The Hornets jolted the West in 2008, nearly taking the first seed in the conference one season after missing the postseason entirely. After waxing Dallas in what would become Avery Johnson's final playoff series there, the Hornets went all the way to Game 7 against the defending champion Spurs. The Hornets lost, and didn't get close in 2008-09.
You can believe one of three things. The Hornets' short triumph could be over, more flash in the sky than formation of a new star. The Hornets could have experienced just a brief setback, a defeat at the hands of a bad match-up and an injury-riddled season. Or, the Hornets could have just ran into some structural problems in need of fixing, which they possibly have this summer.
The Bobcats are a playoff contender. I know it sounds weird. If you need to take a few minutes to repeat that to yourself in order to suspend belief in pursuit of finishing this column, feel free. I'll wait.
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Ready? Okay, let's begin. The Bobcats are a playoff contender, and have been since Larry Brown decided to dump his best player (Jason Richardson) to Phoenix for jack-of-all-trades-master-of-awkward-spacing Boris Diaw and older than dirt Raja Bell. When that trade occurred, there was universal questioning of what in the carolina blue blazes Larry Brown was thinking. You don't ditch your best player!
The Tim Thomas signing in Dallas makes it official: Free agency is winding down. Yeah, Lamar Odom is still out there and so are David Lee and a few others. But once you get to Tim Thomas, it means that Free Agency 2009 is poised to jump the shark.
Whatever the opposite of a difference-maker is, that's Thomas. Dallas will be the seventh NBA stop for Thomas, who was selected with the No. 7 pick in the 1997 draft. Yes, Thomas is talented, and, yes, he can stretch the floor with his 3-point shooting.
But we've heard those things for 12 years now. The reality of the situation is that Thomas will either be unhappy with limited minutes in Dallas or he'll get plenty of playing time there, meaning the Mavs aren't going to be going anywhere.
How a trade will affect someone's individual numbers seems like a minor concern, a question for the bored or insane. But when it comes to Chris Paul, and more specifically Chris Paul's passing, and even more specifically Chris Paul's alley oops, the value of discussion covers a wider swath of basketball fandom. Paul-to-Tyson Chandler is such an infamous part of today's NBA that we mourned its loss the last time Chandler got traded.
The conventional wisdom is that while Chandler is bombastic in the air, a true finisher, incoming Hornet Emeka Okafor is seen more as a deliberate, below-the-rim pivot player. That would seem to bode poorly for our visions of soft lobs and vicious hammers, and also for Paul's assist numbers.
But actually, Okafor will probably help Paul on offense.
On balance, most agree the Bobcats would come out as the losers in the talent portion of the trade of Emeka Okafor to New Orleans for Tyson Chandler. Both are keystone defenders, but 'Meka is more well-rounded and (lately) more healthy. On offense, Chandler is completely single-minded, whereas Okafor holds some modicum of control over his talents in the post.
So the angle for Charlotte in making this trade would be financial. But the Bobcats take on a minor amount of extra salary the next two seasons in the deal, and now have only $25 million in salary locked up in 2011-12. Okafor wasn't exactly putting the Bobcats on the brink of the luxury tax, in other words.
But there's one more financial angle: the idea Okafor long contract presented a problem in Robert Johnson's sale of the team.
ESPN bulldog Marc Stein hit first today with a rumor that the Hornets and Bobcats are working on a swap of centers Emeka Okafor and Tyson Chandler. The Associated Press has since reported the same. As you'll imagine, this news is puzzling onlookers, as New Orleans has been thought to be looking to offload Chandler for nothing, whereas Okafor is a whole lotta something. As in, $62.5 million over the next five years.
If the trade happens as reported, with no other players tossed in, New Orleans might sneak in under the luxury tax by a hair. (This deal would save them $1.8 million as presently constructed.)
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.
"Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous, there's really nothing to lose." -Jewel
And really, what says "Charlotte Bobcats" like Jewel?
The Lottery is littered with teams that failed to meet expectations. Their hopes broken, their efforts for naught, they're left with nothing but frustration and depression. They limp towards the offseason with hope for nothing more than pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.
The Charlotte Bobcats have widely been considered a joke over the last five years for several reasons. Kind of a silly name. Already lost one franchise to New Orleans. Michael Jordan and a passion for North Carolina players.
Today they've got a huge opportunity to shake off that reputation versus a former Eastern Conference title contender, pull within 1.5 of that team, and further the notion that this franchise has turned a corner. Or they can lose their third straight to playoff teams and confirm their skeptics' worst criticism: They're just not that good.
Let's talk a little bit about Charlotte versus Detroit, tonight at 6PM EST.
The NBA features an 82 game season. As such, some weird stuff is going to happen. The Clippers will beat the Celtics. The Kings will beat the Suns. And often times, they're simply the result of back-to-backs, injuries, or that most crucial of variables: a bad shooting night.
But tonight was kind of different. As Robin Williams once said (yeah, I'm quoting Robin Williams, you got a problem with that?), "It's not the end of civilization, but you can see it from there."
Okay, two lottery (most likely) teams beat two perennial contenders. Your average bizarro night. But there were things in these wins that forecast the future.
FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.
FanHouse 
The 
How a trade will affect someone's individual numbers seems like a minor concern, a question for the bored or insane. But when it comes to 
On balance, most agree the Bobcats would come out as the losers in the talent portion of the trade of 
ESPN bulldog Marc Stein 
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, 
The Charlotte Bobcats have widely been considered a joke over the last five years for several reasons. Kind of a silly name. Already lost one franchise to New Orleans. 
The NBA features an 82 game season. As such, some weird stuff is going to happen. The Clippers will beat the Celtics. The Kings will beat the Suns. And often times, they're simply the result of back-to-backs, injuries, or that most crucial of variables: a bad shooting night. 
