SBN’s resident Bobcats blog, Rufus on Fire, reacts to the news of the signing:
Reactions from SBN’s Rufus on Fire
This is absolutely fantastic news all the way around. Sean Deveney of SportingNews.com* reports Raymond Felton will sign the Bobcats’ one year qualifying offer of $5.5 million. While Felton probably would have preferred the security of a long term deal, he simply couldn’t expect one at this time, with a shrinking salary cap and zero demand for someone of his talent level. [...]
Here’s hoping that Felton backs up Augustin by default going into the season. The team may believe that Felton gives them a better chance to compete now, but, again, even if the Cats play up to their absolute ceiling this year, I’m afraid we’re looking at a team still a full notch below title contention. Developing Augustin, giving him the chance to play and keep improving, furthers that larger goal more than making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history does.
However, even if Felton plays the majority of PG minutes this year, we can be reasonably assured that Augustin will take over for good next season. The one year deal saves the Cats from themselves; there should no longer be any kind of institutional pressure to make Felton a long term fixture in the lineup at the expense of the younger, cheaper, probably better, Augustin.
While Tom Ziller weighs in over at AOL Fanhouse:
While this result is hardly surprising, there remains a herd of elephants in the room. There's D.J. Augustin, the lottery pick successor to Felton entering his second season. There's Larry Brown, the notoriously trigger-happy boss of the team. And there's Felton himself, who has proved if nothing else over his four seasons that he is just not very good.
Any way you slice it, Felton has been a disappointment. You don't take point guards with the fifth pick in the draft with hopes they will someday become reliably inefficient 14-point scorers who drop seven dimes and three turnovers a night while playing spirited but seriously flawed defense. Just because Felton is reliable does not mean Felton is good. And while there are worse starting point guards in the NBA (Beno Udrih, Luke Ridnour and Chris Duhon spring to mind), that doesn't excuse Felton's failure to improve. (Not that it's necessarily Felton's fault, of course. But no franchise could justify paying out a fat contract to a player who isn't good and isn't improving, and I doubt that will change next summer.)
To which I say: well, that’s a fair appraisal.
I’ll be the first to admit: as a lifelong Carolina fan, I’m hopelessly biased with regard to Ray Felton. And by any standard for a top 5 pick, he’s been a disappointment. Even so, to suggest that D.J. Augustin--a smallish, shoot-first point guard--is a better answer for the Bobcats seems a little drastic. You could justify it by citing one of Ziller’s aforementioned elephants: Look, they drafted him in the lottery, he needs to play!
But that would discount another elephant in the room--that was a terrible lottery pick, and more evidence that Michael Jordan’s not qualified to be a GM in this league. Felton need not be penalized simply because Augustin exists and Michael Jordan’s an idiot.
What’s most interesting, though, is that we could all be right, here. Rufus says that this is the best scenario for both sides, Ziller says that Felton’s not the answer for the Bobcats, and I say Felton’s better than any of us realize. And all of those things are true, when you think about it.
- Felton wasn’t going to find a home elsewhere in the NBA this offseason; the market’s just not there. Clearly, a one-year contract is the ideal solution for both the Bobcats and Felton.
- Felton’s also never really proven he can produce with the Bobcats. He’s been solid, but clearly, Charlotte is looking for more from that position. And with D.J. Augustin’s ability to hit from the perimeter, that makes him a more attractive option for a team that needs as much scoring firepower as they can get. But just because Felton’s not great for the Bobcats doesn’t mean he can’t be great elsewhere. Keep in mind, the Bobcats have never had much of a team surrounding Felton. He’s a point guard, not a superstar. Sure, when teams draft players in the Top 5, they expect the latter, but just because Felton doesn’t fit the bill doesn’t mean he should be written off entirely.
For a good team--one that doesn’t count Gerald Wallace as its franchise player--Felton could be perfect. Again I hearken back to Billups, a player that was likewise considered a monumental disappointment around the same time in his career. It took him a while to find the right situation, but when he finally found it, the whole league collectively gasped, “Was he this good all along?”
I don’t disagree that Felton’s been a disappointment, but I will say this: he’s the type of player that could help a playoff team more than anyone realizes, and if he ever lands in the right spot, we could find ourselves gasping all over again.
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