Apr 26, 2012; Charlotte, NC, USA; A fan holds up a sign during the second half of the Charlotte Bobcats and New York Knicks game. The New York Knicks defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 104-84 at Time Warner Cable Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE

So, the free agency is pretty much over, and it doesn’t look like the Charlotte Bobcats are going to make any monumental, roster shaking trades, so we can finally look ahead to what next season has in store for the the ‘Cats.

Let’s start with the obvious. The Bobcats will win more than seven games next year.

The question is, can they win more than 20? Maybe.

The Orlando Magic got significantly worse, but Washington got better.

Miami isn’t any worse, but Atlanta has question marks.

The Bobcats play each of those teams four times, and they should be able to get four, or maybe five wins out of those games.

They play New Orleans twice. I think Charlotte can win one of those games. They play the Cavaliers three times, and the ‘Cats can beat them each time. They probably wont, though, so we’ll give Charlotte two wins there. Four games against Detroit should equal two wins, as should another four games with Toronto. The ‘Cats could win one of their two games against Portland, and they should be able to beat the Kings once.

That’s 13 wins I think the Bobcats should get next season. All they have to do to win more than 20 games is steal a win in eight of their remaining 69 games.

They stole wins last year when they put up the worst record in league history, so they can steal more next year.

More than 20 wins is an achievable goal, and with the new optimism surrounding this team, the Bobcats should reach it.

Jackie Moon might have made a better acquisition in the final month of the season than this guy. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE

The worst season in NBA history is in the books, and it’s time to look at the players who made it all possible.

In the coming days I’ll take a look at every single Bobcats player (and I mean every single one), grade their season, and take a look into their future.

First up is Jamrio Moon.

The one question that must be asked when it comes to Moon is “why?”

The 31-year-old was signed out of the D-League near the end of the season on the cheap, because of a serious lack of depth at small forward when Corey Maggette went down (for the billionth time).

But surely there was a younger player working his way up that Charlotte could’ve taken a $96 thousand (Moon’s salary) chance on.

Either way, there isn’t much data to grade Moon on, but I’ll give it a shot.

Offense: F

Moon averaged 15 minutes a game, took about three shots per game, and made less than one of them per game. He shot 29 percent from the floor, 20 percent from behind the arc, and turned the ball over at a clip of 24 times per 100 possessions. According to Basketball-Reference.com, he had an offensive rating (points produced per 100 possessions) of 64.

Defense: D

Based solely on his size and athleticism alone, Moon doesn’t get an F in this category. He was not very good defensively, though; He stole the ball on less than one percent of opponent possessions, averaged under six defensive rebounds per 36 minutes and (Basketball-Reference again) allowed opposing players to produce 110 points per 100 possessions against him.

Miscellaneous: D

He made all (two) of his free-throws!

His assist-to-turnover ratio (of .63) wasn’t negative!

He committed less than one foul per game!

He also had a player efficiency rating of 3.4, a win share per 48 (number of wins contributed by a player per 48 minutes) of negative .100 (the league average is positive .100), and regular season totals of just 18 points, 22 rebounds and 5 assists in about 123 minutes of play this year.

Overall: D-

Moon didn’t really have a chance to impact the Bobcats season too much, but he could’ve helped prevent them from becoming the worst team in NBA history… Instead he fit right in with the overall putrid culture that festered inside Time Warner Cable Arena this year.

I doubt he has a future with the Bobcats, but who knows, maybe they’ll need another pointless call up in the tail end of another abysmal season next year.

That “free-throw” attempt might be the best visual metaphor for Charlotte’s season that I’ve seen all year.

A simple answer to the question “how bad were the Bobcats?” is “extremely bad.”

But those two words don’t do this team justice.

Not only did the Bobcats finish last in the league by way of overall record, they ended the year last in offensive and defensive efficiency, point differential, field goal percentage and three-point percentage.

They also finished pretty close to last in opponent field goal percentage and rebounding.

Their leading scorer averaged 15 points per game, their leading rebounder averaged 5.8 boards per game and no one on their roster had a player efficiency rating above 15.

They finished the year on a 23 game losing streak.

They lost 30 plus games by more than 10 points.

They beat just two teams that finished the year with a winning record.

Somehow, the good people of Charlotte cared enough to make sure their team didn’t finish last in attendance.

There is reason for optimism looking forward, though.

Charlotte’s rookies played as well as they could have given the extended minutes they were forced to play. Kemba Walker finished seventh amongst rookies in minutes per game, fifth in points per game, third in assists per game (fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio), sixth in steals and he was the only rookie to record a triple-double this season.

Bismack Biyombo finished the year first amongst rookies in blocks per game, third in rebounds per game and fourth in double-doubles.

With some hard work on their weak areas this off season, both should be able to put up even better numbers in their sophomore seasons.

Despite injuries, DJ Augustin finished top 15 in assists per game, assist-to-turnover ratio and top ten in free-throw percentage. If he ever decided to show consistent effort on defense, he could become a top 10-15 point guard in this league.

As a team, Charlotte finished ninth in the league in turnover differential, ahead of teams like Chicago, San Antonio and Boston.

They also finished top ten in blocks per game, top 15 in turnovers per game and top 15 in attempted free-throws.

So what?

Sure the 2012 Bobcats are officially the worst team in NBA history, but there’s nowhere to go but up, right?

We know you can still ball, MJ. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-US PRESSWIRE

Call it a publicity stunt, call it crazy, call it what ever you want.

Michael Jordan should suit up for the Charlotte Bobcats in their final game of the year against the New York Knicks.

The worst record in NBA history is on the line, and Jordan has come under fire lately for not appearing to care all that much.

Larry Brown also went on the Dan Patrick Show Wednesday morning to take a few shots at MJ, questioning the people he surrounds himself with.

What better way to stick it to all the “haters” (and to rip the hearts out of New York Knicks fans one more time) than to come back in the final game of the year, drop 25 points and keep the Bobcats out of the NBA’s historical basement.

In his final two seasons with the Wizards, Jordan averaged more than 20 points, five rebounds and four assists per game. He’d probably be the best player on the Bobcats roster, and he could still do this a few years ago:

Carmelo Anthony is already out for the game, Tyson Chandler will play limited minutes, and the Bobcats are just awful. Somehow the NBA made this their prime time match-up on TNT.

The game needs something to draw eyes off the NFL draft, and MJ’s return would do that.

Between a 22 game losing streak, an extremely real chance at the worst record ever, and the fact that Charlotte fans really need something to cheer for, why shouldn’t he come back?

Alright guys, here's the plan... Don't lose. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-US PRESSWIRE

Well, it’s finally here.

That point in the season where a team lays everything on the line, leaves it all on the court, and heads into the locker room after the final buzzer with their heads high, knowing they did their best.

…Unless that team is the Charlotte Bobcats and after the final buzzer tonight they’ve become the worst team in NBA history.

48 minutes. That’s all the ‘Cats have left to avoid that dubious title.

They had their chances against Orlando on Wednesday, but in the end they were just bad enough to let JJ Redick drop 30+ on them and lost the game by seven.

Because of that loss, the opposing Knicks have no shot at the sixth seed, and need either a win tonight or a 76ers loss to clinch the seventh spot. A loss would push them down to eighth.

Even if they cared about staying at seven and playing the Heat (instead of the Bulls if they fall to eighth), the ‘Bockers probably won’t play their starters for more than a half. Baron Davis certainly needs the rest, Carmelo Anthony could use some time off to ice his shoulders (he put da team on his back, all Greg-Jennings-like the past few weeks), and the Knicks bench is just better than the Bobcats starting lineup.

The keys to winning against the Knicks are almost the same as they were for beating the Magic. Bismack Biyombo has to stay out of foul trouble and have a very good game against Tyson Chandler (who gets my vote for defensive player of the year), the ‘Cats have to finish close to even in the rebound battle, and for God’s sake, will someone tell Byron Mullens that he’s probably going to be matched up with Steve Novak for most of the game? Because Novak is dreadful on defense and not much better on the boards. If seven-feet-of-smooth comes away with just one rebound tonight, I might just spontaneously combust.

No need for speeches, trophies or any other motivational mumbo-jumbo… If Charlotte doesn’t win, it will go down as the worst team in the history of the NBA.

DJ Augustin couldn't out do JJ Redick and the Orlando Magic beat the Charlotte Bobcats 102-95. Mandatory Credit: Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

Well they tried, but the Bobcats couldn’t pull out a win in Orlando against the Magic.

It would’ve given the Knicks (who at press time are playing the Clippers neck-and-neck) a shot at the sixth seed, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

Unlike most nights, there was actually a decent amount of good to take away from the game (unless your name was Kemba Walker).

Before leaving the game with an injured leg (that he couldn’t put any pressure on) Derrick Brown was 6-11 for 16 points, DJ Augustin dropped 23 and 16, and Gerald Henderson was 5-9 for 17 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Bismack Biyombo didn’t look completely lost, and if it weren’t for foul, trouble he probably, would’ve recorded a double double. He finished the game with five points, eight rebounds and three blocks in 30 minutes.

Don’t worry, there was a solid amount of “horrible” in this game too.

The Bobcats let JJ freaking Redick drop 31 points on them, they missed 13 three pointers and (surprise) got out-rebounded by 10.

A few other bad things:

Walker scored FOUR points on 11 shots.

The Bobcats had just seven fast break points.

DeSagana Diop actually played.

Some things I noticed:

Byron Mullens looked absolutely lost on the boards, grabbing a grand total of one rebound. Much of that probably had to do with guarding the long-ball specialist, Ryan Anderson, but when one plays the PF or C, he is expected to grab more than one rebound a game. Also, Anderson somehow managed to swipe 13 rebounds himself…

Just four Orlando players scored more than eight points… Six scored more than two… How the hell did they win.

The Bobcats will get their final shot at not becoming the worst team in NBA history Thursday against the Knicks. Who knows whether or not New York will rest guys like Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler. Either way, they’ll probably still win, so whatevs, right?