Bobcats Tanking to Try and Catch Celtics

While participating in a fantasy baseball draft Saturday night, I took to watching the wholly uninteresting Nets-Bobcats game. While the action was up-tempo, Nets 113, Bobcats 107 was missing a certain something. Quality players.

Amazingly, Charlotte took New Jersey to overtime without the services of starters Raymond Felton, Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace and Sean May. The Bobcats startling lineup was unrecognizable; it included former UConn sideburn trendsetter Jake Voskuhl (pictured), seldom-used Argentinian Walter Herrmann and Matt Carroll. Hope they gave the general public free tickets to this one.

There's a good reason for the weak lineup: The Bobcats currently have the third worst record in the NBA, and as the world knows, this is a draft with two franchise players (Greg Oden of Ohio State and Kevin Durant of Texas). It will take a tank job of epic proportions to catch the Celtics. Five games to make up with 10 left in the season may require those four starters not playing again this year.

What would the Bobcats do with the third pick? Yikes. Assuming their prayers aren't answered (landing the No. 1 or No. 2 pick), the next best prospects are Brandan Wright of UNC and Al Horford of Florida. They are post players ... which the Bobcats have an abundance of. May, when healthy, can be a quality power forward in this league, and Okafor is one of the best young centers in the league.

If Gerald Wallace stays, last year's top pick, Adam Morrison, will once again be his backup at small forward. Assuming everyone is healthy, the starting guards now are Felton and oft-injured Brevin Knight - clearly the team's weakness.

Big shooting guards like Nick Young and Corey Brewer are probably a reach at three, so if Bobcats brass plays this right, perhaps they could slide down a bit and get somebody's No. 1 pick next year, too. The better hope this is the case.