When the Charlotte Bobcats, despite having one of the worst records of all time, failed to get the first pick in the NBA draft, a lot of people assumed the Bobcats would take UNC’s Harrison Barnes with the second pick. After all, people in North Carolina are already familiar with him. But NBA insiders are now indicating that the Bobcats are shopping the No. 2 pick in hopes of trading for a bigger-name veteran to breathe some life into the franchise.

Even if the Bobcats keep the second pick it’s unlikely that the Bobcats will choose Barnes as many have suspected. I was even drinking the Kool-Aid for a while. But if you objectively look at it, Barnes is not the second best player in the draft. He has as much potential as anyone and he’ll go high but Barnes was an underachiever at Carolina who actually was better the second half of his freshman year than he was the second half of his sophomore (and final) year with the Tar Heels. His game is probably better suited for the pros and he may have been the first or second pick had he stayed one more year in college.

Still, I suspect he’ll go to the Cleveland Cavaliers who have the fourth pick in the draft. The Cavs are looking for a small forward and, not sure if this has any affect on management at all but, former Duke and current Cav player Kyrie Irving is a friend of his.

Conventional wisdom is that Kansas power forward Thomas Robinson is the second best player in the draft and could be chosen by the Bobcats. But word is that Charlotte hasn’t reached out to Robinson at all. Either they are so sure of him or someone else such as Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, or they are putting all their eggs in the trade basket to get a star player.

A couple of names that have come up as trade possibilities are Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.