Hellraiser
Little by little, the window closes after seeing that brief glimmer of sunshine. Last year, after a hot start led by nameless faces and stars of yesteryear, the tracks ran cold in the winter months only to be red hot come the spring. Veterans and stars of another time raising their game in the Queen city to an 8th place finish in the Eastern Conference and battling the Wizards to 6 hard fought games before that window closed. Our destination was sealed the moment we made a move for the present. Battier helped in everyway that he could along with one of the greatest players in SLOE history, Shawn Kemp, but it wasn't good enough. It was overkill in a way but prophetic that we couldn't escape what we were trying to improve. The time for Rock n' Roll was silenced but only for a little.
Whorehouse Blues
What are you gonna do with spare parts choking up your salary cap? What are you going to do with stable veterans choking up space when they're merely forgotten toys from the other side of the tracks. Jacque Vaughn, Antoine Walker, and Jerome James, all had to find new homes in new places for the ultimate plan to workout. I watched and saw players I signed last season or drafted be thrown around in various trades where they were rode more than tires with bubbles in them. Clearly teams don't care about the cap they sow as long as the end justifies the means. When the margin for error is that thin, no one is gonna want to take in your strays to help you with your tax blues before you have to throw up the white flag and abandon ship.
Brotherhood of Man
Going into RFA, we valued the course of action to retain our core. We were confident going in that we'd retain Richard Jefferson and hopeful that Zach Randolph would value the time and commitment we've both put in to establishing his home here in Charlotte. We gave Shane Battier a fair offer in our mind that was on the table for him to sign but he chose to sign with Utah. That presented us with the negotiations with our good friend, Prej, who understood the value of Battier clearly to his squad, even with Tim Duncan entering the final year of his contract and an unknown asset if Bonzi would resign. We valued Iggy ever since he was drafted and the deal that was presented to us from Utah was too good to pass up. We view Iggy as that next piece to our franchise that overtime will grow and love to play in Charlotte with the likes of RJeff and ZBo who all put in great efforts to improve over the offseason.
Chase is Better Than The Catch
Another target during RFA with the renewed flexibility was targeting a guy like Tyson Chandler. A young and defensively stout center that we felt deserved the kind of max contract we had the ability to offer. The negotiations with the Kings were very smooth and we almost had a deal struck which would've rivaled that of Herschel Walker in terms of compensation but it was not to be. The Kings matched. With the Kings matching, this was the second year in a row forcing another team to be stuck with an overvalued contract but we know how much Sacramento loves placating to their TMacOP star. All is well otherwise, satisfied progressing towards the next stop in free agency.
Eat The Rich
Playing against the Wizards, Anthony Johnson completely overmatched Jacque Vaughn which was to be expected.The Wizards used their size to overcome the speed and shiftiness of the wings and Kemp. We had a hole at the 1 and 5 and addressed one of those needs by signing AJ to be our primary 1 to a short term contract which he promptly ate over the offseason, arriving a little more plump than we expected, showing his age and wear and tear. We also signed former Hornet point guard, Damon Stoudamire to a one year deal and used the remaining cap to sign vets on vet mins deals still leaving a hole at the 5 but we'll make due with what we got. At least the Wizards took to heart the aftermath of winning 63 regular season games to be bounced out of the second round.
Ace of Spades
Oh yeah, we're moving...
