"Point-center."

A basketball oxymoron, right? How can a center be a point guard or how could a point guard play center? Imagine an NFL team featuring a player who is half-quarterback/half-nose guard.

And yet "point-center" is the role Charlotte Bobcats coach Paul Silas envisions for Boris Diaw this season. That's partially about circumstance (by default Diaw is their best option at center right now) and partially about skill set (Diaw is by far this team's most creative passer).

So for the Bobcats to have any success, Diaw must excel at many things at once.

"He can get a rebound, take it off the dribble, everyone else is zooming (down-court) and he can either make the pass or take it in and make the layup, himself," Silas described.

"There are so many things we can do if he only buys in. And he will."

Diaw is the most skilled player in Bobcats history and maybe the most enigmatic. This Frenchman seems to live by a term coined in his country - "laissez-faire," as in "let it be." He doesn't force his point-of-view on others, nor is he particularly moved when others force their point-of-view on him.

That intellectual free spirit isn't typical of American sports culture. Bobcats fans get exasperated with the guy. Based on the message boards, he's been called nonchalant, moody, stubborn and overweight.

Diaw chuckled Thursday when asked if he's sick of people telling him to change. "I get asked that a lot," Diaw said. "Doesn't bother me."

And yet change is inherent to his role this season. Silas needs this power forward to embrace the center spot, even if it's unfair to ask him to play it every night at 6-foot-8 and 245 pounds. Versatility is what has thrust him into this role, and versatility has always been Diaw's defining trait.

A mother's advice

Diaw says his earliest memory of organized basketball involves his mother, a French player and coach. Whenever the other kids would run to the score book, Diaw's mother would intercede.

"Don't go and check your points. Nobody cares," his mom would warn.

"To her, it was all about team," Diaw said. "So me being unselfish is all about my mom."

Not entirely. Diaw also recalls being 12 and playing pickup ball with kids four and five years older, including his brother. The only things they'd let him do were dribble, pass and defend. So he concentrated on all three.

Over 20-some years that made him a generalist in a sport tilted toward specialists. By Diaw's own description he's good at everything basketball, not great at anything. He says that makes for a more complicated career.

"Is it a strength or a weakness? It is both," Diaw describes. "A guy like Matt Carroll can focus on one thing - shooting ... If you hold me to just one task, you'll get some good. But I won't be great."

If that's so, then Diaw and Silas should get along famously. With Kwame Brown gone to Golden State and Gana Diop 25 pounds overweight, Silas needs Diaw at center, and wants to explore all the possibilities offensively. Clearly he'll be at a disadvantage defensively, trying to contain true centers like Orlando's Dwight Howard or Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut.

But at the other end there's abundant opportunity to put those 7-footers at a disadvantage. Diaw's 3-point range and ballhandling skills should force centers to follow him outside the lane. If they do, he can dribble by them. If they don't, he has a wide-open shot.

He's experienced this in the NBA before. He was the center - at least defensively - on a Phoenix Suns team that was small, fast and successful under coach Mike D'Antoni. The Suns often made Diaw the ballhandler on pick-and-rolls.

The difference, Diaw cautions, is that team had a future Hall of Famer in point guard Steve Nash. Can the Bobcats make this work?

Like Silas said: It's about Diaw buying in.

Teammate Corey Maggette: "Paul puts a lot of pressure on Boris because he sees Boris' potential ... He expects Boris to be in a position to understand his worth."

Thinking-man's approach

Boris Diaw could debate you about assembling the perfect peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich.

He analyzes and scrutinizes with an intellectual curiosity about everything. When he became part-owner in the uptown restaurant Mortimer's, Diaw emersed himself in questions about the best menu and ideal service hours.

"In all things, I try to be curious - business, hobbies, traveling," Diaw said. "And that goes back to basketball - I want to know everything to be able to do everything."

His intellect leads to a sense of conviction. Just telling Diaw to do something won't get the best results. A coach has to sell him on the value of the strategy.

As former Bobcats coach Larry Brown once joked, "He's the smartest player on the court. Just ask him."

Silas isn't looking to change Diaw, just looking to reach him.

It's about buying in.