Charlotte Bobcats: Losing Gerald Henderson Would Really Hurt

Losing Gerald Henderson would be a huge blow to the Charlotte Bobcats. Flickr.com photo by B. Wendell Jones

It’s hard to not feel sympathy for the Charlotte Bobcats. Just when it looked like things were going really well, they run into another setback. After signing Al Jefferson to a three-year deal the week before, the Bobcats were unable to reach an agreement with restricted free agent Gerald Henderson, a talented scorer who was been one of the few bright spots during these past few trying seasons. Henderson appears to be ready to hit the market and the Bobcats will likely be losing one of their best players. For a team that looked to be finally turning things around, this is just about the worst thing that could have happened.

During the dreadful 2011-12 season, when the Bobcats finished 7-59 — the worst regular season record in NBA history — Henderson was the lone ray of sunshine. He scored more than 15 points a game while proving to be a decent shooter. Even as the Bobcats limped through loss after painful loss, their fans could take a miniscule amount of solace in knowing they had a legitimately talented player in Henderson. The following year he looked even better, coming on strong at the end of the season and proving himself to be one of the better scoring 2-guards in the league. Even if the Bobcats still had a myriad of problems left to solve, it really looked as though Henderson — along with Kemba Walker — was one of the few sure things this franchise had.

Now, he appears to be headed out the door, which is a huge bummer for franchise that looked to be on the rise When the Bobcats signed Jefferson, it appeared as though they now had a core of talented players in Walker, Jefferson and Henderson. This group is no match for the “big threes” than make up the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, but it’s a solid group nonetheless, one that may have been strong enough to compete for one of the lower seeds in the Eastern Conference.

With Henderson on his way out, the fate of this team appears a lot more uncertain. We know they have two legitimate players in Walker and Jefferson and considering what a great offensive center Jefferson is, the two could develop a strong rapport on offense and become excellent pick-and-roll partners. After that, however, question marks emerge. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist didn’t make any serious growth during the course of his rookie season and while the Bobcats are hoping he’ll improve with a full year under his belt, it’s hardly a sure thing. Ben Gordon is coming off by far the worst season of his career, which means plugging him into the starting lineup would be a very risky endeavor. It’s unlikely that Gordon will struggle as much as he did last season, but it’s also possible that Gordon is simply washed up, in which case, the Bobcats would be unlikely to get any serious production out of him.

What all of this is leading to is that Henderson was a sure thing on a roster that had very few of them. Even if he wasn’t an All-Star player, he’s a reliable scoring guard who can be counted on to provide 15 a night. If he is out the door — and it looks like he will be — the Bobcats will struggle to find scoring at the 2-guard position and they pin their hopes on Gordon, who was horrible last year. It looked like the Bobcats would be making a charge for the eighth seed in the East, but with Henderson likely gone, they might as well tell Kemba Walker to hold off on his breakthrough season for one more year and try their hand at tanking for Andrew Wiggins. What a shame.