We all know the plight of the NBA Blogger today. Keeping traffic flowing, keeping excitement building, all the while the NBA and Players Association are stamping out any embers of that with their lack of movement and seeming to be happy to put a season on hold, if not partially, completely. While I search every day for something that I find interesting, let alone something I think you, gentle reader, will find interesting, I come across odd mentions of the team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. A google news search today turns up mostly, (#humblebrag) my stories, a good bit about Javaris Crittenton, a One-On-One Interview with Kemba Walker (more later, if it turns out interesting) and then this little gem from the geniuses at Hardwood Paroxysm.
It’s part of their series on “Lost” seasons that began with Charlotte Bobcats’ own Boris Diaw’s “lost” season of ’05-’06, the one where he won Most Improved Player and helped the Suns become elite. It’s a good series, highlighting things that seemingly came out of nowhere, got little to no fanfare and faded from all but the most dedicated NBA junkies’ memory. The one we’re looking at now is about the ’10-’11 Knicks, specifically prior to the trade deadline that brought Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups and sent out, well just about everyone but Amar’e Stoudemire and Eddy Curry’s unmovable contract. When I searched the page, in my tenacity to see how the Bobcats were mentioned in any of this I came across the following: “showed that the improved shooting touch from his final Bobcat season wasn’t a fluke;” “beating up on the likes of the Kings and the Bobcats and the Raptors did just that.” and finally “years of potential being held back by a Charlotte Bobcats uniform.”
I’m trying not to be defensive, as a Bobcats apologist…rather, sorry, a fan. I have to disagree with this, rather easy, characterization of the Charlotte Bobcats. First, the Knicks hardly “beat up” on the Bobcats. The season series was 1-2 in the Knicks favor but their two wins came by a combined total of 7 points. The Bobcats lost the first meeting by 3 and the very next night by 4 and actually, after the trade deadline, the Bobcats “beat up” the new Knicks by 8. So if it were an aggregate score as far as who won the season series, the Bobcats would have actually won by 1. But when you’re trying to marginalize everyone who doesn’t play in a major metropolis, who doesn’t have a fanbase of 6 to 10 million from which to pull, it’s easy to glaze over the details like actual results.
Easier still, was author Noam Schiller’s comment of Raymond Felton being “held back by a Charlotte Bobcats uniform.” The assertion that simply wearing a uniform could hold a player back, even if it is the Clippers or some other team that literally has been awful longer than the Bobcats have been around, is absolutely absurd. It’s offensive. I know it’s meant to elicit a response and whatever but get serious. Raymond Felton was given opportunity in Charlotte. He was drafted rather than trading up for Chris Paul or Deron Williams, that’s a vote of confidence. Given the chance to start after a mere 28 games as a rookie, behind a veteran, solid player in Brevin Knight, that’s opportunity. Raymond blossomed in a Charlotte Bobcats uniform. He was one of the strongest, toughest players the Bobcats have ever had. If I ranked the Bobcats players on an overall basis, Raymond Felton would be #2 behind Gerald Wallace, the one player who made an All-Star game in a Bobcats uniform.
Other than that, my defensive, “Don’t make fun of my little brother” attitude towards Noam and his dismissive attitude towards my team, I was struck by how much it sucks for Raymond Felton. Think about this. The Bobcats didn’t want him bad enough to pay him; I was going to leave it at they just didn’t want him but that’s not the case. They just
couldn’t make that leap. So, entering the open market with the rest of the free agent crop of 2010 meant waiting on the major chips to fall. Lebron, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, A’mare Stoudemire, all the rest; Ray was in hat second group, the either back up or back-filling behind the big time free agent. Raymond Felton’s agent told me straight up “We’re waiting on the other guys to go wherever they will go” and “We are moving forward as if the Bobcats aren’t an option.” The Knicks, under Jeff D’Antoni, with all his success in his uptempo style and the success Steve Nash had as the point guard in that system became the front runner.
Raymond Felton picked the Knicks, with D’Antoni and A’mare. Knowing that the 2012 free agent class might be just as big, the Knicks or somebody talked Ray into taking a two year contract when others were getting 5. There were other offers and other options, I’m certain, but Ray picked the Knicks. He caught on there, and all the things that Schiller says are true, his shooting was legit and he did run a pretty good team with a great open system that allowed him to be a point guard and not a guy who ran plays drawn up by an old stalwart of the game. I don’t think any of his success in New York had anything to do with the different uniform but everything to do with the system. Put D’Antoni with the Bobcats with Raymond Felton at point guard and I’d say it’d be better than what we saw under Larry Brown.
Then the Carmelo Anthony situation came to a head. The trades were discussed, shot down, changed teams, changed who was involved and then the trade deadline was quickly approaching and the deal went through. Chauncey Billups was lumped in with Carmelo and sent to New York and Raymond Felton was sent to Denver. All that deciding and planning and careful selection, giving up several more years of guaranteed money all went down the drain. That bright future with Amar’e Stoudemire and Mike
D’Antoni and whoever else they might bring in, gone. He was headed to Denver to play with whoever was left and about half his teammates from the Knicks that went with him. He was also, now, in a new system with a new coach in George Karl and behind a guy who followed his illustrious career at Carolina. A much younger and less experienced Ty Lawson started ahead of Raymond Felton for his first few weeks and months in Denver. Talk about high to low. Ray took it in stride, ended up pulling out the starters job and helped lead a resurgent Denver squad that everyone thought would be gutted and useless without Carmelo Anthony.
It’s not what he wanted, I’m pretty sure. He, like the rest of the guys involved in that deal outside of Anthony, didn’t end up where they had picked, even Billups. I thought it was just a raw deal, especially for Ray, who took that 2 year deal. Well, that first year split between New York and Denver will be followed by his second being in Portland. It might be the best thing for him, a draft day trade for Andre Miller, reuniting him with Bobcats teammate Gerald Wallace on a team that has some strong talent that actually pushed the World Champs farther than any other team did in the playoffs.
I guess unintended consequences sometimes work out. I just hated it for Raymond and that Hardwood Paroxysm post reminded me of it. I’m attached to the guy, what can I say? I think his addition to the Portland Trailblazers will solidify them as my second favorite team in the league though. I hope for the best for him and hope things like the Knicks and Carmelo Anthony aren’t the wave of the future for the NBA. There are so many people that get steamrolled and lives turned over and upside-down because of the whims of the “elite” in the NBA. It’s not right, 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.