"Fact: The Charlotte Bobcats have no healthy centers under contract for next season.

Fact: Center is arguably the hardest position to fill (point guard would be the only other contender) because so few players have true center size, plus the talent and skill to perform at the NBA level.

Center defines the Bobcats' need position. They dealt Nazr Mohammed to Oklahoma City at the trade deadline and Kwame Brown becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of this month. Gana Diop is recovering from a ruptured right Achilles tendon and could be out through the calendar year, based on initial estimates following surgery. Tyson Chandler was traded last summer to the Dallas Mavericks, to get the Bobcats under the NBA's luxury-tax threshold.

There are three ways to address this problem: Draft a center, sign one in free-agency or make a trade. The draft is June 23, with the Bobcats holding picks Nos. 9, 19 and 39. Free agency would begin in July, though an anticipated lockout of the players would delay that, possibly for several months. The Bobcats can make trades around the time of the draft, although the impasse with the players association leaves in doubt what financial system would govern player-payrolls and contracts.

Here's a look at various ways the Bobcats could fill their hole in the middle:

The draft

Center would be a non-issue for the Bobcats if they had gotten lucky in the spring of 2008. In the days leading up to the draft that year, they traded a future first-round pick to the Denver Nuggets for the 20th pick.

That draft was uncommonly deep with big men, and the Bobcats targeted three who had a chance to be available with the 20th pick: Georgetown's Roy Hibbert, N.C. State's J.J. Hickson and French pro Alexis Ajinca."