Recently Bernie Bickerstaff said that this was Brevin Knight’s team and its up to Brevin to decide when he wants to step down or be traded. As far as playing time, anybody that has seen Raymond Felton play at all over the past two months can see clearly that this team performs at a higher level with him running the point. With Felton running the show, they play a more uptempo pace thats clearly more suited to the Bobcats roster. I have a hard time understanding in this situation, why the coach doesn’t do whats best for the team instead of whats best for the ego of one of his veteran players. Theres nothing to gain by giving Knight heavy minutes, because by the time this team becomes competitive, he’ll be long gone.

from a trade standpoint, to allow any non superstar player on a building team absolute veto power over potential trades is irresponsible and counter productive from a GM standpoint. On an expansion team like this, you have to willing to deal players that aren’t part of your core long term plans in order to stockpile young talent.
Lets hope that management grows a spine in the near future and stops catering to their favorites.

In our forums we’ve had an ongoing debate on whether Chris Paul is really any better than Raymond Felton . Yeah, I know that CP3 is your runaway favorite to be the 2006 rookie of the year, hes everybody’s media darling, solid citizen, everybody loves him, blah blah blah, but lets look at it a little more closely. As always, numbers don’t lie.
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Games which they’ve played more than 35 minutes:
Felton 16.7 points, 6.6 assists, 5.1 rebounds 46%FG 50% 3pFG
Paul 16.2 points, 8.0 assists, 5.4 rebounds 43%FG 30% 3pFG

Over the past two games when hes been able to play the majority of his minutes at the point guard spot , and hes put up all star caliber numbers.
16 points 13 assists 7 rebounds
30 points 10 assists 7 rebounds 5 steals

In my ( slightly biased ) opinion, Chris Paul is a solid player, but Raymond is every bit his equal. Felton came into a situation where the team already had an established veteran point guard, so for the first portion of the season he had to get his minutes at backup PG. Once the Bobcats got hit with a wave of injuries he was forced to play out of position as the starting shooting guard, CP3 on the other hand walked into a team that had a gaping hole at point guard, so he was given the keys to the car from day one. An argument that I get from the Chris Paul supporters is that hes led them back to the spotlight, into playoff contention yada, yada, yada, but lets get serious. CP3 isn’t leading his team back to the playoffs, when they hold the draft lottery this year, The Hornets will be praying for their ping pong ball to come up, just like the Bobcats. Go ahead all of you Chris Paul groupies, bash me all that want to, but the fact remains we’ve got a rookie point guard just as good as yours…. and maybe a little better.

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That seems to be the question on a lot of peoples mind. Some are trying to say that hes the next Larry Bird, thats a little bit on the crazy side, although Morrison is a solid passer, he definitely doesn’t have Bird’s court vision. Some of the Adam Morrison haters would prefer to compare him to "The Big Dog" Glenn Robinson or Keith Van Horne. While both of these two were both strong offensive ballers at the college level, neither one of them had any real big-time success in the NBA. What seperates Adam Morrison from both of these two is his will and emotion. If you’ve seen him on the court willing his team to win in the final minutes of the game then you know exactly what I mean. You never saw that out of Van Horne or Robinson at the college level.
The player that seems to compare best to what Adam Morrison might become once he reaches the NBA is… drumroll please… Glen Rice, both are in the 6’8" range, both are excellent perimeter players, premier scorers who who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and rebound.

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These stats tell the story:

Glen Rice’s Senior year at Michigan  pts 25.6, reb 6.3 FG% 58 ( absolutely crazy ) 99 threes.
Adam Morrison Junior year at Gonzaga pts 28.6  reb 5.4 FG% 50                      74 threes.

If Morrison has a pro career equal to Glen Rice’s then I believe that would easily justify him being the top pick in the 2006 NBA draft ( which is especially weak this year).

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Look at the numbers so far this season:

Gerald Wallace: 15.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.5 steals per game, 2.2 blocks per game.

His 2.5 steals per game leads the league. Thats ahead of perennial top steals guys like Allen Iverson and Jason Kidd. In addition to that when Emeka Okafor went down for extended time with his second serious ankle injury of the season, Gerald was asked to step up and not only continue to harass their opponent’s best perimeter player but to also provide interior help. Hes done that above and beyond everyone’s expectations, blocking shots to a tune of 2.2 per game. Thats top ten and more blocks per game than guys like Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett.

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He is on the pace to become the first player to average 2+ blocks and 2+ steals per game in the same season in the past 15 years. Shawn Marion of the Phoenix Suns also has an outside shot at it, he is currently posting 2.0 BPG and 1.9 SPG.

The biggest reason that he is deserving of this award is that he plays defense with an energy, fearlessness and reckless abandon that borders on insanity. How else can you explain this scene from the Bobcats/Heat game from earlier this week. Shaq catches the ball 6 feet from the basket, In most circumstances its end of play at this point. Wallace goes for the block, collides with Shaq getting a piece of the ball forcing him to miss the shot and sends him to the line, The collision with Shaq practically knocks him all the way out the three point line, But Crash just gets up laughing and ready for me.

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When Emeka Okafor went down in January vs the Houston Rockets with his second truly ugly ankle injury of the season, my first impression was the he was done for the year. Stick a fork in him , put him in a coat/tie and a walking boot at the end of the bench for the rest of the year because hes done. Upon hearing the initial injury reports telling us that he was expected to return in early to mid-March, I was happy for him and for the team that he was going to get back on the court this season, but also a little puzzled by the timing of his return. What good can happen by putting the cornerstone and first pick of your franchise back on the court for the final 12 to 15 games of the season? Thats hardly enough time on the court to even get him back in decent game shape. And lets be honest here, its not like we’re fighting for a playoff spot. The only really logical thing to do is to shut him down for the season and make sure hes completely healthy for 2006-2007. Theres absolutely nothing to gain by putting him back on the court in 2005-2006.

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All of this brings me back to the Bobcats’ injury report, The reports are still saying that he returns in Mid-March, but there have been absolutely no news updates in the local media regarding his injury and no progress reports in the local papers, No word on him participating in drills or when he might begin participating, all of which make me very suspicious. I have a gut feeling that hes not returning this year, but the Bobcats’ front office are just waiting to announce it for their own reasons. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

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