I’ve always wondered what it would be like to run an expansion team, because you’re never cleaning up somebody else’s mess. You own it all – the good and the bad. After last night’s expansion draft, Bobcats general manager and coach Bernie Bickerstaff no longer has a clean slate. He’s pulled the trigger on some moves and, inevitably, some of them will be regretted.

But Bickerstaff has already shown that he has a sound vision of how he wants his team to be built. The Bobcats resisted the temptation to select overpriced, overrated veterans like Antoine Walker or Jalen Rose in the expansion draft. Such moves would quickly mire the team in a Knicks-like quicksand of leaden contracts and result in a decade of 35-47 seasons. Instead, the Bobcats are focusing on building a decent team by their third season.

So far, so good. The NBA won’t allow the Bobcats a full salary cap for their first two seasons, so they have to tread very carefully with contracts.That’s why Bickerstaff has targeted Year 3 – his first season to play with a full wallet and also part of a two-year window before his draft picks begin demanding capdraining extensions.

Bickerstaff made the first step down that road on Monday, when he dealt both of his draft picks to the Clippers in return for the no. 2 overall pick – likely Emeka Okafor of Connecticut – and an agreement to take center Predrag Drobnjak off their hands last night.

Bickerstaff moved further toward his goal of stockpiling draft choices when he earned first-round picks as a reward for selecting Phoenix’s Jahidi White and Utah’s Aleksandar Pavlovic last night.

Don’t think Bernie’s done dealing yet, either. He’s trying to trade Drobnjak to Utah for the no. 21 pick, where he can take St. Joseph’s guard Jameer Nelson. Expansion pick Zaza Pachulia and White may also be traded.

The 2004-05 Bobcats might not be a total disaster either.Most expansion teams have awful frontcourts, but with Okafor, White,Brandon Hunter,Jamal Sampson, and Pachulia, the Bobcats already have more size than many teams in the East. That may change before opening day,but Bickerstaff seems focused on starting with size, which is the right approach.

Another smart move involved selecting players whom the Bobcats don’t have to keep.Given that the expansion draft is the basketball equivalent of sifting through somebody else’s garbage, there weren’t going to be 14 desirable players available, though they were required to choose at least that many.

Bickerstaff did an end run around the requirement by selecting several players who are restricted free agents.He can include those players in a sign-and-trade deal to another team if necessary – at the price of a draft pick, of course – or part ways and be done with them.

Nine of the picks – Jeff Tregpanier, Loren Woods, Marcus Fizer, Lonny Baxter, J.R. Bremer, Richie Frahm, Maurice Carter, Desmond Ferguson, and Tamar Slay – fit that bill.

Bickerstaff’s biggest surprise consisted of selecting Memphis’ Theron Smith instead of Troy Bell or Dahntay Jones. Bell was a lottery pick a year ago and figured to be one of the expansion draft’s sure things, while the undrafted Smith didn’t play particularly well when he saw chances.

“We think this young man is the sleeper of this election,” Bickerstaff said last night, but the way Smith played last year would put anyone to sleep.

The other picks mostly were expected. Former King Gerald Wallace is easily the most talented but has been trapped on Sacramento’s bench for three seasons. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if he was one of the Bobcast’s best players this coming season. He’ll probably be backed up at small forward by sharpshooter Jason Kapono.

Pachulia is a promising 20-year-old who never should have been unprotected, but the Magic are run by fools. Sampson is nearly as young and played well in limited minutes behind Shaq in L.A. Hunter and Smith, though undersized, give the Bobcats options at power forward behind Okafor.

The expansion draft had some local interest as well.Isiah Thomas was reportedly willing to induce Charlotte to take Malik Rose from San Antonio, and then trade Dikembe Mutombo and a secondround pick to get Rose.

Knick fans should be grateful that Isiah didn’t get a chance to continue the team’s recent trend of importing players who are on the verge of declining but still have several expensive years left on their contracts. Rose is an undersized power forward (see Weatherspoon, Clarence) who turns 30 in November,but will make $6 million a year until 2009.As an added insult, his presence would have pushed the far more productive Mike Sweetney back to the bench.

But enough about Isiah. This is all about what Bickerstaff hopes will be a contending team in three years.

Despite passing up Bell, it’s hard to criticize how the Bobcats have proceeded thus far. By focusing on developing the frontcourt and preserving cap space, Bickerstaff has successfully avoided the get-rich-quick schemes that have lured some other expansion teams, instead focusing on building a long-term winner.

The Bobcats probably will stink for a while, but because of Bickerstaff’s patience, they already have better odds of being good in three years than several established franchises. After all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.