Friday, July 9, 2010

Jordan on Felton, Tyrus and Bobcats

I had a one-on-one interview with Bobcats owner Michael Jordan today, mostly about his increased visibility in Charlotte since he purchased the team about three months ago. The column resulting in part from that interview will likely be published in this Sunday's newspaper.

I did get in a couple of questions, however, about where Jordan thought the Bobcats -- who have been very quiet so far this offseason -- were headed with free agency. Here are some highlights from Jordan's answers:

-- On possibly losing restricted free agent Tyrus Thomas: "Our biggest task now is Tyrus Thomas. Because we know some team’s going to come in there and make him an unbelievable offer now. We’ve got to be prepared to what we’re going to do with that." UPDATE: Bobcats beat writer Rick Bonnell reports that the Bobcats now have an agreement in principle for Thomas, so check this one off the list.

-- On whether it was unlikely that point guard Raymond Felton, an unrestricted free agent, would end up staying in Charlotte: "It's not unlikely."

-- On the Bobcats' plan to improve the team: "The best thing to happen for us is the salary cap got moved up, the luxury tax got moved up. Everything has been in a big hold as to what’s happening with these free agents. We’ve been having countless conversations, trying to figure out, OK, how can we better ourselves. Obviously we can’t get into the [big-ticket free agent] sweepstakes, even though we’ve tried to work possible three-way [trades], that’s just what we have to continue to try to work out.

"We're not done. We're just getting started. I think things are just starting to happen right now. Now LeBron has made his decision, and all these teams have all this cap space and what are they going to do with it? So you never know."

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