Bobcats Wave Goodbye to Sean May

The Bobcats announced Tuesday the team would not be offering forward Sean May a qualifying offer, which makes the former Tar Heel an unrestricted free agent. A one-year, $3.6 million offer would have meant that Charlotte could match any other offer sheet May signed this summer, but apparently the risk that May would sign the offer and soak up three feet of Larry Brown's bench set the franchise to freeing him outright.

May went No. 13 in 2005 after his North Carolina won the NCAA Championship. He was one of four Tar Heels -- with Marvin Williams (No. 2, Atlanta), Raymond Felton (No. 5, Charlotte) and Rashad McCants (No. 14, Twitteronia) -- to go in the lottery that year. And although McCants has been a disappointment and Felton was clearly a reach, May is certainly the worst of the bunch.

Injuries kept May in suits for much of his first three seasons (including all of 2007-08). This year, it was fitness, or rather the lack thereof, which prevented May from daylight. Juwan Howard, age 35, ended up seeing more minutes than the 24-year-old May.

Will May get an NBA job, or will he forced to Europe? It's a tough question. In his limited NBA minutes, he was a great rebounder and good scorer. But like Mike Sweetney and Jackie Butler before him, he can't keep his weight down, hurting his effectiveness and limiting his potential impact. I can see a young team taking a flyer near the end of free agency (September or so) if May whips himself into shape. But there's no way he recoups the $3.6 million he lost Tuesday. What a sad descent into relevance for such an obviously talented player. (It also happens to be sad for Charlotte, who needs post scoring as much as anything else.)