“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.

espn.com’s Marc Stein is reporting that the Bobcats have shipped Raja Bell and Vladamir Radmonovic to the Golden State Warriors in return for Stephen Jackson and Acie Law.

Jackson had been disgruntled to say the least in Golden State and I believe he had been Keyshawned. The Warriors are still playing Nellie ball and Jackson didn’t fit well and was demanding a trade.

Acie Law is that ever illusive 3rd point guard that Larry Brown covets, although he hasn’t made great waves in the league, he is a servicable back up to Raymond Felton and DJ Augustin.

From the Bobcats point of view, this frees up some cap space for next season, brings in a proven career 15.5 ppg guy whose previous years in GSW had yeilded as many as 20 points per.

I like the trade a lot. While I hate to see lockdown defender and all around good guy Raja Bell leave, he was a liability and injury prone. Vlad hadn’t done much this season hitting only 7 of his 22 three point attempts this season.

Look for Jackson and Acie Law to play tonight in Orlando, otherwise hold on to your hats as a truly undermanned team rolls into the Amway Arena to catch a whoopin from the defending Eastern Conference Champs.

I love the movie Bull Durham.  Kevin Costner calls Tim Robbins “meat” the whole time.  You know what he means but “Nuke” doesn’t.  My old roommate and I started calling Chuck James from the Braves “Meat” a couple years ago.  Every time he’d step out there it was like, “How long before somebody just rocks him and he’s got that holy-crap-did-that-just-happen-AGAIN looks on his face?”  You just knew the guy was set up to lose or something but you knew he had a few flashes or hopefully wouldn’t be out there long enough to matter.

That’s what everyone thinks of the Bobcats front office, at least from the outside looking in.  ”Meat.”  When you look at the history, brief as it is, you tend to think that the Bobcats have never gotten the better end of a trade and certainly haven’t added any large talent through free agency.  So with that in mind, not the forefront but it’s a mindset as a fan –  ”We’re getting screwed.” – my initial thoughts were just that: Holy crap, we got screwed by the Hornets, this is garbage and I’m freakin pissed.  Okafor to New Orleans for Chandler…come on!  Okafor will be a full on All-Star next year and the Hornets will make a deep run into the playoffs…it will happen.

It’s not about what we lost.  It’s a trade.  Yeah, we’re out the first ever draft pick, face of the team, consistent every night, 13,10 and 1.5 blocks, ladies and gentlemen:  Emeka Okafor.

Take the fan hat off for a minute.  Pretend you’re Larry Brown, Michael Jordan or Rod Higgins.  (Does it drive you crazy that there isn’t one guy that you can blame/congratulate that’s pulling the strings?)  You are responsible to the ownership and the fans for producing wins and an enjoyable basketball/on the court experience.  Does Emeka Okafor make or break you on any of that?  Is he irreplaceable?  Does he hold the key to the playoffs?  What has he done to deserve to stay?  You had to sign him last year because he is a legit PF/Center as a starter in this league and probably for a long time to come.  He played all 82 games the previous year after being somewhat injury prone.  He got a big, long contract that some thought was way too large and his production didn’t exactly equate to the numbers.  On the other hand, he’s what you’ve got and you know he’s good for a double double every night and some solid defense.

So Larry, you have this guy for a full year.  He plays pretty hard.  He isn’t dominant.  He’s not a game changer.  But he’s good for a double double and he’s the first and best guy that’s been around for all 5 years in Charlotte.  But I’m Larry Brown and I just got here.  I didn’t pick him.  He’s not my guy and he frustrates the hell out of me sometimes.  Oak “gets an A in yoga and pilates but we want him to get an A in basketball.”  You know what?  Maybe we don’t want this guy until halfway into the next decade.  He’ll get $14 million one of those years.  Is he going to be worth it?

I’ve got the scenerio in my head:  in that final exit interview at the end of the season, let’s say that Larry Brown, Rod Higgins and Michael Jordan say “We’ll listen to offers for Mek.”  Hell, they probably said they’ll listen to offers for anyone including Rufus (somebody wash that dude’s costume and fluff it out a bit.  He’s lookin all matted).  Then our dear old pal, Mr. Excitement, Mr. Charlotte, Mr. Billionaire, Mr. AK, Mr. NWA, Mr. Y’all Better Make Way, Robert Johnson says plainly, “I want to sell the team.  I’m not into it.”  The dude who signs your paycheck right now wants out.  To keep your job under the next guy you have to have the best product available for the lowest costs.  He’s less attached than anyone, as a buyer.  And they’ve got to start thinking, really we are paying who?  How much?  For that long huh?

I know we’ve had some serious questions at trades.  We have had some seriously questionable FA’s brought in.  I would venture to say that this team has had holes in the starting line up and first 3 guys off the bench the entire history of the franchise.  None of the trades have helped fill a hole, but that’s not what a trade really does, unless you “win” the deal.

Listen, I’m talking myself into a trade that I didn’t like at first.  I hated it.  My exact quote on the message board was:

I have been talked into it.  Emeka Okafor has had 5 years in Charlotte.  No drastic improvements.  One more piece wasn’t coming.  Dude isn’t any more dynamic than Tyson Chandler.  We didn’t get screwed.  We traded.  That’s why I’m behind this center swap and why I think that this move proves that there is a plan in place and the Bobcats front office is a bit more than meat.

Rick Bonnell reports here that it is a done deal and will become official Tuesday morning.

There are 3 people who have averaged a double-double in each of the last 5 seasons:

• Tim Duncan
• Dwight Howard
• Emeka Okafor

That’s the list… Chandler has done it once in his entire career.

In the forums, fans are less than happy with this deal because it has this the stench of Bob Johnson dumping salary.

Me… Well, I’m completely baffled how this deal will make us a better team and get us closer to making the playoffs next season.

If you think this deal makes us better, please enlighten me by commenting below because I just don’t see it.

It’s official, We are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Group Hug anyone??? Ewwww… Maybe not.

The problems that we had against the Thunder tonight were really a microcosm of the ones that have popped up this season.

Problem #1 – Raymond Felton’s shooting. He was 4-16 from the floor tonight and 40.4% from the field and 28.6% from three point range so far this season. This is even more troubling because Ray leads the team in attempts per game and normally takes the shot when the game is on the line. We’ve argued about this in our forums quite a bit.

Problem #2 – Emeka’s lack of shots. Last night he only had 5 attempts. Admittedly his hands aren’t the greatest and he has a tendancy not to finish strong, but you can’t give up on feeding the post all together.

Problem #3 – DJ’s assist numbers. He had 3 last night in 35 minutes (3.5 apg in 26 minutes per for the season). If he is truly going to be a PG then those numbers have to go up. One thing that’s going to keep him on the floor is that beautiful shot. 44.3% from three point range is currently 7th best in the league… Not bad for a rookie. Need a 10 page thread discussing DJ’s assist numbers? Here you go.

Highlights from last night’s game:

It was a rough night for Greg. First he had to deal with getting posterized by Emeka Okafor.

Next on the list of bad things to happen to 7