A Bobcats-Miami playoff series??

We're only halfway through the season, but if it ended today, guess what the playoff matchups in the Eastern Conference would include:

No.7 seed Charlotte (17-24) vs. No.2 seed Miami (30-13)

Here are the current NBA standings if you want to take a closer look.

By virtue of last night's home win over Philadelphia fueled by point guard D.J. Augustin's 31 points, Charlotte leapfrogged a couple of teams and currently holds the No.7 spot in the East. That's exactly where the Bobcats ended up last season, when No.2 seed Orlando swept them right out of the playoffs in four straight games.

Facing the LeBron-D.Wade-Bosh trio in a first-round series would end up as another first-round exit out of the playoffs almost certainly, but it sure would be entertaining. (The two teams also play Feb.4th here in Charlotte).

Looking at these standings also reminds me that as many problems as the Bobcats have had this season -- and there have been a ton, from the firing of Larry Brown to last night's announcement that Tyrus Thomas will be out 8 weeks with a knee injury -- they are still very much in the playoff picture.

The Eastern Conference has divided itself into 5 teams with 27 or more wins at the season's approximate halfway mark (Boston, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and Orlando).

The other 11 teams are scrabbling around, well below those numbers, hoping to make something happen. Charlotte remains in that mix, but as I wrote in my blog yesterday (see the item after this one), only a big-time move like a trade for Carmelo Anthony or a major draft-pick coup will get this Bobcats' team to move from the "have-not" category to the "haves." These guys may well make the playoffs, but they will be very hard-pressed to win more than one game when and if they get there.

On Shula, Carmelo and Silas

3 mid-week thoughts:

1) The Panthers would pull off a minor coup if they hire Mike Shula for an assistant coaching job, which they are considering doing. I've been around Shula a number of times -- I covered three of his father Don's teams as a beat writer for the Miami Herald in the early 1990s -- and Mike is smart and tough and one of the most likable guys you'll ever meet. The guy was a quarterback at Alabama and later the head coach at Alabama. And although he ultimately got fired from that job, he has since had a productive NFL career as an assistant. This is a move that should be made.

2) So the Nets' multi-billionaire Russian owner suddenly called off talks with Carmelo Anthony Tuesday, then announced that decision in a rather surreal and bilingual news conference.

You know what I'd do if I'm Bobcats owner Michael Jordan? Try to swoop in.
I know it's a longshot -- and there have been reports that MJ has already tried this before and been rejected by Carmelo's people -- but maybe the dynamics have changed. Carmelo is one of the league's purest scorers, and he'd be worth giving up a whole, whole lot to get. And until the Bobcats make some sort of move like this, they're never going to get beyond being a No.7 or No.8 seed in the playoffs (if that, this year). Go for Carmelo. Make the call to Denver. And then make the call again -- because with the Nets out, and even though Carmelo's preferred destination is New York, just maybe there's a sliver of possibility there.

3) I totally agree with Paul Silas telling his players that they've simply got to stop complaining about the officiating in Rick Bonnell's excellent blog on the topic. While Stephen Jackson has toned it down a little over the past month, and that's a good thing, his teammates seem to have more than made up for that with their own complaining judging by the Bobcats' dubious number of technical fouls. This was a longtime Larry Brown complaint -- that his players complained too much -- and now Silas is realizing how deep-seated this problem really is.

Some thoughts on Rivera's coaching hires

A couple of thoughts on Ron Rivera and his new Panther staff, which is coming together pretty quickly now...

The hiring of Rob Chudzinski, detailed in this story here by Darin Gantt, was key. I like the fact that the Panthers, despite developing their own list of offensive coordinator candidates, allowed Rivera to go after his first choice here. If you're going to cook the meal, you better get to buy the groceries, as Bill Parcells once said about another NFL matter.

Did you notice what the fewest number of points scored was among the 8 playoff teams last weekend? It was 21. All the losing teams scored at least 21, and the winners were generally a lot higher than that.

But "21" was nothing but a dream for the Panthers last season, who averaged exactly one offensive TD per game. Carolina was the NFL's worst team in points and yardage in 2010. And while the NFL used to be a league where you could win a number of games in the 16-13 range, that's not true anymore. You better be scoring in the low to mid-20s nowadays to secure wins -- Carolina averaged 12.25 points per game in 2010.

New defensive coordinator Sean McDermott sounds promising, too, and here's Joe Person's story about that. But McDermott's importance is not at the same level as Chudzinski's. It appears the Panthers are going to blitz more now, which is a fine thing, but they would have done that with Rivera directing the team regardless of who he hired as DC.

But the offense? It needs an overhaul. Chudzinski will have the chance to provide it -- but first he and Rivera are going to have to decide on what they're going to do at QB. I remain committed to the idea that Jimmy Clausen is not the answer -- not in 2011, not in 2012, not in any season. But who is? Good question. Matt Moore posted a blog today saying he hoped to be back in Carolina in 2011, but I don't really see that happening.

Good for Fox (but for Broncos?)

I'm glad to see John Fox get another NFL head-coaching job so quickly.

Fox is a good man who had a bad ending with the Panthers. I don't think he's a great coach, but he's a good coach and I think he could possibly be great if he lets himself go a little bit in this job. I don't know if his personality will allow that, however, which means the Broncos could be destined for a lot of 8-8s.

Like Ron Rivera, Fox's most important hire will be his offensive coordinator -- and then letting the guy have a little more free rein. Tim Tebow is a unique talent, but Fox could certainly stifle him if he puts him in the same outdated offense Carolina used last year. Let's just say I don't think Jeff Davidson is going to get either job.

I believe John Elway made this call in Denver -- from what I hear, owner Pat Bowlen is letting Elway pretty much run the football side of things there now. I love that Elway has a Twitter account and has been using it to post newsy announcements (all about the coaching search, that the Broncos weren't going to trade Tebow and so on).

It's a step into the 21st century for Elway, who never has been afraid of taking chances. Can you imagine Marty Hurney with a Twitter account?! Or Fox, for that matter? It'll be interesting to see how that Elway-Fox relationship evolves.

On Rivera, Henderson and an interesting day

Radio stations are often doing "two-fer" Tuesdays, playing two songs by one artist in a row. I had my own small version of that Tuesday, writing live columns on the Bobcats' Gerald Henderson and new Panthers coach Ron Rivera.

The day began with Henderson -- I was planning on writing about his recent surge anyway. I went to the Charlotte Bobcats' practice Tuesday and talked to the former Duke star, along with new Bobcats coach Paul Silas and teammate Gerald Wallace. Silas already trusts Henderson more than Larry Brown ever did, and you can see that evidence on-court.

That was going to be my only column of the day until the Panthers finalized the deal with Rivera, who impressed me with the intensity he exuded at his 5 p.m. news conference. I hurried to finish up the Henderson story, then bolted over to that news conference (which was a lot bigger success than Jerry Richardson's rambling but informative discourse the week before).

Here's one thing Rivera said that I didn't get into my column about him but that I liked:

"I really firmly believe that you are a role model… You’ve got to carry a bit of responsibility. That’s what we are going to ask of our players, when they are out in this community, that they carry themselves the way Carolina Panthers should carry themselves."

That, to me, sounds like a coach who's not going to brook a lot of nonsense when his players misbehave. The Panthers have been good at taking this approach anyway -- i.e. Dwayne Jarrett being released after his second DWI -- but it's good to see it's going to continue.

I think Rivera can scare a few players into better work habits, and that's definitely needed on a team that went 2-14 in 2010.

3 quick impressions of Rivera

New Carolina Panther coach Ron Rivera just completed his news conference over at Bank of America Stadium. It was the first time I and many other folks ever heard him talk at any length, and he was impressive.

3 quick thoughts about Rivera in advance of my column to be published in tomorrow's newspaper (UPDATE -- here's a link to that column):

1) He's intense. When Rivera was speaking, it almost seemed like there was an electric current humming through the room. He didn't joke a lot. There was a laser-like focus to most everything he said and he was extremely well-prepared. I walked out of the room wondering why Rivera, 49, hadn't already gotten a head-coaching job somewhere.

2) He's going to make changes. Rivera's first order of business is to get his new coaching staff in place. But he has already studied the Panthers' roster at length and knows there are places -- particularly at quarterback, as he mentioned several times -- where Carolina must get better performance. Rivera didn't sound like someone who would stand pat, or who would tolerate half-hearted or ineffective performance at any position.

3) He's a former player, and don't you forget it. Rivera mentioned this repeatedly, and I understand that -- it's an integral part of who he is. It's part of why he and owner Jerry Richardson bonded so well, according to Richardson. For the first time, the Panthers have a head coach who has some of his own "NFL player war stories" to share, and that automatically gives you a bigger stick in a pro locker room. As a former teammate of Walter Payton and Mike Singletary and a player under Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan, Rivera obviously has his share.

What would Rivera be like as a coach?

I'm working on a column for Tuesday's newspaper and online about Ron Rivera, the San Diego defensive coordinator who has emerged as the frontrunner for the Carolina Panthers' head-coaching job.

Rivera looks like he will be the guy, barring a last-minute snag. So I've been reading up on him, trying to fill in some biographical details. Here are a few of the things I've found out (and here's a link to the full column, now posted):

-- Rivera, 49, played for nine years for the Chicago Bears as a linebacker, including on the 1985 Bears team that was one of the best of all time. Former teammate Walter Payton gave him a key recommendation to get Rivera’s foot in the door as a Bears’ assistant many years ago.

-- Rivera comes from a military family. He has three brothers and the family lived a somewhat nomadic life, including a stint in Germany. His heritage is both Puerto Rican (his father’s side) and Mexican (his mother’s). He was such a heady player that in high school his head coach has been quoted as saying he used to let Rivera call the defenses on the field.

-- Rivera’s wife Stephanie is a basketball coach. She was once an assistant in the WNBA and has lately been coaching on the high-school level in California. So they are a “two-coach” family, and some girls’ basketball team in the Charlotte area may get an overqualified coach pretty soon.

-- As a coach, Rivera is not a screamer. Those who know him describe him as calm under pressure. He has described himself as a “nitpicker.” A film-study junkie since high school, he is a longtime perfectionist. Rivera’s defenses haven’t been perfect, of course. The Chargers were No.1 in yardage allowed in 2010 among all defenses. But in two critical late-season losses, that defense gave up 251 yards rushing to Oakland and four TD passes to a Cincinnati team missing Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco. Not coincidentally, San Diego missed the playoffs this season.