So instead of a Charlotte Bobcats home opener tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks, you get ... reports of another upcoming meeting between the NBA and its players association. And likely more posturing over a lockout that absolutely could have been settled without the cancellation of games.

But now all of November is lost, including what would have been tonight against the Bucks. What would you have seen, were the Bobcats playing tonight at Time Warner Cable Arena? Observer NBA writer Rick Bonnell observes and predicts:

A big game and at least one good line from Stephen Jackson: The former Bobcats captain would have been playing his first game against his old team. His parting shot, after hearing he’d been traded to the Bucks on draft night, was to suggest management wasn’t really trying to win the second half of last season, implying that was a factor in how much he played on that bad hamstring.

(If anything, it was the opposite: I thought coach Paul Silas gave Jackson too much input in deciding whether he was healthy enough, not only to play, but play effectively.)

Corey Maggette’s home debut: Before the lockout broke off contact between players and coaches, Silas assured new Bobcat Maggette that he’d be penciled in as the starting small forward and that he wouldn’t have to play much, if any, at power forward, where the Bucks sometimes used him.

Taking on Maggette’s remaining contract was the price of acquiring that extra lottery pick. Without that deal, the Bobcats would have missed out on either Bismack Biyombo or Kemba Walker.

Maggette’s probably in the backstretch of his career, but anyone who can score in the halfcourt has to be an asset for a team replacing Jackson and Gerald Wallace.

Walker – instant offense: Bobcats owner Michael Jordan sees some of himself in Walker, the star of Connecticut’s national championship team. Jordan loves Walker’s attacking offensive style and competitive nature.

Biyombo, a shot blocker-rebounder, was the higher draft pick, but Walker figures to have more immediate impact, at least off the bench. Walker’s gift in college was a stop-and-go mid-range game that usually created separation from any defender. But the guards are generally bigger and faster in the NBA. Does that same move create the same advantage in the pros?

Is Biyombo even here? Biyombo, raised in the Congo, played professionally in Spain last season. That Spanish team still holds his rights, and wants a seven-figure transfer fee to release him from that contract to play for the Bobcats.

Over the summer the NBA asked FIBA, basketball’s governing body, for a release letter on Biyombo. FIBA declined to do that because the Spanish Federation sees this as an enforceable contract. None of this is urgent until the lockout ends, but NBA rules limit what the Bobcats can pay toward that buyout. The rest is probably paid by Biyombo from his rookie contract.

A healthy Gerald Henderson: Unexpected hip surgery, to realign Henderson’s leg, put him in rehab throughout the off-season. Pushing back the start of training camp by at least a month gave Henderson extra time to heal before that leg is tested in practices and games.

Henderson is a big part of this roster, based on his improvement the second half of last season.