Part-owner Jordan is on the clock, per Ric Bucher’s sources…

Former Houston Rockets president/CEO George Postolos — whose first attempt to purchase the team, according to the Charlotte Observer, fell apart last summer — has made a new offer that Bobcats president Michael Jordan has until the end of February to match, according to sources.

Jordan negotiated a right of first refusal after Johnson made it clear he intended to sell the team, according to a team source. But it was not immediately known whether the group of investors Jordan has assembled has the wherewithal or inclination to match Postolos’ offer.

The Bobcats are sitting above .500 this season and have a good shot at making the playoffs. But the two big moves that put the franchise in this position — the hiring of Larry Brown and the trade for Stephen Jackson — aren’t long-term moves. Brown could retire at any time and Jackson is 31, so I’d be surprised if both are still with the team after next season. Gerald Wallace made the All-Star Game (deservedly), but he’d be better suited to be a sidekick for a dynamic guard. Other than Wallace, the Bobcats don’t really have anyone to build around, so despite their surprising record, Jordan shouldn’t break his arm patting himself on the back.

Besides, Rod Higgins is still technically the GM, right? Here’s a list of all the big moves that the Jordan/Higgins combo executed over the last few seasons, along with a grade for each move:

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Per SI.com (via the Dan Patrick Show)…

“If [a kid is] good enough, he should be allowed to come right out of high school,” Kryzewski said.

But Coach K thinks if a player does go to college, he should take academics seriously.

“If they go to college, they should be there long enough to take core courses that could eventually lead to a degree,” Kryzewski said. “Otherwise it’s a sham.”

When the NBA age-limit rule was implemented, I conducted a study that found that players that were drafted straight out of high school had a higher success rate than players that were drafted out of college or via international ball.

I think the best system would be to allow high schoolers to be drafted, and if they go undrafted, they’re able to enter college. Once they do enter college, they’ll have to play a minimum of two years. That way, the players that are NBA-caliber at 18 can go straight to the league, while those that need seasoning will have to put in a couple of seasons on the collegiate level. The two-season minimum is to ensure that these players will put in some academic effort while in school (which will hopefully result in a degree somewhere down the line). One season isn’t enough. Right now, players have to pass just six hours in the first semester to be eligible to play for the entire year. That’s a joke.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Former Cavs coach John Lucas claims that the franchise tanked the 2002-03 season to try to get LeBron James.

“They trade all our guys away and we go real young, and the goal was to get LeBron and also to sell the team,” Lucas told AOL FanHouse. “I didn’t have a chance. … You can’t fault the Cavaliers for wanting to get LeBron. It was hard to get free agents to come there.”

The Cavaliers finished the 2002-03 season with a 17-65 record, tied with the Denver Nuggets for the worst record in the NBA. Cleveland won the NBA’s draft lottery and selected James with the No. 1 pick. Lucas was fired midway through that season.

Gordon Gund, who was then the team’s principal owner but is now a minority owner of the Cavs, denied Lucas’ claims. He also told the Web site that the Cavaliers weren’t for sale during that season. The team didn’t get sold until 2005.

“You don’t try to get the No. 1 pick,” Gund told AOL Fanhouse. “That’s why the lottery was designed. To not allow that. We had a young team that we were developing. … We did not tank the season. … To lose to get LeBron James, we would never do that. I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t do that.

“In the very last game of the season, we had nothing to gain and we were in sole possession of last place [in the NBA]. But we beat [the Toronto Raptors] and that left us tied with Denver [at 17-65]. … The chances of getting the first pick were only [22.5 percent].”

While tanking at the end of the season is rather commonplace in the NBA, tanking an entire season has been, to this point, unheard of. Even the worst franchises would like to make the playoffs for the first half of the season. It’s not until after the All-Star Game that we generally start seeing teams give up trying to win.

Gund has a point about the Cavs winning the final game of the season, but I’d bet that the Cleveland front office was upset after that victory, as it decreased the chances that the team would win the lottery. It’s not like the GM tells the players to lose games. The players go out and try to win. Like Herm Edwards says, “You PLAY to WIN the GAME!” When teams tank, the front office simply puts the team in the worst position to win. They shut down semi-injured stars and they start giving minutes to young players so they can “evaluate what they have.” They don’t go in the locker room and tell the players to lose the game.

Don’t kid yourself, we’re going to see tanking at the end of this season. John Wall is far and away the best prospect in this summer’s draft, and teams that are out of the playoff hunt will be tripping over each other trying to lose to increase the chances that they’ll win the #1 overall pick in the lottery. The lottery is supposed to eliminate tanking, but even though the chances of winning the #1 pick only increase incrementally with every loss, they still increase. There is still incentive to lose, so teams will lose.

For the ‘03 Cavs, there was no upside to winning games late in the season. Every loss meant that they were that much closer to getting LeBron. This is why the lottery system is broken.

The only way to fix it is to give every non-playoff team an equal shot at the #1 pick. This is the way that it used to be, and under such a system, a fringe playoff team will sometimes win the lottery. So be it. Why are we so focused on rewarding incompetence?

It turns out Blake Griffin’s rookie season was over before it started. Clippers.com announces that Griffin will have season-ending surgery on his knee.

After experiencing some discomfort during his recently-accelerated rehabilitation program, Clippers’ forward Blake Griffin was examined Tuesday afternoon by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.

As a result of that examination, it has been determined that the healing in his left patella area has not improved to the expected required level. Griffin will undergo a surgical procedure in the near future, with a recovery prognosis of four to six months. Team personnel will be made available to the media. Further details will be made available as events develop.

The Clippers are currently 17-19 and just three games out of the #8 seed in the West, and were hoping that Griffin’s return would be the missing piece to the postseason puzzle. It’s a tough blow for the kid and the franchise.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

First things first: Joe Johnson will become a free agent this summer and there’s a decent chance he’ll re-sign with the Hawks.

But he was asked (in an interview with FanHouse) about joining the Nets, and this is what he had to say:

The Atlanta star guard, bound to be a free agent next summer, was asked in an interview with FanHouse before Wednesday’s game against New Jersey if it would be more difficult to sign with a team like the 3-32 Nets due to their record. Johnson agreed it would.

“It matters, man,” Johnson said before facing a New Jersey outfit that will have more than $20 million of salary-cap room next summer. “It matters. A lot comes into play. Nobody wants to go to a tough team. But you’ve got to keep everybody in consideration.”

Johnson might be the forgotten man in a 2010 free agent class that features bigger names like LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh and Amare. While he hasn’t said that he’s leaving Atlanta, he’s talking openly about potentially signing elsewhere, so he may very well be on the move.

As for the Nets, he’d be a great fit with Devin Harris and Brook Lopez. But all stars of his caliber want to contend, and the Nets are struggling now more than they probably should. Ideally, he’d like to be the missing piece to a team that would contend for a championship, not just make the postseason.

Of course, a lot can change over the next few months. The Nets could start playing .500 ball or they could end up with the #1 pick in the draft and the rights to John Wall. That would change everything.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

It’s the last day of the decade!

In case you missed any of our Decade Debate series, here’s a link to each individual post (i.e. we put a lot of work into these, so you better take a look!)

10 Biggest Betrayals
Saddest Franchises
10 Biggest Upsets
8 Greatest Comebacks
6 Greatest Rivalries
5 Biggest Quarterback Busts
10 Worst NFL Head Coaching Hires
10 Worst NFL Free Agent Signings
Greatest Fantasy Football Players
15 Best College Football Players
10 Best Second Round NBA Picks
10 Best Late-First Round NBA Picks
10 Biggest NBA Draft Blunders
10 Pivotal MLB Trades

In case you missed any of our Decade Debate series, here’s a link to each individual post (i.e. we put a lot of work into these, so you better take a look!)

10 Biggest Betrayals
Saddest Franchises
10 Biggest Upsets
8 Greatest Comebacks
6 Greatest Rivalries
5 Biggest Quarterback Busts
10 Worst NFL Head Coaching Hires
10 Worst NFL Free Agent Signings
Greatest Fantasy Football Players
15 Best College Football Players
10 Best Second Round NBA Picks
10 Best Late-First Round NBA Picks
10 Biggest NBA Draft Blunders
10 Pivotal MLB Trades

In any NBA Draft, after the top few picks are gone, things start to get dicey. Things get even sketchier once the draft hits the late-first round, and teams are lucky if they can find a starter-quality player, much less an All-Star. As part of our ongoing Decade Debate series, here are the NBA’s top 10 picks from the late-first round (pick #16 or later) in the last ten years. Players are ranked in order of talent and accomplishment, and the later the pick, the better.

10. Kevin Martin (drafted #26 by the Kings in ‘04)

Martin is one of the best scorers in the league. Before a broken hand derailed his 2009-10 campaign, he was averaging 31-5-3 and was nailing 45% of his 3PT attempts. The Kings got him late in the first because he played at Western Carolina and has busted form on his jumper. Hey, it goes in, and that’s all that matters.

9. David Lee (drafted #30 by the Knicks in ‘05)

Say what you will about Isiah Thomas the GM. Zeke the scout had an eye for talent. Lee averaged a double-double in his second season, and as Mike D’Antoni implemented his up-tempo attack, Lee’s numbers grew to 16-12 (on 55% shooting) last season. He’s bound to get a fat contract next summer, but how much are his numbers inflated playing for D’Antoni?

8. Josh Smith (drafted #17 by the Hawks in ‘04)

Let’s see — “J-Smoove” has posted four straight years of 15+ points and 7+ rebounds, plus at least 2.8 blocks in three of his last four seasons, and he’s just 23 since he entered the league straight out of high school. If he is able to fulfill his potential, he’ll surely move up this list. Versatile enough to play either forward position, Smith is coming into his own this season, averaging 16-9-4 with 2.8 blocks through 18 games. It helps that he’s not jacking the outside shot like he used to.

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With Blake Griffin sidelined for the first six weeks of the season, the race for ROY is suddenly wide open. Griffin will still have plenty of time to stake his claim, but for now, the spotlight is elsewhere. It was supposed to shift to Tyreke Evans in Sacramento, but the Bucks’ Brandon Jennings has stolen the show.

He nearly became the second rookie in the history of the NBA to register a triple-double in his first game when he posted 16 points, nine rebounds and nine assists against the Sixers. The next night, after a quiet first half where he only scored three points, he erupted for 16 points in the third quarter, leading Milwaukee to a huge comeback (and an eventual win) against the Pistons. Here’s a look at a phenomenal steal and finish that brought the house down…

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By now, every NBA fan worth his salt knows that Ricky Rubio has decided to play in Spain for two more seasons before coming to the NBA. Recently, he spoke out about why he chose to stay put.

“Going to Minnesota would have just complicated my life a lot. It was a risk and I didn’t see it so clearly,” Rubio said. “My priority was the NBA and it was impossible for the Minnesota Timberwolves to pay my buyout clause, so I wanted to stay home.”

“When the season ended, I entered the draft with the intention of going to the NBA,” Rubio said Wednesday. “But some things happened that kept me from being ahead of the rest and I ended up No. 5, which I was happy with, but it didn’t allow me the chance to go to the NBA. I tried, but in the end it wasn’t to be.”

“Going to Minnesota would have just complicated my life a lot.”

If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard that…

Some people are attacking Minnesota GM David Kahn and some are defending his decision to pick Ricky Rubio on draft day. The bottom line is that Rubio would be joining the NBA this season had he 1) gone early enough in the draft that he could afford to pay his own buyout or 2) had he been drafted into a better situation.

Does anyone honestly think he’d be staying in Barcelona for two years if the Knicks had drafted him at #8? He wouldn’t have been able to pay his own buyout, but the marketing ramifications of playing in the Big Apple (in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system) would have been to great too ignore. His camp would have found a way to make it happen.

No, Rubio is staying in Spain because he was drafted by the Timberwolves at #5. Had he gone to the Warriors at #7, the Kings at #4 or even the Thunder at #3, we might have found ourselves in a similar situation. This is neither a knock on Kahn for drafting Rubio nor a endorsement of that decision.

That verdict won’t be in for some time.