Bobcats trade Okafor, original Face of the Franchise

By: Matt

Today the Charlotte Bobcats traded Emeka Okafor to the New Orleans Hornets for their center Tyson Chandler. The swap marks only the most recent of the connections between the teams. The Bobcats were founded in 2004 as a result of the Hornets relocation to New Orleans. In 2004 the expansion Bobcats had the 2nd pick, but drafted Emeka Okafor, a player widely considered the best talent in the draft. At the time, it seemed that the Bobcats had the face of their franchise, and that their stay as a lowly expansion team would be short.

Those early expectations for Charlotte have been proven very wrong. Dwight Howard, the player taken before Okafor has proven himself as easily the best player taken in 2004 and possibly the best Center in basketball. Howard’s Magic recently lost the NBA Finals while the Bobcats have yet to record a winning season. The Bobcats today are a much better team than they were in 2004, but they are not the team that anyone expected to see. The expansion franchise has already fired two head coaches, and now has the successful but traditional Larry Brown. Under Brown the team has become competitive by creating roster filled with hard working players with high basketball IQ’s. That description is fitting for Chandler, the big man who will be charged with anchoring Brown’s defense. The Bobcats will likely reach the playoffs within the next few years, but that is a result of an incredibly weak Eastern Conference. After drafting Okafor, the Bobcats added Raymond Felton and Sean May the next year, and Adam Morrison the year after. All 3 players were considered talented athletes with high ceilings. None of them have reached them. May and Morrison couldn’t stay healthy and are now playing elsewhere (Morrison was traded to the Lakers and May was not-resigned this off-season). Felton is still considered a talented young point guard, but he has not lived up to his draft potential and coach Brown has already drafted D.J. Augustin to take Felton’s place.

Trading Okafor has completed a transformation of the Bobcats from a talented but uninspired team into a collection of players who lack truly elite ability but know how to win and play smart basketball. Stated another way; the Bobcats have finally become a Larry Brown basketball team, a smart team with one offensive star. The trade of Emeka Okafor comes as a surprise to many, but it is a smart decision that will give the new Bobcats a more legitimate Center with much greater size. With Larry Brown as coach, and a roster filled with experienced, smart veterans the Bobcats will likely become a contender for an Eastern Conference playoff spot; but one has to wonder, if the Bobcats continue to trade away their draft picks, when will they contend for anything more?