Curse You, New Jersey

My Bobcats were one pick away from pulling off the draft that I've been hoping to see. Too bad the New Jersey Nets had to go and screw it up. The Nets drafted Louisville forward Terrence Williams at #11, one spot before the Cats scooped up Duke G Gerald Henderson as a consolation prize. Henderson should be a good player (and shut up all the Duke fans who constantly gripe about Charlotte's Tar Heel-centric nature), but after watching T-Will here in Louisville I was very excited about what he would bring to the team. Charlotte rounded out their draft with Xavier power forward Derrick Brown in the second round. I don't know much of anything about him, but hopefully he can provide us with the backup power forward that Sean May never became. How was your team's draft? Weigh in in the comments.

Bobcats Add a Few Pieces

While one could argue that a team that finished 32-50 last year has a whole lot of needs, my Charlotte Bobcats really had two big ones: a point guard to compete with Raymond Felton and a big presence down low to complement Emeka Okafor. Time will ultimately be the judge, but at least on paper the ‘Cats addressed both needs in last night’s NBA Draft.

With the ninth pick, team president Michael Jordan and new coach Larry Brown made the difficult decision to pass on Stanford 7-footer Brook Lopez (who unexpectedly was still available) and pulled the trigger on Texas PG D.J. Augustin. Augustin is small (6-foot even), but he’s a great passer and floor-leader who will provide stiff competition to Felton, who is more of a scorer at the point. Coach Brown is notoriously tough on his point guards, and he apparently couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the guy widely considered to be the second-best PG in the draft behind #1 overall pick Derrick Rose. The Bobcats followed that pick by using next year’s first-rounder to trade back into the bottom of the first round (a bit of a trend among Charlotte pro teams this year) and select 7-foot French center Alexis Ajinca. Ajinca is lean and very raw, but Brown and Jordan were very impressed by his workout earlier this month and decided that he was worth the investment. Having not really seen Ajinca in action here in the U.S., I don’t really know what to think of the pick, but I trust that a championship-winning coach like Brown knows what he’s doing.

The ‘Cats added a tough defender in Washington State guard Kyle Weaver in the second round to round out an encouraging, but not blockbuster, night at the draft. At least Gerald Wallace is still on the roster. Jordan confirmed that a trade of Wallace for Toronto PG T.J. Ford was being considered at the start of the night, but eventually fell through and saw Ford instead dealt to Indiana. Ford’s a good player, but I’ll take Augustin and Wallace together over him any day. Perhaps this is the year the Bobcats finally crack the playoffs for the first time. Any other NBA fans out there? What do you think of your team’s draft last night?

Let the Countdown Begin...

This weekend, the NFL draft was held, which means that football fans everywhere are beginning to envision what their team’s lineup is going to look like this fall. Hope springs anew for everybody on draft day, but the real test will come in August and September as teams come together for training camp and open the regular season. After watching the moves my Panthers made over the weekend, I’m very excited about August and September.

We ended up with two first round picks Saturday, taking Oregon RB Jonathan Stewart with the #13 pick, then trading up to #19 and taking Pitt OT Jeff Otah. Stewart should be a great Stephen Davis-style compliment to DeAngelo Williams in the backfield, but I think I’m actually the most excited about Otah. Take a look at the picture above – Otah’s the guy on the left. Looks big, right? Now consider that the other guy in the picture is 6’3, 300 pounds. Otah is a truck, coming in at 6’6, 340 pounds. Carolina’s never really had a bruising, dominant force on the O-line, like, for example, Orlando Pace has been for St. Louis for the past decade. I think Otah has the raw tools to be that guy. Time will tell if he is.

In the third round, we added DB Charles Godfrey from Iowa who figures to challenge for a starting job at safety right away, plus LB Dan Connor from Penn State. I really don’t know where Connor will fit with the glut of talented linebackers we’ve already got, but it seems coach John Fox and GM Marty Hurney couldn’t pass on a guy in the mid-third round that they felt had late-first/early-second round value. Among our late round selections, TE Gary Barnidge (from…LOUISVILLE!) stands out as another target for Jake Delhomme to look for. All in all, I think this was one of our best drafts since 2001, when we landed Dan Morgan, Kris Jenkins, and Steve Smith. Any other NFL fans out there? What did you think of your team’s weekend?