The Big Picture: The Bobcats have a better record than the Washington Wizards, but how many players on the Wiz would you gladly take on in exchange for his counterpart on the Cats? Bye, D.J. Augustin, and welcome, John Wall. Bye, NazSagKwame, and hello, JaVale McGee. Nick Young's miniscule potential for excellence, or Stephen Jackson and his contract? I'd rather have Tyrus Thomas than any of the Wizards' bigs, but I'd also easily rather have Yi Jianlian or Andray Blatche than Boris Diaw.
I don't know that they're in a better situation moving forward, especially since they don't (yet) have anyone as good as even our non-All Star version of Gerald Wallace, and Rashard Lewis and his contract is only an improvement on Gilbert Arenas's contract, but it certainly seems like they are in better position to succeed sooner, given the sheer quantity of intriguing pieces on their roster.
Musical Interlude: Andrew W.K. -- "Party Hard"
Key to Victory: Just about every key player for the Cats is either out or ailing, so, again, "winning" is a relative term. Even though the judges may score the fight in favor of Apollo Creed, we may see a triumph of the human spirit when Derrick Brown and Gerald Henderson look like full-fledged NBA starters. But outscoring the Wizards would be nice, too.
Detail That May Interest .08% of You: My basketball coaching debut is this afternoon. Wish my team luck; I'll be assisting @chrislittmann in an 8-9 year-olds YMCA league game.