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The Charlotte Bobcats have the Boston Celtics where they want them. The Celtics played Tuesday night and have to play again tonight at home against Charlotte. Fresh young Bobcats, tired old Celtics, what do you think will happen?
Me, too.
Yet I keep flashing back to the way the Bobcats finished last season before Raja Bell was injured. They played defense and ran relentlessly without the ball because they knew if they were open somebody would find them.
The team that begins this season is not the team that ended the last one. The Bobcats need the toughness and leadership of Bell, who is out at least another week with a wrist injury.
They need to sign point guard Raymond Felton to a long-term contract. And they still need a rebounder.
Even though they lose millions of dollars every season, they also need to commit to coach Larry Brown the resources to make Charlotte a playoff team. There are Halloween parties that are tougher to get into than the playoffs are for a team from the Eastern Conference.
Start fast, and the fans will come.
We want good basketball. We've seen it at North Carolina and Duke and, recently, at Davidson. We know what it looks like. And when the best players in the world offer it in uptown Charlotte in one of the league's best buildings, we will, I'm convinced, show up to watch.
Charlotte is like most cities. We want our teams to win. Because of the Carolina Panthers' woes, the Bobcats have an opportunity that didn't exist early last season.
It will be interesting to see what they do with it.
