It appears we are in another summer of ‘remodeling’ the team into something better than it was last year. While the long term affects of this could be positive, our history with MJ/Larry shows this same type of thing will probably happen again next summer.  My question is, is it worth it?

We just had the best season in franchise history with a group that hadn’t even been together an entire season. Wouldn’t it have been better to see what they could do with one full season together then re-evaluating? I understand we had to let Ray go, but why trade everyone else? A lot of questions like these have been popping in my head recently, but it is useless to try and answer them. MJ is doing what he is doing we just have to sit back and watch.

I like some of the moves we have done. Signing Livingston was an A+. He has a lot of potential to be a starter. Next year, i think he should be our #2 guy, and spend more time in the weight room than on the court. After that, i would be open to him as our starter. His talent is undeniable, and if he hadn’t messed is knee up (ironically, playing against us while still on the Clippers) he would be starting right now. Extending Tyrus was a stability move, which is the thing i like the most. We got our guy at power forward now.  Trading Diaw is the next logical step, and not too many people are opposed to that.

My biggest issue with what we are doing is what is to come. We took on 2 huge contracts of role players to get 1 voidable, and lost our starting center. Replacing Tyson will not be as easy as it seems. Even though he was lost half the year, he picked up our system towards the end of the season and helped us make the playoffs. Their are not that many 7 footers out their, and we just gave 1 up. Nazr’s back and Diop’s terrible offense keep them from being starters, so we need to find someone before training camp.

We still need a point guard to start for us; DJ is not ready yet and neither is Shaun.  Who that can be is a mystery.  I do not believe their is any validity in rumors that Chris Paul is coming here. Maybe their have been talks, but i doubt anything will come from them if no details have even been leaked to the mainstream media. I want him as much as everyone else does, but it is just a wet dream the size of an ocean to think we could get him. We will just have to wait and see who we get. Just be advised holding your breath for CP3 will most likely just lead you to suffocate.

The new roster is not done being built, hopefully. As it stands right now we have some huge holes. While i trust MJ and LB will find guys (they always do) I am wondering what we will have to give up to get them. We could very well end up having to lose one of our core guys. I am not expecting these guys to learn to play together in training camp, and i expect a painful start to the season followed by a slow rise to the playoffs. We might get a higher seed,  but that is just crazy speculation at this point. As long as we don’t win a championship, it will be lather/rinse/repeat for this whole process next offseason. I am not sure i like this. Do you?

Sup everybody, BETCATS checking back in. If you are reading this, i would like to wish you a happy holiday season. At the time i wrote my last piece for the site, the Bobcats were struggling. A lot of us were panicking and we were all starting to think maybe the playoffs are out of reach. The faith in our team to get the job done was questionable. We then went on a little win streak, and everyone was satisfied temporarily. But that was then.

Fast forward to today, the Bobcats are struggling again.  Once again, some of my fellow Bobcat fans have gone into panic mode. Talks that the season is already over and a total meltdown is in site are in full swing. I feel it is needed to give a reminder we are only 26 games into the season. However, from those 26 games we can start to see some trends.

1) Boris Diaw has issues.  I am not sure where they spawned from, but he has them. Diaw has been underachieving this entire season. At first i was willing to contribute it to injuries. But the more i watch him play, the more obvious it is that he does not want to be playing basketball. Maybe it was Bell leaving. Maybe it was the fact the Suns are good this year. Maybe something was said to him by somebody in the organization after he hurt himself over the summer. But whatever the problem is, it has turned Diaw into a shadow of what he was for us last season. The only way i see the Diaw issue being resolved is Diaw ‘snapping out of it’ or being traded. Either way, it is going to be painful until it ends.

2) Tyson Chandler is trying, and it will pay off. I know he has pissed us all off with his recent quote, but lets just move on. Tyson said what he said, and the team will deal with it. As fans, lets not keep on crucifiying him.  When watching Tyson play, you can tell he is putting effort in, unlike Diaw.  He might have a bad case of the “i miss CP3 blues” , but he will adapt to our team soon enough. We are requiring him to work on offense, something that is foreign to him. But he is shooting free throws well and he is attacking the basket. I expect  to pick up the pace by mid-season aka mid-season form.

3) Larry Brown is making some very questionable decisions. Not playing DJ. Not playing Henderson enough. Not playing Nazr when it counts. Not playing Derrick Brown when we need him the most. Putting too much pressure on Flip to make big plays. Not giving Stephen Jackson the ball in clutch situations and letting him finish out the game….I could go on and on and on and on. But these are just some of the perks that you get when LB is your coach.  I think Larry is still experimenting with the rotations, and i hope he figures them out by the ASG break. Last year, Larry also did a lot of things i can only describe as ‘strange’ and it is re-occurring this year. But hey, I.L.B.I.T.

Now comes the part of this when i make my plea to my Bobcat brethren that are in panic mode. I ask that you all just wait before throwing in the towel on the season. Yes, all the 3 things i outlined are concerning. Yes, there is more than what I said to be concerned about. But please, we are 26 games into the season. Lets not pass judgement until all 82 games have been played.

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value”  – Thomas Paine

In an 82 game season, their is much time for a team to meet failure. 13 games into this one, and it seems the Bobcats have already found it. Very poor offensive execution, inabilities to control the paint on both ends of the court, living or dying on the jump shot, small ball and the lack of defense against 3 point shooting has all added up. Currently with a 3 – 9 record (in addition a game against the Pacers yet to be played today) many fans are ready to call it quits and lose hope. They take to the message boards and comment sections across the internet, calling for the dismissal of Larry Brown and to trade every player not preforming up to their potential.

I cannot help but be appalled. Now is not the time to be weak. Their is still much work that can be done, that i am confident will be done, yet to some fans it is time to throw in the towl. Every single weakness can be fixed.

Poor offensive execution plagues us.  This can be contributed to the point guards, Felton and DJ.  Both are not playing at the levels they were last year. Both are committing boat loads of turnovers. The question must be asked: what happened over the summer, what has changed? The answer is mentality.  Felton has said it himself: he is over-thinking. The offense is not coming to him naturally this season. He tries to evaluate every play he commits and makes poor decisions. Why this is happening is Felton’s mystery. I am not seeing any solution to this other than Felton ‘snapping out of it’. When he finds his swagger somewhere in down the line, offensive execution will improve. DJ’s problems are much more explainable: a sophomore slump. Lots of great players have them, DJ appears to have fallen victim to it. He is getting the same shots as last year, he is just missing them. This too can only be cured when DJ locates his “swagger” and starts scoring the ball like he used to.

Inabilities to control the paint on both ends of the court has lost us many games this season. To name a few: the Chicago game, the Bucks game, the Orlando game (at the end), and the Sixers game. Vs Chicago, Joakim Noah alone destroyed us grabbing defensive rebounds and getting easy tip in dunks. Against the Bucks, early on Brandon Jennings established the fact he was getting into the lane at will. The Sixers game looked like a AND1 Mixtape tour game at certain points, with dunk after dunk after dunk by Elton Brand, Louis Williams, and Andre Igoudala. We did better against Orlando, but at the end nobody was stopping Dwight Howard or Brandon Bass, and we missed crucial rebounds while Orlando got easy plays. The cause: Tyson Chandler. Emeka Okafor opened the lane up for us on offense. Say what you will about the manner Okafor scored, but Okafor did indeed score. Defenses respected him more than we did, and focused on him. Nobody needs to focus on Tyson Chandler.  Tyson must have converted to a Kwame Brown worshiping religion over the summer, because he now has the same exact brick hands that have made Brown a joke. The phrase “black hole on offense” gets thrown around a lot, but can applies here. Because of this “black hole” we get our shot blocked a lot. Everything gets harder for everyone because of Tyson. We cannot even hope Tyson will change. He sucks, we must accept that. But their is an answer: NAZR MOHAMMED. For some reason LB doesn’t like him, but Nazr can score the ball.  I am not allocating for Nazr to play 48 minutes a game, or even start, but if we put Nazr out their for 25 minutes every night (compared to the 15 Larry is giving him now) and we will all see results.

The fact that we cannot control the paint has lead us to a odd offensive style of small ball and  living or dying on the jump shot. Larry Brown has never, to my knowledge used small ball. But to deal with the fact Tyson Chandler sucks, Larry has used a lineup that involves playing Diaw (or even worse Vlad-Rad) at center, Wallace at power forward, Jackson (Graham or Raja before him) at small forward, Flip or DJ at shooting guard, and Felton at point. This does not work well. It just adds to the already outlined issue of no control of the paint. This group instead takes a lot of jump shots. They also miss most of them. Because they don’t control the paint, they don’t get the offense rebound and dont score. Hopefully this will just stop. Larry needs to play Nazr (i cant say that enough) and put an end to this small ball madness.

Defense is the strong suit of this team. Yet  the lack of defense against 3 point shooting has all added up and cost us losses. Against New York, we had a giant lead that was soiled by the Knicks getting bundles of open 3 point shots. That was a game that should have ended in the 3rd quarter went to overtime.  Against the Nets, we were down most of the game due to the fact they got as many 3 point shots as they wanted. Against Orlando, when they could not get anything going due to our great mid-range denfense, they shot 3s.  Larry Brown must work on this. We cannot allow teams to get 3 points for free. It is unacceptable. But i have faith he will.

I have faith however, that all of our problems will go away with time and with work. It will not be easy, but we have the talent on all ends for the job. Larry Brown made this team.  To fire him now would be a mistake. It would just prove he assembled  this entire team the wrong way. I do not think we have, after all nobody is denying our talent and we all expected this group to make the  playoffs. Nothing good can come of a firing during a season. No new coach can come in and assert their own plans. A team must go through training camp with a coach if they hope to be succesful with that coach’s style. This team was made for Larry Brown and should be coached by him for now. When the offseason comes, then we can evaluate him and every player on the roster. No more tingling with the roster. We brought in Jackson, we have 2 rookies that still have yet to find a place in the offense. This group needs to develop some chemistry.  Now is a time for change on a different scale; not change in faces, change in playing style.   Larry Brown is no stranger to change.  He does not accept failure, and will do what is needed to stop it. We have found failure it is apparent. But please my fellow fans, dont give up. Just allow time and Larry Brown to change the course this team is heading.

I.L.B.I.T.