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Expansion teams have been down this road before, and I'm going to take a look at the 1988 and 1995 expansion teams and show you just how hard it is to sign proven FA's and why the Bobcats shouldn't be so focused on drafting a bunch of derelicts for the first year cap space (30mil).

Charlotte Hornets (1988 Expansion Draft)

In 1988 Charlotte's first go around in the NBA, they were able to sign Earl Cureton and Kurt Rambis. Cureton was 31 and averaged 6.4ppg in 24mins. Which was a lot for him considering he had career averages of 18min and 5.4ppg. Rambis was a two-time champion with the Lakers and managed 11ppg 9.4reb in his only season for the Hornets, which was also the only season he was ever a starter in his 14 year career.

In 1989 Charlotte signed free agents Andre Turner, Hubert Henderson, forward Terry Dozier, forward Kenny Gattison, forward Mike Jones, Charlie Sitton and Robert Reid.

Gattison and Reid are the only player's of note. Gattison playing 6 seasons in Charlotte while averaging 9ppg 4reb. And Reid, a double-digit scorer for 10 seasons in Houston, played two seasons for the Hornets averaging 10ppg 3reb. Sitton, Jones and Henderson never played a game for Charlotte while Dozier (9gms) and Turner (11gms) lasted less than one season

The Hornet's success was solely based on the drafting of Bogues and Curry (expansion) 1988-Rex Chapman, 1989-J.R. Reid, 1990-Kendall Gill, 1991-Larry Johnson, 1992-Alonzo Mourning.

Miami Heat (1988 Expansion Draft)

In 1998 the Heat took a completely different route, and forced teams into freebies for much of the expansion draft. Miami receives Dallas' 1988 first-round draft choice (Kevin Edwards) for not picking centers Bill Wennington and Uwe Blab or guard Steve Alford. Receives its choice of the Lakers second-round pick in either 1991 or 1992 in exchange for not selecting center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Miami opted to take the Lakers' 1992 second-round draft choice (Matt Geiger). Receives a second-round draft choice from Boston in 1988 (Sylvester Gray) for not selecting guard Dennis Johnson. Receives Seattle's 1988 second-round draft choice (Orlando Graham) for not selecting guard Danny Young. Forward Fred Roberts is traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for a 1989 second-round draft choice (Scott Haffner). Guard Darnell Valentine is traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, in exchange for the Cavs second-round pick in either 1990 or 1992. In 1989, the Heat were very busy signing anyone and everyone they could find to 10-day contracts. In all the Heat gave 7 10-day's and waived 7 players during the season.

Like the Hornets, the Heat's success was entirely based on the draft. 1988-Rony Seikaly, 1989-Glen Rice, 1990-Bimbo Coles, 1991-Steve Smith 1992 Harold-Miner.

Vancouver Grizzlies (1995 Expansion Draft)

Vancouver was more than a victim of a poor expansion draft. Yes they came away with solid veteran guards Byron Scott and Greg Anthony, big hops "Blue" Edwards and the "other" Wilkins (Nique's brother Gerald) and former #3 pick Benoit Benjamin, but the team was poorly managed from the get-go and the Expansion Draft was only a precursor to the nightmare that team would go through for the duration of it's 6-year history. Never able to build around their picks, Vancouver was forced to trade Bibby (traded for Jay-Williams and Nick Anderson) Francis (traded for Michael Dickerson and Othella Harrington) and Shareef (traded for Lorenzen Wright, Brevin Knight and the rights to Pao Gasol). Then were the unspectacular picks like Bryant Reeves-6th(1995), Antonio Daniels-4th(1997), Stromile Swift-2nd(2000) and Shane Battier-6th(2001). Even Shareef was chosen ahead of Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen and Antoine Walker in 1996.

This team is in much better hands now, and I'm sure we'll be talking about better results as the years go by in Memphis.

Toronto Raptors (1995 Expansion Draft)

The Raptors attempted to build a solid team from the expansion draft, and looked to have some solid names, 3-time champion BJ Armstrong(chi), 2-time champion John Salley(det), 10-year veteran forward Jerome Kersey and 14ppg slasher Willie Anderson looked like a good crop, but BJ and Kersey never suited up for the raptors instead getting traded for Victor Alexander, Carlos Rogers, and 3 draft picks. Salley only managed 24 games and Willie, although he scored 12ppg, only lasted half a season with the Raptors.

Like the other teams, Toronto's success was completely based on the draft. In 1995-(ROTY)Damon Stoudamire, 1996-Marcus Camby, 1997-Tracy McGrady, 1998-(ROTY)Vince Carter, 1999-Jonathan Bender (Antonio Davis) 2000-Morris Peterson.

My point is that Bernie Bickerstaff has been openly discussing his desire to pick mostly restricted free agents, making them unrestricted free agents and freeing up the majority of their 30million salary cap to lure potential free agents. Assuming they were to take Stackhouse (a UNC Alumnus 7mil) or Kittles (9mil-NJN) as a few have suggested, along with someone like Marc Jackson (4.5mil-PHI) that would only leave them with enough cap space to sign one max player, and I highly doubt Kobe, Rasheed, K-Mart, Nash, or Dampier will be making the trip to North Carolina anytime soon.

Looking at the names on the speculative list posted on the Charlotte Observer, the Bobcats have a unique opportunity to actually draft a playoff-capable team! It's conceivable the Bobcats can build a .500 team around Stackhouse(was), G.Wallace(sac), B.Skinner(mil), D.Fisher(lal), M.Jackson(phi), Dahntay Jones(mem) and the #4 pick (Livingston?) and with some key draft picks along the way, can really put a competitive team on the court right off the bat.