Father and Son

The Panthers have training camp in full swing, and we’re sort of covering it over at PanthersPlanet.com, but training camp doesn’t lead to many stories, other than that whole Jeff Otah deal.  Well the Bobcats have training camp coming up too, which will be less hurried and lockouty this year.  The only interesting thing so far is that Scoop Jardine from Syracuse is going to be invited.

Scoop Jardine isn’t really the story.  The roster is at 13 and the other two spots aren’t likely to be filled by a combo guard coming off a broken foot that was unlikely to be drafted anyway.  Scoop Jardine is likely invited, according to PhillySportsLive.com, because of who he’s friends with.  That’s the issue I have, the blogger is pointing to a photo of Jardine with Michael Jordan’s daughter from Facebook, which might be a stretch but it leads me to a larger problem with the Bobcats:  Nepotism.

I know I’m beating a dead horse here.  I think I’ve hit on this every time an assistant is hired, a front office spot is filled or a low-level roster spot is filled.  It just keeps coming up.  You don’t see the Knicks, Nets, Heat, Thunder or Lakers doing this.  Actually, I doubt the Wizards, Hornets, Clippers or Magic do either.  It’s just so obvious and needless.

I just finished watching the latest episode of the USA show Royal Pains off my DVR (great show; highly recommend it although they need to put an end to the whole sibling rivalry thing). Afterwards I scanned some of the latest and greatest tidbits on the Charlotte Bobcats (or is it just Cats now?).

In the middle of reading one article about His Airness punching former teammate Steve Kerr at practice back in their playing days I came to a realization.

Michael Jordan is a royal pain.

To be more specific, he is the taller, African-American version of Evan (played by Paulo Costanzo). In the show the two brothers, Evan and Hank, are arguing over the direction of their concierge medical practice. Hank just wants to practice medicine while Evan wants to turn it into a money-making machine.

Separately the two are floundering. Evan knows nothing about medicine while Hank knows even less about business.

No, I don't want the next Bobcats Coach to wear a "?" mask all the time

With apologies to former Boston Celtics coach, Rick Pitino:  ”Bernie Bickerstaff is not coming through that door!  Larry Brown is not going to be walking through that door!  And Sam Vincent isn’t walking through that door!”  Sam can’t walk through that door because he can’t figure out how the handle works, or if it’s a push or a pull.  Actually, the only guy welcome to walk through any door at 333. East Trade is Paul Silas, and that’s because he’s actually still a member of the franchise, in some undefined role.

Paul Silas won’t be coaching the team again next season.  As discussed at length, you can’t keep the CEO of Lehmann Brothers around after the great collapse of 2008 and you can’t keep the head coach of a team that went 7-59 around for another year.  I appreciate what all those names above did for the team in their time.  All, except of course, for Sam “Ham Biscuit” Vincent.  Bernie got things rolling as head coach and general manager and actually never let the team finish in last place.  He was integral to the roots of development that the franchise started out with.  He was around for 4 years, but coached for 3 seasons.  He wasn’t Michael Jordan’s guy, so his contract wasn’t renewed.  He was sent on his way, given a very awkward “retirement” party after the final game of the ’06-’07 season.  Awkward, because he didn’t retire.  He went on to be an assistant coach with both Chicago under Vinny Del Negro and Portland under Nate McMillan and whoever the hell replaced Nate when he got the axe.  

This is an exciting time of year for Charlotte Bobcats fans. Yea, it would be great if the team was actually still playing (and a lot more exciting). Right now the team has something that it didn’t really have much of all season—hope.

There is talent on the team. Another tremendous talent is going to be added in the coming draft. The only thing needed now is a coach that is going to be able to get this talented group to perform.

It would be nice to think that His Airness would be willing to open up the bank account and get a top quality guy, but I don’t think anyone is holding their breath in anticipation. However, there are some quality assistants out there that could very well become great head coaches.

The team was supposed to interview Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach David Joerger on Friday. After researching this guy I have to say the team can do a whole lot worse. He’s played a part in the Grizzlies becoming competitive since he joined them a few seasons ago. However, what has me excited about him is his time as a head coach in some of the lesser leagues.

Joerger led five teams to minor league championships in the NBA Developmental league, the International Basketball Association, and the Continental Basketball Association. That tells me that he knows how to take young talent, work with them, and turn them into winners.

I would have to vote no (like my vote actually matters) to Stephen Silas. Yes, the man knows the team having worked with them for the last season, but familiarity does not breed success. Heck, we all saw that.

Do You Think He Get's this pissed in staff meetings?

I’d like to pick this thing apart like an autopsy.  The Bobcats 2012 season was dreadful.  I guess you have to still call it 2011-2012 season, because the Bobcats actually played 3 games before New Year’s Day.  But does it really matter?

Actually, yes.  It does matter because likely the most significant positives came in those first two games.  The Bobcats actually won against Milwaukee in that first game, and former Bobcats Stephen Jackson and Shaun Livingston.  The next game, it took a Dwayne Wade last second shot to beat the young Bobcats.  Wade showing “the Superman” to Cam Newton, who was in the crowd, hopefully cheering on his hometown Bobcats, was an indelible image from the season.

No, those were the salad days.  When the season was young.  If you look at the big picture of the season, you see one glaring, overwhelming, undeniable truths that will likely not be pushed aside for years, if ever: The Charlotte Bobcats are the worst team in NBA history.

“The worst,” isn’t defensible.  You can’t make claims like “Well, they show some promise and if it weren’t for….”  No, you can’t defend the Bobcats of the 2011-2012 season.  Epic futility, even in a shortened season, with a young team in flux, isn’t able to be cast aside like it was expected or a link in a chain of events that was somehow planned.

Tanking couldn’t be the reason for the lowest winning % in NBA history.  Michael Jordan claims that the Bobcats weren’t even going for the most ping-pong balls.  So, worst in the league, not a goal, worst ever?  Far from it.  I still argue we’re talking about Michael Jeffery Jordan here.  He’s one of the world’s greatest competitors.  They invented the quote “I don’t care if you’re playing basketball, checkers, tidly-winks or whatever, he hates to lose,” about the owner of the Bobcats.  But, we all also know that his exploits as owner and executive haven’t come close to what he did as a player, even in his time with the Wizards.  That says a lot.

Last week, the Bobcats decided not to bring back Coach Paul Silas for the 2012-2013 season.  Though it should be noted that they’re keeping him on as a consultant, which—given this team—is arguably a crueler thing to do than simply firing him.  Anyway, the search is now on for his replacement.  Besides the qualities mentioned in the headline, GM Rod Higgins told the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell that the Bobcats are looking for someone who views the job as an “opportunity” and stresses that he doesn’t necessarily have to be an ex-NBA coach.  Bonnell somehow found this gibberish insightful enough to produce several articles’ worth of analysis, including one with an elaborate 3-legged stool metaphor.  Poor Rick.

And speaking of “stools,” let’s talk about last season.  Now that we’re a week removed from harmful exposure to the carcinogenic 2012 Bobcats, yet still comfortably far off from the lottery, it’s time to reflect on what has happened…before the slowly-but-steadily increasing anxiety at the thought of losing the lottery completely devours my brain like Kahn’s ear worms in Star Trek 2.  Like my midseason recap/toxicology report, I’m going to go through each player in descending order of playing time (which also means I’ll be going through each player in descending order of my mental sanity).  We’ll see how far I can get, but chances are we’ll have to break this column up into a few parts; otherwise I’ll just collapse to the floor and start laughing hysterically like Tom Hanks in The Money Pit.  Here we go…

Coach Paul Silas – Okay, he technically didn’t play, but that’s okay, because he often technically didn’t coach either.  Still, a few words are in order for our dearly departed coach.  In his defense, he had a lineup that was intentionally terrible (thanks to management), and he lost the 6^th most man-games to injury (side note: hey, look at that, we were among the league leaders in something!).  But in his “offense” (?), what’s Paul Silas known for?  Okay, other then looking more confused on the sidelines than Katie Couric after a Sarah Palin response?  He’s known for rebounding and toughness.  So at the very least, he should have instilled those characteristics in his team.  And in this endeavor he completely failed; the Bobcats were 28^th in overall rebounding rate and allowed the most shots at the rim of any team.  The frontcourt couldn’t have been less intimidating if they had decided to start every game off with a reenactment of the video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).”  So for this reason alone, I have no problem with letting Silas go.  Also, his contract was up.  Also, with a potential superstar rookie coming on board and some big name coaches available, it’s probably better to start fresh…Oh yeah, and also, this was the worst team of all time.