The Charlotte Bobcats proved one thing this season: They're not afraid to pay to build a winner. They hired a Hall of Fame coach in Larry Brown and remade the roster with three midseason trades that added tens of millions of dollars to their future payroll.
It's still an open question how successful those moves will make the franchise. Brown is a huge improvement over his predecessor, Sam Vincent. However, the team's 35-47 record is just two victories better than the season before. Among the acquisitions, Boris Diaw and Raja Bell have helped greatly; Vladimir Radmanovic, DeSagana Diop and Sean Singletary, less so. Brown has said if the current roster had been assembled before training camp, the Bobcats would have been a safe bet for the playoffs. That sounds right, however that's as much a reflection of the competition (Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit) as the Bobcats' improvement.
Just holding ground this summer will be expensive, since starting point guard Raymond Felton becomes a restricted free agent. His qualifying offer (about $5.5 million), plus what the Bobcats will pay a lottery pick should press the team within a few million of the luxury-tax threshold, and managing partner Michael Jordan says this team won't be a tax-payer.
There are still holes in the roster. Some nagging injuries to Raja Bell showed this team needs a reliable backup shooting guard who could also play some small forward. Among the current reserves, D.J. Augustin is too small for that job and Radmanovic too tall. It would help greatly if they could get some payroll relief by finding a trade for veteran Nazr Mohammed, the team's third center behind Emeka Okafor and Diop. But it won't be easy finding a taker for the remaining two seasons and $13 million-plus on his contract.
SEASON HIGHLIGHT: For the second time in three seasons, the Bobcats swept the Los Angeles Lakers. They've now won five of six against the Western Conference's premier franchise and the last of those victories, at home March 31, extended a late-season playoff run -- the first time this team has played consequential games in April.
TURNING POINT: The season's first four months, the Bobcats were good about minimizing losses to bad teams. But the last six weeks, with the playoffs at stake, they lost road games to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Washington Wizards and Oklahoma City Thunder. That knocked them out of the playoff hunt with four games to go.
