Gerald Wallace trade: Michael Jordan in the firing line – NBA Update
Michael Jordan, the owner and the majority share holder of the Charlotte Bobcats certainly likes to move things around.
Inheriting a money losing franchise, that could not afford players with huge pay checks, Jordan has made 13 trades involving 35 players, since taking charge in 2006. On Thursday, hours before NBA’s trade deadline he made yet another
move, trading Gerald Wallace to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The recent transaction has sparked a wide spread resentment among the Bobcats followers and many are comparing it to departure of point guard Raymond Felton and centre Tyson Chandler.
At the end of the last season, one in which the Bobcats qualified for the playoffs for the first time in their history, Jordan had traded Raymond and Tyson to essentially slip under the luxury tax threshold. The move left Charlotte
with a younger team, one that didn't mesh with ex-coach Larry Brown's precision offense.
A lackluster start to the season that was marred by a string of low key performance added fodder to fire. The listless displays of the team left the legendary coach completely frustrated and he publically criticized the players
many times. A 31-12 fourth quarter meltdown against the Oklahoma City Thunders on Dec.22, that preceded a four match losing streak, proved to be the last straw.
Jordan fired Brown on the same night and brought in interim coach Paul Silas.
Silas put the Bobcats on the right track immediately by introducing his offensive style of play, to which the young players showed their likeness. However, he also considered Wallace an essential cog of the of the Charlotte line-up
and had openly expressed his support for Wallace to stay.
In fact Wallace, who has $21 million left on his contract in the coming two years, was also keen on playing for the Bobcats in a bid to qualify for the play-offs this season.
But Jordan eventually had his own way.
Thursday's trade gave the Bobcats the luxury of having two first-round draft picks, including New Orleans' choice this season provided it's not in the top seven. Another first-round choice from Portland will also arrive as soon
as 2013.
In addition to that, Jordan has also roped in backup center Joel Przybilla, reserve forward Dante Cunningham and center Sean Marks into Charlotte’s fold.
The leadership and the athleticism of Wallace, who had become the face of the 7-year-old franchise, will be hard to replace though. The void becomes all the more significant considering that fact that the Bobcats look to lay-up
a challenge to the Indiana Pacers for a final Eastern Conference playoff slot during the rest of the season.
The transaction doesn’t appear to have gone well with the player as well. While D.J. Augustin expressed his shock at the development, Stephen Jackson said he was as close to Wallace as he's been to any teammate in his career.
"This is something that was a shock to everybody on the team," Jackson said, "but at the end of the day we still have a job to do."
The team management however insists that the moves are just part of a bigger picture and the things will eventually settle down in the right vein.
"Down the road you'll see some of the benefits of this deal," the Bobcats general manager Rod Higgins said in press conference. "Our [salary] cap numbers going forward you can see the plusses there. We can trade and do some things
in free agency. In terms of years, I couldn't sit here and say in 2014 we're going to be where we want to be. It's always evolving."
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