Many of you have probably been asking yourselves, “What has Blogcat been doing all summer?”  Many more of you have probably not been asking yourselves that.  Or if you were, you were probably hoping the answer was, “Getting impregnated by a hideous alien and then watching in horror as the writhing monster fetus is extracted from his belly via a futuristic self-surgery chamber.”

And you wouldn’t be far off!  Because speaking of watching things in horror, what I’ve actually been doing is writing an e-book (entitled–what else?–The Breaks of the Wind) on the 2011-12 Bobcats.  Remember them?  Unless you are one of the lucky few whose health care covers lobotomies, of course you do!  Well, you can now purchase my e-book here for the low, low price of $1.99.  And I promise this isn’t some lame rip-off move in which I just compile a bunch of my old entries.  Nope, I’ve added dozens of curse words, recoils, cringes, dry-heaves, and shudders, all of which are befitting for the NBA season equivalent of a gory exorcism.  Enjoy!

Now it’s on to the next one!  I must admit I’m not optimistic about the Cats this year.  In fact, I’ve been putting off thinking about the 2012-13 season for as long as possible, hoping instead for some kind of divine intervention, such as a rogue planet entering our orbit and colliding with Earth, rendering the entire human race extinct, and leaving NBA commissioner David Stern with no choice but to lock out the players again.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s happening, and now I’ve got to accept that there will be a season.  Therefore, it’s time to do some previewing and predictions.

First of all, I apologize for this stupid headline, but I had to change my original idea at the last minute once I saw that Travis had titled his latest article, “Who Can Lead the Bobcats Out of the Cellar?”  His was too close to what I was going to use: “Who Can Lead the Bobcats Out of the Gimp Trunk In the Cellar?”  Anyway, this is Part 2 of my recap of the season, and as I see that there haven’t been any news developments in the past week (nope, the team’s still a flaming wreckage), let’s jump right into it.  As I did last week, I’ll continue in the order of minutes each player played.  Also, as I did last week, I’ll try to finish the article without hanging myself:

Byron Mullens (1,465 minutes played) – Let’s start with the good: Mullens, some tall, unknown hayseed from Oklahoma City suddenly popped up days before the season began, looking for a job.  I actually picture his arrival in my mind as very similar to Axl Rose stepping off the bus in the “Welcome to the Jungle” video, complete with a piece of straw sticking out of his mouth.  From there, with absolutely no expectations whatsoever, Mullens had the team’s highest unadjusted +/- (+3.74).  Moreover, he and Reggie Williams were the only two players on both of the team’s positive adj. +/- 5-man units (post-Boris Diaw).  Of course, this is all thanks to his unique long-range scoring ability.  This is NOT thanks to his defense or rebounding.  I was about to severely criticize his 5 RPG average…until I saw that it was second on the team (I’ve got to pace myself).  If Mullens can toughen up and/or get paired with a certain game-changing rookie at center whom I won’t jinx by mentioning (hallowed be thy name!), next year could be awesome!  If not, next year could end up with him tied to a chair and screaming for his life in front of a bunch of television screens showing graphic images of police brutality, with Corey Maggette hovering over him and telling him that he wants to watch him bleed.

I thought I’d use this All Star Break as a nice chance to gasp for air in this waterboarding session of a season and not write at all about the Bobcats for a weekend.  I didn’t feel like examining this team’s first 30-odd games of the year anymore than I feel like examining my own rectum.  But I was inspired by Gregg Easterbrook of all people.  For those of you lucky enough to have not stumbled on him, Easterbrook spews forth his recurring “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” column on ESPN during the NFL season, in which he peppers his pathological hatred for large football-centric colleges and drafted football players amongst random outer-space factoids and ponderous, in-depth critiques of terrible sci-fi shows that nobody likes in the first place.  He also loves to theorize, and does so with arrogant certainty—which is funny, because one of his go-to theories is that a team or a coach failed because they “angered the football gods.”  Probably the only reason I keep reading his columns is that he fills me with that sense of shame and disgust that I can’t get anywhere else during the Bobcats offseason.

Anyway, I was looking over one of the TMQ’s Easterbrook shat out towards the end of this NFL season, and it featured one of his typical pseudo-lectures, this one being on why football has become such a hit on television.  Here were his five reasons:

• Football is America’s most popular sport
• Football is a great DVR sport
• Football is live
• Women are acquiring more social and economic power
• Only men can understand flat-screen HD TV remotes

January 25th, that’s the deadline. Between now and then we have to make a big decision. Do we extend the contracts of DJ Augistine and DJ White?

DJ Augustin

DJ Augustin was our 9th pick just a few years ago and was supposed to be our point guard of the future, even though we had drafted Raymond Felton three years earlier (who was also our “future point guard”). We decided not to extend Raymond though and gave him a one year deal. Now its 3 years after we drafted DJ, and we have drafted another point guard in Kemba Walker.(but seriously, this time he is our future star…I think…3rd time lucky?) Last time we never extended Ray, perhaps because of the strong rookie season DJ had. Dejavu anyone? However, no two situations are ever exactly the same.

DJ is having an up and down year, but I think overall we would agree that he is having his best year yet as a pro. The myth that DJ was a just a scoring point guard has been answered in my opinion, even when DJ is having off shooting nights he is delivering assists. He seems to run the team a lot better this year. But remember, in accordance to the Bobcats slogan“prepare today, OWN TOMORROW” we have to think long term. I am not going to get into a debate about Kemba being the future of the team, that is not what this article is about. But, to get down to the point I think we should offer DJ an extension, at a reasonable price. The “Mike Conley” affect as I call it has inflated the price of point guards in the league. I think something around 19 million over 3 years would probably be a justifiable amount to pay him. There are rumors that he has asked for 23.5 over 3 years, thats not a stupid amount of money, maybe a bit over his worth, but kudos to him for trying. But lets look at this thing in the bigger picture.

(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Box Score

When considering the Bobcats lottery prospects this loss will likely help in ensuring a higher draft pick. In the here and now however, it raises a few concerns.

Firstly, there are few players on the Bobcats who aren’t defensive liabilities. For as much as Augustin gives on offense (26 points, 9 assists), he gives up as much on the defensive end. DJ White is more or less in the same boat. This isn’t a new issue for either, but it’s too bad considering both are off to the best starts of their careers. The rest of team has trouble defending as well, with the Cavaliers scoring 56 points in the paint, and at other times getting too many open looks. The size disadvantage contributes to this, so the return of Tyrus Thomas is needed quickly if this team wants any chance of defending down low.

This was supposed to be Kemba Walker vs. Kyrie Irving, but Walker had his worst game as a pro. Two points on 1-6 shooting compared to Irving’s 20 points and six assists. When looking back, the absence of Walker made a difference. In both of the Bobcats close games, Walker had stretches of play that kept the Bobcats in the game. He may not be a starter, but if the Cats are going to win any games this year he will need to show up.

Diaw has crashed down to Earth after his good start. He looked tired, unfocused and still out of shape. He was scoreless with five rebounds and five fouls, and it was hard to find any justification for him being in the game in the 2^nd half.

After a scoreless first half Henderson got hot in the 2^nd finishing with 16 points and seven rebounds. These numbers are what you want from him, but not necessarily all in one half. The next step for him is to become more consistent.

So we all saw that horrible game against Miami, and if you didn’t count yourselves lucky. If you speak to any fan they will say that game was just awful. However, I beg to differ, now I understand if your sitting there thinking what? We equalled our worst ever loss (39 points). But I approach this game like most of the season; I am not that bothered about the basketball we play right now, it means nothing. Silas will have moved on I reckon after this year, and I imagine we will go with a new young coach a la Miami with Spolstra to start a new era. Perhaps Stephan Silas? Matt Rochinksi told me, that Reggie Williams told him (we were obviously playing Chinese Whispers at the time) that Everyone in Golden State was devastated when Stephan Silas left and that all the players really miss him to this day. Apparently they had never liked a coach as much as him. Sorry, I got sidetracked. Back to why I think the game against Miami was successful. Kemba Walker had a good game and set a career high of 17 points, as did Biyombo with by far his best game so far. However, I don’t want to talk about either of these guys for once, did I mention they are the future of this team? Oh ok… well they are. I want to talk about the Bearded One (DJ White) and his role on this team.

So DJ White set his career high in points and went 10-12 from the field against a pretty impressive Miami team and hit his first ever 3. This game has got the debate about our “starting power forward” into full swing. Now I do acknowledge that DJ White was absolutely balling and deserves every minute he gets. The naked mole rat aka Rick Bonnell has written on it, Silas has spoken to the media about it and the forum has been discussing it. Most are saying the same thing, DJ White will start and Tyrus Thomas will come off the bench and is going to have to really step up his game. He has to stop being so inconsistent and win that starting spot back. With the way DJ White has been playing, and I fully understand that point of view.

However I believe this is WRONG.