Welcome to the inaugural edition of eDraft’s NBA Season Preview. We turn our attention on to the Southeast Division, covering everyone from the pretenders to the contenders. Today we take a look at the Bobcats. This young team is hungry to for some wins, but do they have enough talent to find success in the NBA?

Key additions: Ramon Sessions (G), Ben Gordon (G), Brendan
Haywood (C), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2nd overall, G/F)

Remember, if you can, what it felt like to walk into sophomore year of high school and no longer be the bottom of the totem pole. Granted, there were always plenty of upperclassmen to remind you of your humble tenth-grade status, to prey on you after school and take the best sophomore boys or girls out on dates. But there was also now an entire class below upon which you could unleash your frustrations. The Bobcats today find themselves in such a position.

Charlotte should not be the worst team in the league this season, in fact they will be quite fun to watch and will be competitive most nights out. And in a few years time, so long as owner Michael Jordan gives Rich Cho operating room, the Bobcats might be at the top of the class.

While much ink has been spilled over the tanking job the Bobcats pulled last summer and their subsequent failure to land the prize of the draft, Anthony Davis, less has been written about the player the Bobcats did draft. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, my pick for Rookie of the Year honors, is the most NBA ready player in the draft and will develop into a franchise cornerstone. The criticisms levied at MKG coming out of college centered around his relatively weak jump shop, his subpar handle and his high turnover rate. Cho and Jordan came were condemned for taking MKG with the second pick, but I suspect that this criticism is rooted in the past failures of Jordan the scout, a collective unwillingness to forgive past sins. MKG is quite simply too much of a competitor to fail in the NBA. A hard worker and a superior athlete MKG had no trouble getting to the rim and drawing fouls in the college game and should be able to continue to do this on the pro level.

More importantly MKG knows the game: he runs the fast break better than most NBAers, is an excellent playmaker, can read the defense, and will scrap for loose balls. Best of all, MKG has proven to be a winner, something the Bobcats evidently value more than superior handle at this point.

Bismack Biyombo, Tyrus Thomas and Brendan Haywood will play up front with MKG and with their size should pose problems for most teams in the East. Newcomers Ramon Sessions and Ben Gordon will man the backcourt and will be able to score with the best of them. They will also be excellent mentors for the young gunner Kemba Walker (12 PPG-4.4 APG-3.5 RPG-36 FG%-30 3P%). After his outstanding performance in the 2011 Big East tournament, particularly his game winner over Pitt, Walker could sit on the bench while smoking cigarettes for the rest of his career and I would still sing his praises.

Unfortunately for him the rest of the world thinks differently and would like Walker to play better than he did in his rookie campaign. A player who doesn’t get to the rim and hardly ever gets fouled Walker must develop this aspect of his game if he is going to silence his critics.

Reason for optimism: The former Red Storm assistant Mike Dunlap is the now the head coach of the Bobcats. I haven’t been this excited since Felipe Lopez laced up for the Vancouver Grizzlies.

Reason for despair: On paper this team is paper thin. The Bobcats will be lucky to win 25 games this year.

Projected record: 24-58