Tonight's game with the Sacramento Kings has a totally different feel for me. For the first time in almost 7 years, there's no Gerald Wallace. I knew the day was coming when he'd no longer be a part of the franchise but I had no clue it would happen as quickly as it did. A lot of stuff happened at the trade deadline yesterday as team's scrambled to re-tune their rosters for the short and the long run.
The Bobcats are looking at the long run and they took the opportunity of yesterday's dizzying trade market to put their stamp on a blueprint that they would have probably have done in the off-season.
With the trade of Wallace to Portland for 3 players and 2 first round draft picks, the Bobcats will be like many teams at the trade deadline scrambling for bodies while the new players get their mandated physicals and relocate from one coast to the other. There will only be 8 players in uniform tonight for Charlotte. At this morning's shootaround, assistant coaches Charles Oakley and Ralph Lewis were forced to imitate Kings' players as Stephen Silas reviewed the Sacramento scouting report.
The inbound players, Dante Cunningham, DJ White and Joel Przybilla will be available Sunday when the Bobcats play at Orlando. Two other players, Morris Peterson and Sean Marks, will not play for the Bobcats, but were included in the two seperate deals to make the salaries match up. In addition, the Bobcats had to clear some current reserves from the roster such as Sherron Collins, Dominic McGuire and Derrick Brown. All three were put on waivers -- if unclaimed some could be brought back according to General Manager Rod Higgins. But for tonight's game, it's the Magnificent 8. Gerald Henderson's emergence gave the Bobcats confidence that this was the right time to make the deal with Portland. Przybilla's acquisition made Nazr Mohammed and his expiring contract appealing to Oklahoma City, thus the second deal of the day which brings White and Peterson to Charlotte, albeit somewhat temporarily in Peterson's case.
We'll all have great memories of both players and wish them well at their new destinations. Both will likely pick up some playoff money in Portland and Oklahoma City.
We'll have plenty to talk about on Bobcats Live beginning at 6:30 on Sportsouth.
