Charlotte may not have planned to be in the playoff picture before the season started, but now that they are they want to stay there. Their home-and-home sweep of the Pistons the last two nights was a good start on that road, the Bobcats now have a 2.5 game cushion over the Pistons (3 games over the streaking Cavaliers and 3.5 over the Knicks). Heck, the Bobcats are just 1.5 games back of fifth-seed Washington.
Now Charlotte has some backcourt depth to help them hold on to a playoff spot and maybe climb the ladder a little.
The Charlotte Bobcats have acquired veteran guards Luke Ridnour and Gary Neal from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Ramon Sessions and Jeff Adrien, something first reported by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer and confirmed by other sources.
Sessions has been solid this season playing behind Kemba Walker, he was the kind of true professional veteran that was good to have in a young locker room (coach Steve Clifford raved about him). He will play well for the Bucks the rest of this season and get another deal somewhere for the season after that.
However, the combination of Neal and Ridnour gives Charlotte more. Neal is shooting 36 percent from three this season and the Bobcats needed a deep threat to open things up more for Al Jefferson inside and the slashing of Walker. Ridnour, like Sessions, is a solid and professional backup point guard who can play quality minutes nightly off the bench.
Milwaukee does this to save money — Neal hadn’t been a great fit for them (nobody is right now) and he is owed $3.5 million next season. That is off the Bucks’ books, and they get a quality guard in return.