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As the article mentioned, that's a lot of coin tied up in one guy who has already proven to be unworthy of being a foundational piece.
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Sure it is ddh, no question about that...but consider a few things in comparison to Mavs' history:
1) Charlotte has already had a franchise that failed. So the initial excitement of NBA ball isn't going to be as high as it was here in Dallas when we got the Mavs. Jamison, as an established player, may well help put butts in seats.
2) A lot of people think that this franchise started with Aguirre and Blackman. But it didn't. Here's a list of the guys we got in our expansion draft...Del Beshore (Chicago), Winford Boynes (New Jersey), Alonzo Bradley (Houston), Mike Bratz (Phoenix), Marty Byrnes (LA Lakers), Austin Carr (Cleveland), Jim Cleamons (Washington), Terry Duerod (Detroit), Jack Givens (Atlanta), Joe Hassett (Indiana), Geoff Huston (New York), Abdul Jeelani (Portland), Jeff Judkins (Boston), Arvid Kramer (Denver), Tom LaGarde (Seattle), Billy McKinney (Kansas City), Wiley Peck (San Antonio), Bingo Smith (San Diego), Jim Spanarkel (Philadelphia), Raymond Townsend (Golden State), Richard Washington (Milwaukee), Jerome Whitehead (Utah)...see any BIG NAME draws there ? Carr, Lagarde, Spanarkel, Jeelani and a few others played ok, but there were no DRAWING CARDS in that group. It seems to me that Charlotte may need one...
3) The Mavs first (regualar draft in 1980 produced the following: #11 Kiki Vandeweghe (1st round), #34 Roosevelt Bouie (2nd round), #57 David Britton (3rd round), #80 David Johnson (4th round)
#103 Darrell Allums (5th round), #126 Leroy Jackson (6th round), #149 Tony Forch (7th round)
#169 Clarence Kea (8th round), #189 Ken Williams (9th round), #206 Tom Morgan (10th round). Well we all know that Kiki refused to play here and we got absolutely zero out of this draft. With the "experts" calling this a weak draft, Charlotte may not get a whole lot out of their #11 either. Add it all up and you've got a pretty ugly team in an area that has already had a failed franchise...and again, that's what makes the trade at least half plausible.
So we're through the '05 season with a group that's very similar. And the Bobcats finish last and have the very first pick in the draft...here's how the Mavs did in their second draft: #1 Mark Aguirre (1st round), #9 Rolando Blackman (1st round), #24 Jay Vincent (2nd round), #43 Elston Turner (2nd round). The Mavs got VERY lucky and hit on all 4 picks. Vincent had a very nice but short career...and Elston Turner was a pretty decent player, too. Now, just stop and compare that to current daydrafts....there are very few guys who went to 4 years of college, and it's filled with a lot of high school kids and long term European projects...the following year's draft turned out to be a real downer for the Mavs...and this is the sort of thing that could happen to Charlotte, even in the first year. #4 Bill Garnett (1st round), #50 Corny Thompson (3rd round).
Now, we're through the '07 season in Charlotte...and Jamison has a player option that summer and one more year on his contract. He becomes the infamous "expiring" contranct at this point...and here's the Mavs 3rd draft... #9 Dale Ellis (1st round), #11 Derek Harper (1st round), #30 Mark West (2nd round)...The first group (Aguirre, Blackman, etc) are getting ready to go into their 3rd season and 2 more good rookies come in...things are starting to look good and the area fans have someone to really identify with now.
Two points:
a) I think that the draft is an even more uncertain way to build these days given the youth and inexperience of a lot of the players...so many are just projects. It's equally easy to run into a bad pick here and there. It's pretty far fetched, too, to think that Charlotte is going to get 2 or 3 REALLY good players out of the expansion draft at a decent cost. It just doesn't work that way.
b) I doubt that big time FA's IN THEIR PRIME are going to want to go to an expansion team.
Now, just add that to the fact that Charlotte has already had a failed franchise and it's possible to come up with the idea that Charlotte may need an established "drawing card" more than any expansion team in recent memory.
If this exercise in Mavs history has been a help for any of our newer or younger fans, then it's served a second purpose !
(And, honestly, I just wanted to talk about something besides #8 )