Wallace Powers Bobcats to Ugly Win Over Nets

Charlotte Bobcats vs. Nets, 11/2/09

The Skinny

The Bobcats move to 2-2 (2-0 at home) with an ugly victory over the Nets: AP recap here, box score here, Bonnell story here. Quick caveat/reminder here: I was out of town for the first three games and only saw highlights/recaps/boxscores, so this was my first full game. I say that because I hadn’t realized just how offensively challenged the Cats were. I mean, I knew on an intellectual level, but to see it in person is horrifyingly reinforcing.

At home, against a fellow Eastern Conference lottery team missing its best player (Devin Harris), the Cats struggled mightily out of the gate. After 9 minutes of the first quarter, the Cats had more turnovers than points, but only trailed 12-4. Both teams picked it up a bit in the second quarter, with the Nets maintaining an 8 point cushion at the half. Then, halfway through the third quarter, the Nets began a stretch of ineptitude that made the Bobcats slow start look like child’s play. With the score 48-39, the Nets would not score for over 9 minutes, whilst the Bobcats practically exploded for a 24-0 run and a 63-48 lead. From there, the Cats would coast to victory.

To say it was all ineptitude on the Nets’ part would be disingenuous — the Cats did play very good defense during the stretch. And Gerald Wallace had a strong game, eventually totalling 24 points (7-14 FG, 10-13 FT), 20 rebounds (7 offensive) and 4 steals. DJ came to life with 21 points. But that’s it for the positives. Otherwise, this was a dreadful game between two bad teams that was hard to watch.

The Bobcats shot 24-74 for 32% and 1-15 from 3PT. Raja Bell returned to the lineup with a 1-8 night; Radmanovic shot 0-7. Diaw’s line looks OK, but we need him to be contributing more. Both he and Chandler look like they are going at 80-90% and need to round into mid-season form pronto. Despite not getting much from Bell, Radmanovic, Felton or Graham, Gerald Henderson only played 4 minutes.

As currently configured (and barring Flip Murray going for a career best 16+ PER and 25+MPG or Gerald Henderson turning into Brandon Roy) the Bobcats aren’t going to sniff the playoffs this year. Sorry, Baseliners, just isn’t going to happen. We just had to play our starters/veterans extended minutes with a superhuman effort by Gerald Wallace to eek by the Nets (who were without their best player and are essentially rebuilding with a shot at getting Lebron next summer) in an excruciatingly ugly game. That’s where we are.

Quick Thoughts

Weeks ago, without looking at the schedule, I had written something about wondering what the attendance would be for the first Mon/Tues night game against a non-marquee Eastern Conference team. We got our answer tonight: no more than 5,000. That’s generous; upper deck was almost completely empty.
Both Michael Jordan and Bob Johnson were at the game. MJ in his usual seat at the end of the bench, BJ at midcourt (at least for the first half, didn’t come back out for second half). Must be a weird dynamic there. Conspiracy theory: Jordan puts this crummy team on the court, knowing that it drives BJ’s selling price down, maybe so low that he can buy controlling stake? Conspiracy theory falls apart as it presupposes that Jordan has a clue what he’s doing in helping to put the roster together. He’s never shown that he does.
During a particularly grueling stretch in the 2nd quarter, a fan in the section behind the Bobcats bench yelled for Jordan to sub himself into the game (yes, you can hear this stuff when there’s only a few thousand people in the arena). Everyone in section cheers and laughs, Jordan puts his head in his hands and chuckles.
Raymond-hating note of the game: Raymond gets home-cooking on his turnover numbers. Late in the second quarter, I had an unofficial count of 5 Raymond Felton turnovers — official count at the time was 3. I may have to start paying closer attention to this. It is noteworthy, as Raymond’s official totals on the year are 18 assists:20 turnovers. For comparison, Aaron Brooks’ ratio for the year is 34:14. Just sayin…
Be sure to check out our Twitter feeds for more thoughts, including plenty of in-game tweeting: mine and ASChin’s.
A few days off before the next game, hosting the Hawks at the Cable Box on Friday night at 7PM ET.

-Dr. E

Why Is Everyone Hating on the Bobcats?

From the national media to the local press and back, it seems that everyone’s expectations are pathetically low for the Charlotte Bobcats as they enter the ’09-’10 NBA season.

[see also: ESPN The Magazine Eastern Conference Predictions | The Sporting News Season Preview| TSN’s Shoals on the Bobcats “Mess“]

Am I missing something here? Was there a secret meeting held somewhere deciding that all b-ball pundits reverse jinx the deepest, most talented squad in the Bobcats’ brief history?

Allow me a few points as to why the Bobcats are going to “BEAST IT” this year:

1. The team goes 2 deep at every position.

Gone are the days of depending on Jeff McInnis, Bernard Robinson, Adam Morrison and Melvin Ely to fill minutes. As John Hollinger likes to point out in his team assessment, the Bobcats have historically relied upon a disproportionate number of “sub-replacement level” players to contribute. By having players like McInnis, Morrison, Cartier Martin, and “Fat” Sean May sucking it up on the court, the ‘Cats have put themselves either in deeper holes or lost leads when they could have been staying in games. That changes this year.

Even with Raja Bell out indefinitely with a gimp wrist, the ‘Cats can still go two deep at SG with Gerald Henderson and 6’4″ Flip Murray. Henderson had a nice rookie preseason and Flip garnered some Sixth Man Award attention last year while playing with the Hawks. Hardly Kareem Rush-caliber options in my opinion. Things get even better when Raja comes back into the mix.

At the Point, the Bobcats are set. Raymond Felton, while not the world’s greatest PG, is a starter in the NBA and by all accounts a great leader. His backup, D.J. Augustin, is probably going to take over the starting gig by midseason and looks like he could turn out to be a sort of a “Damon Stoudamire: EVOLUTION” when all is said and done.

The team’s best players start at the forward spots. Boris Diaw and Gerald Wallace is the best forward combo the team has ever trotted out and you’d have to go back to the Anthony Mason/Glenn Rice combo in the late ’90s to find a more versatile, skilled frontcourt in Charlotte NBA history. Unlike last season, when the ‘Cats had to basically add 10 points to the opponents’ score whenever the two starters went out, this season the team has real quality on the bench with veterans Vlad Radmanovic and Stephen Graham and youngsters Derrick Brown and Alexis Ajinca. Last season ‘Lex was one of those sub-replacement guys. This season? If he keeps up what he started in the preseason, he might be a real contributor off the pine. The rookie Brown also showed consistency and poise during the exhibitions season. Either way, expect the Bobcats to go a reliable four deep at the forward position.

With all of the talk of salary dumps and downgrades at the Center spot, the ‘Cats still find themselves 3 deep in the middle. While Nazr Mohammed and Gana Diop aren’t players that you want starting for a playoff team, as 15 minute role players they are huge upgrades over the Primoz Brezecs, Jamaal Sampsons and Andre Brown’s of the world. Nazr has looked good in the preseason and I find it hard to believe that Diop won’t eventually play his way into shape come December. Meanwhile, Tyson Chandler is healthy and should make up for some of Okafor’s lost offensive production with his extroverted exuberance and energy.

2. Larry Brown has history. Don’t screw with history.

Brown has coached 11 NBA team during his career. NEVER has one of those teams failed to make the Playoffs two years in a row. I don’t think that this can be stated enough. There is magic here. Maybe if that coaching factoid was something like “in 3 coaching jobs in the NBA, coach Jeff Van Gundy has never…” but no, we’re talking about ELEVEN. Whatever Brown is doing it’s not accidental. He’ll find a way to make this happen. Watch and Learn.

3. The Sun Shines on a Dog’s Posterior Every Once and a While

It’s been five years. The team has made so many poor business and personnel decisions and had so many bad breaks over the past half decade that their luck is bound to change, right?
This season, that luck will probably be reflected most in their draft selections. Between 2005 and 2007, the team had 5 first round draft picks (#5, #13, #3, #8, #22) that, as of October of 2009, has resulted in the following players: Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, Raymond Felton and Vlad Radmanovic.

Alright, I apologize. I realize that after reading that last fact, you’re probably contemplating a cyanide tablet. But here’s the brightside: The last four draft picks look like keepers. Augustin, Henderson and Brown look like at minimum second contract guys and Ajinca could either be a stud or a bust, we’re not quite sure. This is an upgrade from last season, of course, when we were sure – that he sucked.

IN CONCLUSION:

I challenge the fans, the bloggers and the local media to expect more from this team going into next week’s Season Opener. This is the best team that the organization has ever assembled with the best coach and the best talent. Expect them to be good. Very good.

-ASChin

10/20/09 Bobcats vs. Bucks (Preseason)

Some quick thoughts and links after the Bobcats preseason win over the Bucks, 94-87 at the Cable Box on Tuesday night:

AP recap here, box score here, Bonnell’s Observer story here, Observer’s photo gallery here.
No Bell (more on that later), no Ajinca. Chandler was suited up, though. Cats started Ray, DJ, Crash, Diaw and Chandler.
Chandler only played 16 minutes and didn’t contribute much on the stat sheet, but looked fine. Great energy cheering from the bench, too (for real, not facetious).
Box score lists the attendance at 7500 — amazing pie-in-the-sky number. In reality, there were no more than 2000. Even that may be generous. It will be interesting to see the attendance for first Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night game against a non-marquee Eastern Conference foe during the regular season.
Nazr was awesome in the second quarter, going for 12 points with several dunks and some o-rebs.
Gerald Henderson was easily the most impressive Bobcat, going for 14 points (on 7-8 shooting) in 14 minutes and a big +17 +/-. He had a sweet baseline move with a great finish that the Observer photographer captured nicely — check it out in the photo gallery.
Bucks thoughts: check out Ridnour’s -24 +/- in 16 minutes — ouch! I thought Hakim Warrick signed with the Bucks basically because he would be the default starter at PF — but he came off the bench for only 5 mins — just resting, or in Skiles’ doghouse already? I was actually impressed with Brandon Jennings — that year in Italy may have done him some good after all. Save one bad turnover in the first half, he played under control and did a seemingly good job running the show for the Bucks starting unit.
Referee thoughts: with word leaking to the media that the NBA is on the verge of coming to an agreement with the refs, the replacements are getting their last hurrah. Aside from a couple of bad calls (Scott Skiles took umbrage a coupe of times, garnering a tech for his troubles at one point) I really couldn’t notice a huge difference with them. As a matter of fact, it was nice that they were rather anonymous and that the vets/coaches were not palling around with them.
Raja Bell’s injury news casts a huge pall over the few positive bits in this preseason win. After the game, Larry Brown revealed that Raja has a torn ligament in his left (non-shooting) wrist. There is a chance he could rehab it and play this season, but he may need surgery that would require 2 months of recovery and 2 months of rehab. That means we’d be without him for the bulk of the season. Anyone want to bet on the rehab? Because I’ll double your bet and place it on the surgery. Raja’s going to a specialist in Chicago for a second opinion; a specialist whose specialty is to do surgery on wrists — what do you think his second opinion is going to be? Good news if you’re Gerald Henderson or Flip Murray. Bad news if you’re hoping for a playoff berth.
Speaking of playoff berths, here’s ESPN’s roster of “experts” predicting the season for the Cats. While I don’t necessarily disagree that the Cats are going to struggle on the fringes of the 8th playoff spot, I just have to point out some of the more ridiculous assertions here: both David Thorpe and John Hollinger make me wonder what video/statistics of Emeka Okafor they have when they assert that losing Okafor hurts the Bobcats offensively. Jalen Rose wonders if the Cats will re-sign Felton — I assume he means next off-season, which has no bearing on this season whatsoever. Chad Ford has probably the most accurate take, and Chris Broussard the most biting.

– Dr. E

Observations: Charlotte Bobcats 2009 Open Practice

lb-stop

Fellow Baseliners, I knocked off work early, leaving loose ends untied, in order to bring you some observations and thoughts on the Bobcats open practice.

To summarize: I came, I yawned, I played Bejeweled on my phone.

Got there a bit late. They had about the first 15 rows or so blocked off, presumably so the players could still curse without offending the young ears in attendance. The rest of the lower bowl was surprisingly full of folks enjoying the free popcorn and soda. The team was running full-court five-on-five at about 75%, roughly starters vs. second team (except with Ajinca in Chandler’s spot, and guys like DJ and VladRad did time with both squads).

As anyone who has ever read anything about Larry Brown would expect, he stopped the action about every 7 seconds to point out mistakes and demand perfection in every offensive set. If I had the graphic design skills of my brethren here at the Baseline, I would have mashed up some picture of Larry Brown in practice gear with a big giant stop sign to lead off this post. Alas… (UPDATE: Photoshop added. Thanks, D)

It’s ironic though, as Brown’s main issue with the replacement officials was that they stopped the game so much that no flow was ever established and he wasn’t able to fully evaluate his young guys. I can identify. I realize it’s practice, but still, would it have killed anyone to let the guys scrimmage freely for a few minutes for the fans?

So with everyone at least 15 rows back, and the seats full of murmuring people, you actually couldn’t hear anything that was being said down on the court. I might have tolerated all the stoppages if Larry Brown had been wearing a mic and I could hear the teaching he was doing.

At about quarter til 7:00, people started peeling off. Kids were either bored out of their minds or on the verge of a fit, no doubt due to the absence of Rufus. A few minutes after 7:00, practice wrapped up and folks were invited to come down courtside for autographs. I’ve never seen a player as seemingly excited to sign autographs as Derrick Brown.

A few other items:

Nazr sat out; he looked left out and bummed on the sidelines.
Chandler sat out; “brooding” and “chomping at the bit” come to mind — he looks like he’s dying to get back on the court.
Diaw participated fully and looked great; so sneaky and fun to watch.
Ray finished as poorly in practice as he does in games.
No one respects Gerald Henderson’s outside shot. I’m guessing they do, however, respect his dunking ability. Guy has instantly supplanted Crash as our most exciting player and will hopefully get into the dunk contest.
After stoppages for teaching moments, the possession would often be wrapped up by token free throws, generally by the poorer free throw shooters. Gana Diop was a frequent recipient of these extra practice shots.
There were two guys that played with the reserves who I didn’t recognize. One was Antonio Anderson. Absolutely no clue as to who the other one was.
The team store was full of the same drek from the end of last season, save for the new jerseys. And all they have of those are the chintzy replicas — no swingmans or authentics yet.

-E

5 Things We Know About The Bobcats: Preseason Edition (vol. 1)

Young guns are figuring it out this preseason

Even though the Bobcats are off to a meager 1-3 to start this preseason we at the Baseline find ourselves giddy with optimism. Yes, it’s true – damn true. What is it that has us so jacked for the October 28th opener at Boston? I can think of at least, uh, 5 things…

1. The Youngsters are bringing it.

Or should we say, “wow, Larry Brown is actually playing rookies?” Or, “the Bobcats’ roster is so thin that 2nd Round picks play 1st Round minutes!” No matter how you slice it, the fact that both this year’s and last year’s rookies are putting in quality performances can only mean good things for an organization that has specialized in Draft Day Turnovers (of the unforced variety).

Last season we saw how good D.J. Augustin could be – especially pre-“8 Minute Aaaaabs” injury – and he’s been solid as expected this preseason playing the backup point, getting to the line often and shooting the ball from the field at a nice 53% clip (compared to 43% for Raymond Felton). Nobody expected his 2008 Draft classmate, “Alex Ajin-ka” to “beast it” out of the gate (well, maybe reggie expected it) but “beast it” Ajinca has.
I’m not really sure why the beat writers aren’t making a bigger deal out of this. Does anybody remember how terrible ‘Lex was last season? His only memorable moment came during garbage time of a mid-season Chicago game in which he enticed Aaron Gray into a shoving match that resulted in Ajinca’s own teammates laughing at him.
Now all of a sudden Alexis is dunking in putbacks, tipping in missed shots, fighting through screens, attempting to defend the pick ‘n roll. Does anybody realize that if he keeps this up, the Bobcats just might have an asset on their hands? An athletic 7-footer with a soft touch and skills? Ok, I have to stop… Just keep it up ‘Lex and prove both Coach Brown and reggie right.

Meanwhile, this year’s rookie tandem is paying dividends right from the start. Gerald Henderson is second on the team in scoring at around 11ppg and has got to the free throw line more than any other Bobcat so far this preseason. Unlike Adam Morrison, Sean May and Jared Dudley, Henderson looks like a basketball player and his athleticism and understanding of the game has translated very quickly to the NBA. Once he’s made it to the charity stripe, Henderson hasn’t shot the ball all that great (67%) but fortunately the team has assistant coach Capel on hand to teach guys named “Gerald” how to improve their free throw shooting.
Fellow rookie Derrick Brown has quietly put up consistent numbers over the preseason as well. The Robert Horry-esque combo forward hasn’t dropped any 20 point games yet but netting around 8pts a contest in under 18 minutes ain’t too shabby for a dude drafted in the mid-second round. The second coming of Bernard Robinson he most definitely is not.

2. The Bobcats are Competing against good teams without their starting frontcourt.

The fact that the Bobcats are playing quality opponents tight while starting Manny from Scarface at the 4-spot and Danny Glover at center is kind of mind blowing when you think about it. And even though Radmanovic is struggling with his shot, his effort playing the four and doing all of what Coach Brown has asked of him is admirable. We weren’t sure that Vlade was capable of something like that and it’s reassuring to know that the Radman can step in for 5 minutes a game and give Boris some relief. Speaking of Diaw, I loved seeing Gerald Wallace’s face light up after the second Cleveland game when reporters asked him about Boris and Tyson Chandler’s return. He didn’t even have to answer the question. If the ‘Cats are playing this well now, this soon in the preseason, just wait until they get their starting center and PF back.

3. Larry Brown hates The Replacements.

Keanu Reeves could do a better job than these scrubs. Coach Brown has been at the replacement officials in the media all week playing psychological games with them as if they were seven-foot one-hundred-and-ten pound frenchmen. He has a point.
Practiced NBA officials are downright horrible and those guys do it on a night-in night-out basis for years. The Replacements are a buncha dudes who weren’t good enough to take Steve Javie’s job. Seriously? How bad do you have to be in order to lose a roster spot to Dick Bavetta or Joey Crawford? Can’t these new guys learn how to throw a game properly?

4. What’s up with Diop-It-Like-It’s-Hot?

One of the not so rosy developments of the preseason is Gana Diop’s devolvement into the team’s 3rd center.
Now Diop can play him some defense, all of the turbo-geek sportswriters and their formulas have pointed this fact out over the past few seasons. Opposing centers just don’t dominate when Diop is on the floor. So why isn’t Diop playing?
Brown has been openly criticizing Gana’s conditioning and that is probably true but I think that once the games start counting Diop will be the one backing up Tyson at the five. Nazr Mohammed’s 19mpg has “showcasing him for a trade” written all over it. Gana will play his way into shape and be fine come November.

5. Give Raja a “Hooligan”

In Jack McCallum’s excellent book on the ’05-’06 Phoenix Suns “Seven Seconds or Less” he relays a story about Boris Diaw’s inability to remember the English word “mulligan” and instead referring to it as a “hooligan.” Apparently, Boris wanted a “hooligan” every time he missed a shot in practice. Raja Bell has been missing a lot of shots this preseason. And yes, he has proven that it is humanly possible for an NBA player to shoot 11% from the field. But we must remember that Raja is a special case. Now that Bruce Bowen has retired, Bell has taken on the official role of OLD MAN WITH DIRTY TRICKS WHO ONLY SHOOTS THREES and that role requires a special kind of conditioning and stamina training. Mail it in during the preseason and work yourself into game shape early in the regular season, help guide your team to the playoffs after the Break OR if your team isn’t good enough to make the playoffs, play hard come New Year’s so that you can get traded to a contender. Remember also that Raja is playing for one last decent multi-year contract this summer and he won’t get it by shooting 11% from the floor. Go ahead and give him a hooligan for the entire preseason.