could this ride to the playoffs be a short one?

[pantherfool]

I was looking at the money that we are on the hook for in the upcoming seasons. We owe Boris Diaw 9 mil a year for the next 2 years and Diop will get almost 7 mil a year for the next 3!! We will owe Nazr 6.8 next season. and Felton will want to get paid.

There are smarter people than me out there when it comes to this stuff. But it seems to me that it will be harder get a free agent since we have so much money tied up in mediocre players. Not to mention Chandler's 12.75 mil player option

Are we handcuffed by these guys?

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/charlotte.htm

[pantherfool]

Also since we will not be in the lottery this season we will lose our 1st rounder due to a trade we made several years ago with Denver.

[pdandy1994]

we need to get rid of Diop. He's awful considering hes getting paid that much.

[cdandi1]

we need to restructure some deals...idk how that works or if thats even an option. Felton needs to be paid and should be. He runs the team very well. IMO

[Panthers128]

we need to restructure some deals...idk how that works or if thats even an option. Felton needs to be paid and should be. He runs the team very well. IMO

lol, unfortunately there is no such thing as restructuring deals in the NBA. In the NFL, signing bonuses are guaranteed money. In the NBA, every single penny is guaranteed money. All you can do is trade contracts like we did with Emeka Okafor and get perhaps shorter contracts in return or if we have any soon to expire contracts, we can trade those to teams wanting to clear the books in the near future.

I'd like Felton to stay in Charlotte, but he needs to be realistic about his value, and so should the Bobcats. We don't want to make the same mistake we did with Okafor. The fact is right now Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson are our best players and we don't exactly have a ton of cap space, so we can't just go throw a ton of money at our #3 option.

[pantherfool]

after looking into Chandlers deal, I realize that his money isn't too bad considering that we traded Okafor who would have ate up as much money per yr and for alot more years. So that contract isn't bad IF we can get him on the court.

[Zaximus]

I think Nazr has played well enough this year to where we may be able to trade him and his contract won't be TOO bad for that team. Diaw probably has some value. We're stuck with Diop, worst contract ever.

The NBA has a "soft cap" so there's all kinds of things we can do. It's a matter of what Bob Johnson and Jordan want/can spend. If we keep Felton we'll have about the same team.

It could be worse, at least Nazr is producing for us. Think about this season if he WASN'T here?

Maybe if we do well this year, make playoffs, etc, they'll want to keep investing. We just need people to show up to the games.

[pantherfan49]

Most NBA teams have some bad contracts. The Bobs aren't any different. I see the Bobs being in the 5-8 seed range of the East for several years to come (though LB probably won't be here past 2011).

Also, draft picks are typically overrated so don't put too much emphasis on them. The Bobs have gotten very little contribution from the NBA draft. Felton took 5 years to become a serviceable PG, DJ is likely always going to be a marginal PG, Oke was solid but unspectacular, Sean May was fat, Morrison was awful, Brandon Wright hasn't produced much, Ajinca is a flop, and Hendo hasn't come off the bench all season. Dudley and UPS have been solid finds in the NBA draft.

[YoungPanthers89]

i just hope we get in to get some recognition on this "small market" team

[RedMage138]

We traded Matt Carroll for Diop basically one bad contract for another. Diop's contract will be valuable in a couple of years and we may be able to move Nazr and Chandler next year. There are several teams who may be looking to trade vets for expiring contracts. You can go over the cap to resign your own players so I don't think keeping Felton will be that big of a deal as long as ownership is willing to spend money.