Bobcats Home Opener Coming Up on Friday Night

Hah, good point. Regardless, I don't think that adding Richardson and losing Morrison results in a net loss.

Cleveland went from 42 wins to 50 (04 -> 05)
Bobcats went from 26 to 33 wins (05 -> 06)
Atlanta went from 13 to 26 (04 -> 05)
Toronto went from 27 to 47 (05 -> 06)
Utah went from 41 to 51 (05 -> 06)
New Orleans went from 18 to 38 (04 -> 05)
Golden State went from 34 to 42 (05 -> 06)
Clippers went from 37 to 47 (04 -> 05)
Portland went from 31 to 42 (05 -> 06)

While a 9 game jump isn't the easiest thing to do, it's certainly possible. And historically not as infrequent as you seem to believe. Also remember that a 40-42 team made the playoffs last year.

While there are several other teams on the rise (Boston for sure, maybe the Magic, Hawks, Knicks), the Bobcats increased their wins by 6 and 7 wins over the last couple of years. There are also teams in decline - Miami, New Jersey, Detroit, Washington all performed worse last year than in the previous year.

They are a team who has shown improvement every year despite lots of injuries (Okafor, May), with maturing young players (Okafor, Felton) a budding all-star (Wallace) and a significant addition (Richardson) that addresses their biggest weakness (person who can create his own shot and finish at the end of a game).

If that's not a recipe for making a leap, I don't know what is.

I'm not saying it's a guarantee they make the playoffs, but claiming they don't have a chance is foolish.

 

that pretty much sums up this thread. lots of stuff can happen in 80 games, so everyone predicting doom and gloom is senseless at this point.

 

No one said that they had no chance, but Thelt said he'd be surprised if they didn't finish above .500 and make the playoffs. While that's a possibility, it's still fairly unlikely.

 

People are just going to repeat that prediction every year until it happens and then say "I told you so". It happened last year too.