Chapter 6: The Darkness Before Dawn
Before the trade deadline for the new season, the Bobcats made a surprising but plausible big trade, and the centerpiece of the trade was the current "Elvis" Gerard Wallace.
Why is it surprising? Because Wallace was the last member of the Bobcat team at the beginning of the Bobcats, Wallace's departure represented the departure of all members of the Bobcats team at the beginning of the team in 2004, Wallace in the Bobcats, from an unknown little man to an All-Star star, is the team's cornerstone player, and was traded this year Wallace was only 28 years old, just in the year of play, before the new season was traded, a total of 48 games were played, Averaging 15.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks per game, the performance is still very good, and such a star was traded without warning, which really surprised everyone. But why does this deal make sense? Things have to start on January 28, 2009, on this day, Charlotte Hornets away to challenge the Los Angeles Lakers, the final game went through two overtimes, the Bobcats won 117-110, the game happened extremely dark, there were 2 minutes and 08 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Gerald Wallace held the ball and made a layup, Bynum, who was standing under the basket, saw that he couldn't prevent it, so he hit Wallace's ribs with his shoulder, and then Wallace fell to the ground and looked extremely painful, Bynum was only awarded a malicious foul, after the game, the doctor's diagnosis shocked everyone, Wallace had a non-displacement fracture of the left rib, 30%-40% of the left lung atrophy, this injury is directly equivalent to the ruin of Wallace's career, the lung problem directly affects the player's physical strength, thus affecting the player's playing time, before this season, Wallace has averaged 38.6 minutes per game since he started the game, and after this season, Wallace's average playing time per game has dropped to 32.6 minutes, and only 3 seasons later, the former All-Star forward has been reduced to a bench player, and everyone can imagine the gap, so it makes sense for the Bobcats to trade Wallace before his injury is fully out.
On February 25, 2011, Charlotte Bobcats completed a whistle-blowing trade with the Portland Trail Blazers, trading Gerald Wallace for Trail Blazers defensive center Joel Pulzbilla power forward Dante Cunningham and two first-round picks. Neither Portsbilla nor Cunningham were offered contracts with the Bobcats at the end of the season, with the former returning to Portland for $1.15 million a year and the latter being acquired by the Memphis Grizzlies for three years and $6.3 million.
On November 21, 2010, the Charlotte Hornets defeated the Phoenix Suns 123-105, in which Stephen Jackson had 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, the first triple-double in the history of the Bobcats, and throughout the season, Jackson averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, and his 41.1% shooting percentage proved that his efficiency was not high enough, He was in full attendance in 82 games, averaging 14.4 points and 6.1 assists per game, although the shooting rate of 41.6% is not high, but it is expensive to be young, there is still room for improvement, Boris Dior also played 82 games, averaging 11.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, shooting nearly 50%, Terrence Thomas, who spent a lot of money this season, only played 41 games because of injuries, Averaging 10.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game is a decent average, sophomore rookie Gerard Henderson struggled with starters and benches throughout the season, and finally he played 68 games, starting 30 of them, averaging 9.6 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, and the newly signed Shaun Livingston became the team's bench wonder, he played 73 games, all as a bench, averaging 6.6 points per game, 2.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists.
In the 2010-2011 season, the Charlotte Hornets were just three wins away from the playoffs, and they ended up winning 34 games and were excluded from the playoffs.
On June 24, 2011, on the eve of the draft, the Bobcats, Bucks and Kings completed a whistle-blowing trade in which the Bobcats sent Stephen Jackson to the Bucks, and the Bucks got Corey Margetty from the Bucks and the No. 7 pick from the Kings at the 2011 Rookie Conference.
The successive departures of Gerard Wallace and Stephen Jackson mark that the team has officially entered a period of rebuilding, Margeti is a very special player, his defense is very good, but on the offensive end, he basically does not run without the ball, no ball in his hand is a scumbag, there are all kinds of singles, all kinds of jump shots, the strength of the upper body is comparable to LeBron James, very good at making fouls, and the free throws are accurate, there has been a single game without scoring a goal, only relying on free throws to score 20+ records, at the peak is also a 20+5 good scorers, but the 2011-2012 season is Margety's last second season in the NBA, no matter how brave he used to be, now he is old, what's worse is that Margeti is introverted, piggybacking a little withdrawn, basically doesn't get along with players and coaches, Margeti once played for the Clippers for eight years, and finally left the Clippers to join the Warriors due to discord with head coach Mike Dunleavy.
In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Bobcats added a number of reinforcements, and the Kings' No. 7 pick in the first round was traded to the Bobcats for Bismarck Biyombo of Congo, and the Bobcats selected star point guard Kemba Walker from the University of Connecticut with the No. 9 pick in the first round.
Bismarck Biyombo is a very interesting player, born in 1992 and only 19 years old this year, with a lot of potential, in 2009 Biyombo was still playing for a fourth-tier team in Spain, two years later, he has been playing in the NBA, Biyombo has a very good physical condition, muscles, strength is also very outstanding, which makes him grow into a good player on the defensive end, but on the offensive end, he still looks a little embarrassed, with almost nothing footwork and offensive skills, all by the development of the day after tomorrow.
Kemba Walker clearly has a better chance of being a cornerstone player than Biyombo, Walker was a hip-hop player in college, so he has a lot of flexibility and agility, and he has a strong body that can shoot inside, and he can shoot three-pointers from the outside, and more importantly, Walker is a very selfless passer who can quickly find his own position in the game. In his rookie season, Walker mainly played for Augustin off the bench, averaging 12.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 27.2 minutes per game.
On December 20, 2011, the Bobcats gave the Thunder a second-round draft pick, and got the center Byron Mullins, who has never had a chance to perform, Mullins is 213 cm tall and plays as a center, but he has a very soft touch, and often has a very explosive performance after the wind is smooth, and Mullins has become the most dynamic player on the Bobcats' bench in the new season.
This season of the Bobcats is an extremely dark period, the season suffered a wave of the third longest in history 23 consecutive losses, the whole season their theme is "losing", in the end in this semi-shrinking season, the Bobcats only won 7 wins and 59 losses, its 10.6% win rate is even lower than the 1972-1973 season Philadelphia 76ers 9-73-11.1% win rate, it is also a joke, once led the Bulls to 72-10 87.8% of the highest winning rate in history, Michael Jordan, the basketball god Now he has led the Bobcats to the lowest win rate in history.
Gerard Henderson is thoroughly on top, starting all 55 games he has played. Averaging a team-high 15.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, new recruit Corey Margety is averaging 15.0 points and 3.96 rebounds per game, Augustin is the starting No. 1 and averaging 11.1 points and 6.4 assists per game, Boris Dio has only played in 37 games this season, averaging a career-low 7.4 points per game, in addition to contributing 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists, Tyren Thomas, and Biyombo are rotating between the starting center positions, with the former averaging only 5.6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game, and the latter only 5.2 and 5.8 rebounds, overall, this season has been an incredibly dark season for the Bobcats, but just as the so-called darkness is the eve of the dawn, the poor record allowed the Bobcats to get the 2012 draft pick, and they selected Michael Kidd Gilchrist, or McGee, from the University of Kentucky. In terms of physical fitness, McGee is a natural basketball No. 3 player, bounce, explosiveness, strength and awareness are very good, but the shortcomings are also obvious, that is, poor shooting skills, in addition to rushing to the basket in the positional battle, there is also a lack of other effective means of scoring, and even more against the sky is his shooting posture, I never knew that anyone else could shoot like this before I saw McGee, McGee occupied the team's starting No. 3 position in the first season when he came to the Bobcats, He is averaging 9.0 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while shooting a modest 45.8 percent from the field.
Last season's endless failures have added new young players to the team, but also caused some other players to lose confidence in the team, Boris Dio is one of them, the power forward who played 260 games for the Bobcats fled the "city of failure" by signing a buyout agreement with the team at the end of last season, and now Dior has scored 3,010 points for the Bobcats to rank eighth in the all-time rankings, and 1,381 rebounds and 1,107 assists are both fifth. Ranked eighth with 204 tackles and sixth with 166 blocks, the all-rounder is the best compliment for Dior.
After the draft, the Bobcats did not give last season's starting point guard DJ Augustin a contract because they wanted to prop up Kemba Walker's position, and they also signed a two-year, $10 million contract with the more cost-effective point guard Ramon Sessions, who made a name for himself on April 15, 2009 for the Bucks with 20 points, 24 assists, and eight rebounds.
Although Augustine is a standard ranger, he has also had a place in the Bobcats, which have a lot of history and culture, ranking seventh in Bobcats history with 3,056 points and fourth in team history with 1,241 assists.