Charlotte Bobcats

Report: Charlotte looking to reclaim Hornets nickname to replace Bobcats

The Hornets might not be gone from the NBA after all.

According to a CBSSports.com report, the Charlotte Bobcats are in the process of claiming the name that resided in the city with the Charlotte Hornets from 1988-2002.

The name traveled to New Orleans when the franchise relocated, but recently became available when the Crescent City's NBA team ditched the Hornets moniker for the more apropos Pelicans.

It's a move that, if it comes to fruition, will be a hit in the Queen City. Between seeing a terrible on-court product, a bitter taste from the loss of the Hornets and a general malaise toward the Bobcats franchise narcissistically named after founder Bob Johnson, Charlotteans have had a tepid-at-best relationship with their current NBA team.

Since arriving in Charlotte in 2004, the Bobcats can claim one playoff appearance and have a short yet profound record of making poor personnel decisions.

But the Hornets – man, the Hornets. Now that's a different story. The basketball-crazed city fell in love with the franchise that arrived in 1988. Even when the team stunk, fans showed up and made noise. And after a few years, the Hornets actually got good.

Fans sold out the 24,000-plus seat Charlotte Coliseum for 364 consecutive games as the team with the iconic teal-and-purple color scheme won games with Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues.

But then it fell apart. Johnson hurt his back, Mourning took his talents to South Beach and the city grew frustrated with owner George Shinn, who became involved in a sexual assault trial involving a Hornets cheerleader and later made demands on the city to build a new arena.

The Hornets left town in 2002 and were replaced with the Bobcats two years later. The magic has not come back.

Basketball fans in Charlotte have clamored for the return of the Hornets since New Orleans started to discuss a name change. Majority owner Michael Jordan has been studying the business side of bringing the Hornets name back to the city; if the wheels truly are in motion to do so, there will certainly be a ... ahem ... buzz around the return of a beloved friend.

But a color scheme and Hugo the Hornet won't be enough to get Charlotte fully behind its NBA franchise. After a decade of miserable basketball, Michael Jordan's top priority is finding the next Johnson-Mourning tandem.

If the Bobcats keep losing like they do, bringing back an old nickname won't mean squat.

Jason Owens is an editor at Yahoo! Sports and still has a signed promotional Kelly Tripucka jersey from his childhood in Charlotte.

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The Chicago Bulls? Gone till November

With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Chicago Bulls.

I’ve already fawned over these Chicago Bulls plenty. The team’s unrelenting approach was an inspiration this season, and though Derrick Rose disappointed by not returning to the squad after an ACL tear, and coach Tom Thibodeau disappointed by running his players into the ground early on in the season, the team still gets to go into 2013-14 with Derrick Rose and Tom Thibodeau as its cornerstones. Not a bad start.

Big moves won’t ramp up the team’s roster prior to that start, though, unless the team’s ownership becomes ridiculously averse to paying the luxury tax, and either trades Luol Deng or Carlos Boozer to another team to shed salary, or waives Boozer outright using the amnesty provision. While that might seem like needless cost-cutting, understand that the Bulls have been practicing this sort of thing for years. If that sounds cynical and self-defeating, understand that I’m a Chicago Bulls fan that just watched 94 games of the 2012-13 Chicago Bulls. Inspiration swings both ways.

Chicago has assets to encourage deals that either lineup opportunities years from now, for 2013-14, or for the team’s pocketbook right away. Boozer can be traded to a team that still holds it amnesty provision. Deng has an expiring contract and was an All-Star this year. Chicago owns a Charlotte Bobcats first round pick that has declining protection until 2015, when it is only protected for the top eight picks, and 2016, when it is completely unprotected (just like Bobcat fans, tuning in to watch a night of Bobcat basketball). Meanwhile, despite his early-season inability to mind minutes, Tom Thibodeau may have the biggest basketball brain in the league, ready to put more and more disparate parts together in functional and competitive ways.

You get the feeling, though, that Chicago won’t undergo yet another rotation restructuring in this offseason. Part of that is the market, part of that is finances, and part of that is the team’s ability to give it one last go, as presently constructed, in 2013-14.

The trade market will play a part. Luol Deng’s game wouldn’t really fit in as perfectly elsewhere as it does in Chicago, a place where his step-back defense is best suited for Thibodeau’s system, and his endless slashing and sometimes shooting is perfect for an offense that relies heavily on interior passing even with Rose around. The plan with Deng remains unchanged, as the Bulls will run him into the ground for the last year of his contract, and then let the then-29 year old forward hit the open market in 2014, mindful of the wearying ten seasons he spent in red and black.

Boozer, to a lesser extent, is in the same boat. It’s true that his pick and pop game never meshed with Rose’s, as Derrick remains a poor pick and roll passer, but he’s a perfect fit alongside Noah offensively because Joakim’s tips and extra passing allow for a litany of good looks for the floor-bound big forward. Teams know this – they respect the Bulls, but they’re not taking on their second-tier stars in Deng and Boozer just to do Chicago favors.

The problem, once again, is the luxury tax. The Bulls horribly mismanaged their 2013 offseason and badly overestimated Richard Hamilton’s trade deadline value, so they ended up over the tax threshold for the first time in their very lucrative history in 2012-13. The team, even before draft picks, without unrestricted free agents Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli re-signing, and after waiving Hamilton, will be over the tax threshold again in 2013-14. By now team owner Jerry Reinsdorf has earned more than enough with this Bulls team (a squad that in 1999 had to sign players to contracts just to make it over the minimum salary cap line) to pay the tax, but tax status also affects the team’s ability to sign players to exceptions, to say nothing of the impending repeater penalties.

And when Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng come off the books in 2014, LeBron James’ big free agent year? The Bulls will be just about capped out. In fact, it would be in their best interest to go over the cap with Deng again that summer, barring any other major moves between now and then, just to be able to use capped-out exceptions to fill a roster that will only have six players on it when July hits.

This is a long way of saying that Chicago doesn’t have many options to grab that Rose and Noah-helping second star over the course of the 2013 offseason.

The team shouldn’t waive Carlos Boozer this summer, unless it is that desperate to get underneath the tax line – something that shouldn’t be ruled out. Instead, the team should wait to cut Boozer during the summer of 2014, hoping that his release and Luol Deng’s move onto greener pastures will be enough to lure a max-level free agent. And they’ll have the money, too, even with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Taj Gibson set to make nearly $40 million combined in 2014-15. Adding a max-level star would only leave the Bulls with six players on the roster, but the team’s front office has proven that it can work around the edges in order to acquire bench help, as we saw in the summer of 2010.

All this is for 2014, though. For this summer, it’s more of the same. The hope that Rose takes the orthodox approach and returns to training camp as if 2012-13 never happened. The hope that the summer does wonders for the team’s four injured workers in Noah, Deng, Gibson and Hinrich. The probable hope that some team makes Nate Robinson a crazy offer that Chicago can excuse themselves out of not competing with, and the hope that bench depth at center somehow pops up in ways that can replace the admirable but declining Nazr Mohammed.

In the meantime, there will be plenty of waiting. Longing stares at LeBron or Kevin Love, and endless fascination about stashed Bulls prospect Nikola Mirotic (steadily improving, not exactly boffo stats but big praise for his work in Real Madrid this year) while hoping that Charlotte pick draws interest. There truly are chances here, between the amnesty clause, Dwyane Wade’s fading brilliance in Miami, the goodbye to Deng and the potential that Flip Saunders messes up a bit in his first few years as Minnesota GM.

Potentially, there could be lot going on.

This summer? There’s not a lot going on. Unless these Bulls decide to get weird with things. Following a season like this one, don’t rule anything out.

• Fri May 17, 2013 3:50 pm EDT
• Ball Don't Lie
• Kelly Dwyer
• Comment

Season review: Mike Dunlap

Rufus on Fire's staff gives their takes and individual grades on Mike Dunlap's first and last season as head coach of the Bobcats.

• Sun May 19, 2013 EDT
• Rufus on Fire
• By Ben Swanson

Charlotte Bobcats begin process to change name back to 'Hornets', reports state

A new reports from CBS Sports says the Bobcats have started the rebranding process to return the Hornets name back to the city it started in.

• Fri May 17, 2013 EDT
• Rufus on Fire
• By Ben Swanson