The Bobcats name change will likely take more than a year to accomplish, but the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team has started the process of changing back to their original name, the Charlotte Hornets.

CBS Sports' Will Brinson reports that according to unnamed sources, the Bobcats name change process has started.

The Bobcats name change is contingent on the arrangement of digital properties by the NBA, and it could take up to a year and a half to happen. The Bobcats name change might be a longer way off than originally thought.

The NBA commissioner-to-be, Adam Silver told Bobcats season ticket holders back in April, the Bobcats name change will take around 18 months to figure out, with a number of different variables going into the Bobcats name change to "Hornets."

The Bobcats name change was confirmed in February by Chairman and owner, Michael Jordan, who admitted the team hired "a national polling group" to figure out how fans would feel about the Bobcats name change.

The results were "mixed" for the Bobcats name change, said Michael Jordan at the time, but numerous grassroots organizations in Charlotte, North Carolina, having been working hard to get the Bobcats name change going.

Charlotte's NBA team was the Hornets from its franchise inception in 1988 through 2002, when owner, George Shinn, moved the team to New Orleans and kept the name "Hornets."

When the New Orleans Hornets changed elected on the new name "Pelicans" it allowed the Bobcats name change to move forward.

Adam Silver has told Charlotte fans the NBA, and now New Orleans, owns the rights to Hornets, so the Bobcats name change should go off without a hitch.

But acquiring and rearranging the digital assets for NBA.com would be a part of the Bobcats name change procedure and that will take some time, which is why the Bobcats name change won't really go into effect until, at least, a year from now and probably longer.

The Bobcats name change comes just one season removed from when they finished the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season with the worst winning percentage in NBA league history. Hopefully, the Bobcats name change will also change the franchise's fortunes.