With a very important NBA draft looming, the Charlotte Bobcats have shored up their front office.
Late Monday the Bobcats announced the hiring of Rich Cho as the new general manager, while the previous GM, Rod Higgins, was promoted to president of basketball operations.
Cho, the former Portland general manager, and the Bobcats are no strangers to each other, as Charlotte packaged forward Gerald Wallace to Portland at the trade deadline this season in exchange for cap relief and a first round pick. The Bobcats hold the ninth, 19th and 39th pick in a very important draft for a team with just one career playoff appearance.
The signing is a curious one for Bobcats owner Michael Jordan. With no previous ties to Cho, Jordan went against his trait of hiring people he is comfortable with. Higgins was a teammate of Jordan in his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls, while team president Fred Whitfield is a long-time friend.
"This will give us a whole different area that we can open up our minds to," Higgins said, according to ESPN.com. "He'll bring in some concepts and some stats and some analytics that we haven't done in the past. I think that's the beauty of it."
It's a new start for Cho, who was fired less than a month ago after just one season as the Trailblazers' general manager.
Prior to becoming the NBA's first Asian GM, Cho worked in the Oklahoma City Thunder front office.
