to leak out, Coach Silas said “No, Gerald Wallace isn’t going anywhere.” Well, the very next day, Gerald was packing for Portland and Bobcats fans were trying to figure out who the hell Dante Cunningham and Joel Przybilla are. I say it’s good because he can simply coach what he’s given. Larry Brown was far too involved in roster decisions and thought it was his place to determine what he had to work with, rather than making the best with what he had. Silas is seemingly, exceedingly optimistic with what he’s got. He’s even said, regarding “rebuilding” that if you ask his current players they’d say they can match up with anyone on any given night, and I think he believes it too.
I’m happy with Paul Silas having a 1 year extension. I think he offers stability to a young roster. He took over mid-season when he stepped into the head coaching role with a young Hornets squad and he’s doing the same with the Bobcats and I think that he can really coach up what the Bobcats have. The issue is, it’s a 1 year extension. What do the Bobcats do after next season, whenever that might take place? As fans tend to do, they see simple things that they would like to see as legitimate options. I have even posited that Paul’s son, Stephen Silas could take over. Bottom line is we’re talking about a 68 year old coach that has had some health issues in the past, following a lengthy pro basketball career. He’s not the answer for more than a year or two and I’m not sold that Stephen is ready to step up.
One thing I do like that the team has done, as it relates to the coaching staff, is hiring Rob Werdann. He’s a good big-man coach and with the health and legal issues to Charles Oakley, who came into last season’s mid-year shakeup with no experience anyway, Werdann is a great addition to Stephen, Ralph Lewis and maybe Oakley.
I think at the top, the executives and coaches have the Bobcats in a good situation, for the situation they’re in. Larry Brown wouldn’t work with a rebuilding team. I don’t think Rod Higgins alone could rebuild either. The additions and replacements are perfectly suited, in my mind anyway.
Andrew Barraclough is Senior Editor for RobertoGato.com, a Charlotte Bobcats Blog on theFansided Network. Follow him on Twitter @therobertogato and Like the site on Facebook.