With the #1 pick the Charlotte Bobcats take... - darkwolf80's Blog

darkwolf80's Blog

With the #1 pick the Charlotte Bobcats take...

Posted on February 5, 2014 at 10:12 PM.

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So here we are draft day 2014. It seems like only days ago that Michael gave me that fateful call and convinced me to take over his team. Now I have three years left to prove him right for picking a rookie GM.

All the pre-draft tasks are complete. We accepted the team extensions on Gilchrist and Walker. I had to make the hard decision to move on from Biyombo. He's a great kid, but just wasn't ready for the NBA and I can't wait around for him to blossom. I have to improve the roster sooner than later, and his 4mil extension could be used better in other areas. In addition, Josh McRoberts picked up his player option of 2mil. I wasn't thrilled about that, but it provides us with a veteran presence and a possible trade asset later on.
In addition we had a couple of free agents that I decided to not make offers to. Ben Gordon being the one name of note. He was willing to come back but I wanted his cap space to make a run at someone younger.

I couldn't wait for my first draft to start. Especially with our good fortune of winning the lottery and having the number one pick. I have gotten some dirty looks from Rob Henigan on the draft floor. I don't think he liked the fact that after our swap of picks we ended up with #1 and him #6.

So the first pick in the draft, who do we take? That is the question. All the mock drafts have us taking J. Parker. Our decision was coming down to a main three: J.Parker, A. Wiggins, and J.Randle. They all looked like they could be superstars down the line. And although the Bobcats did just draft Gilchrist two years ago for the SF, either he or one of those guys above could play PF in stretches. I had told Michael he couldn't say anything about how I ran the team so this choice was totally on me.

In the end I went with the kid down the road from Duke University, Jabari Parker. He has a NBA ready body and being a local college kid was going to help on the marketing side. At least at draft time it was a no lose pick. Now to see how we can get him and Gilchrist on the floor at the same time.

I gave Parker a ring to let him know before Silver announced his name.
"Hello?"
"Hey Jabari, this is Steven GM of the Bobcats."
"Hey man nice to hear from you. I hear around that you can get me some original Air Jordans?"
"I can probably do that for our number one pick of 2014."
"Awesome.. hey wait did you say number one pick?"
"Yep."
"Are you kidding me?"
"Nope."
"Really? Cause Rob Henigan called and told me that you were a prankster and to not trust anything you say.Come to think of it he was pretty pissed at you for something."
"Rob just can't stand I'm in it to win. How about you, you want bring the franchise to the promised land?"
"Hell yeah!"
"Then Welcome to the Bobcats!"

Comments

# 1 BlindSideNZ @ Feb 5

Niiiiice! Excellent pick! Man this as as much novel as it is 2k! I can't wait to see how Jabari's career unfolds. Sorry about it Henigan. Maybe next time!