CHARLOTTE, NC – Former Portland Trail Blazers General Manager Rich Cho has made another deal with the Charlotte Bobcats by becoming the team’s new general manager on June 14.
The first move was making the trade to send Gerald Wallace to Portland for Joel Przybilla, two other players and two first round picks right at the trade deadline on Feb 24.
Cho will take over immediately for former General Manager Rod Higgins, who is now the team’s President of Basketball Operations, and will get the franchise ready for the up-and-coming NBA Draft on June 23. The Bobcats have three picks in the draft including ninth and 18th picks in the first round.
Cho and Higgins mentioned that they are looking for a big man and gain some three-point shooting in the draft, and if they are unable to address it though the draft it is always possible with free agency and by executing trades.
“Rich has already gone through the draft process with his existing staff in Portland, so he’s seen a lot of players,” Higgins said. “He has an opinion on a lot of players and I think that’s only a benefit to us as a whole.”
While his career as general manager for the Portland Trail Blazers only lasted 10 months, Cho has plenty of experience. He served as an assistant general manager for the Seattle Supersonics (which is now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder) for nine years and helped build an explosive young franchise, which has made playoff runs the last two years.
Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen let Cho go saying the move was part of the franchise’s commitment to building a championship contending team in the official team press release.
Cho, who was a lawyer before trading the job in for a job the NBA front offices, is known for his analytical style and crunching numbers before making decisions was immediately thought to be a candidate for the New York Knicks opening after Donny Walsh announced he wasn’t going to return.
Now Cho and Higgins will work together to find players via draft, trades and free agency along the side of team owner Michael Jordan to make a run in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s not going to happen overnight; Oklahoma City is one of the best up-and-coming teams in the league. It didn’t happen overnight there and it’s going to be a process,” Cho said. “The good thing is we do have some flexibility, cap-wise, coming up in the next few years; got some good young players in D.J. Augustin, D.J. White, Gerald Henderson and Tyrus [Thomas].”
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