Detesta-bull
Before I say anything further about the Saturday night Bulls-Bobcats game, I should come clean on two things right up front: Chicago features both my most hated player and my most hated announce team. Carlos Boozer is the player, and Neil Funk and Stacey King (really just King) are the announcers. With the game only available on Chicago’s network, and with Boozer the featured player, I knew I’d be in for a gay old time.
I know professional basketball players are transient mercenaries by nature, but Boozer is by far the most overt about it. What he pulled in Cleveland—weaseling out of a verbal agreement with a kindly blind owner was Dickensian in its repugnance—and Utah (I call his behavior during his last year there “Dwight Howard-lite”) were ugly enough, but it’s even more infuriating to see him get rewarded for his chicanery with outsized, undeserved contracts every time. Even worse, he’s the ultimate empty stats guy; he’s frequently injured and he always vanishes at crunch time. Yet teams are still stupid enough to fork over money to him in heaping helpings. But therein lies the good news for us Boozer-hating connoisseurs: we’re annually rewarded for our efforts with his no-shows in the playoffs; it’s as reliably delightful as the Turner Network 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story. The one downside is that for the foreseeable future, Boozer’s shrinkage will come courtesy of the Miami Heat—not exactly a likeable bunch themselves. I suppose I’ll view the next Miami-Chicago series with while holding my nose, like a liberal watching the Republican primaries.
What do the Charlotte Bobcats and Bart Simpson have in Common?
I’ll give you three guesses, but if you need more than one then you must not follow the NBA or watch FOX on Sundays (or any other day thanks to syndication; love them reruns). What’s the answer? Easy—
Low expectations.
Whether you are the optimistic or pessimistic type it is kind of hard not to agree with that. Coming into this season it was pretty easy to see that this season was likely going to be a rough one for the guys. While all the young talent is something to be excited and encouraged about, the team has no definitive leader or focal point.
The good thing is that in time a leader can develop. The problem is going to be in figuring out whom it will be and how long will it take for him to step up. Hence the theme of the post—low expectations (go ahead comedians let me have it).
I would not want to do this often, and I’m glad it is happening in a strike shortened season, but I don’t mind having a year like this. It may sound crazy, but hear me out a little.
It is Decision Time…
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.
The Passion of the Blogcat
The MLK day loss against Cleveland is my early-season favorite for Most Infuriating Bobcats Loss of the Year. Any game in which Charlotte blows a second-half double-digit lead is going to be a contender for the prize. However, considering this team, there are probably going to be several candidates for this award before the season’s over. Thus it’s going to take more than a mere blown lead at home to win the award, so let’s consider a few other factors that might separate this one from what will surely be a crowded field:
- The four huge points at the end from one of the league’s most irritating players, Anderson Varejao (in characteristically garbage fashion) that made it all possible
- The missed free throws (14 for 26 from the line)—couldn’t have done it without you, either!
- The inexplicable and repeated and-1’s given up to Omri Casspi. I can understand this happening with Kyrie Erving, but why was Casspi so unguardable? He’s not a great shooter or dribbler, he looks out of shape, and he’s not even very fast when he’s in shape. He should have been easier to cover than the Wailing Wall; I just don’t get it.
- After getting our hopes up in the first half, the shooting percentage sank like an Italian cruise ship in the second half. Watching all of those clangs was just torturous. Jim Caviezel could have used the second half to get into character for The Passion of the Christ.
Bobcats Gonna Rain on You, Warriors!
Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson was deeply perturbed that his team lost to the Bobcats. “We didn’t show up,” Jackson said. “Somehow my guys didn’t come out ready to play.” C’mon, Mark, your team’s not better than that. The Warriors have long tried to unburden free market offense by eliminating defensive uncertainty, and on Saturday the Bobcats took full advantage of the deregulation. As much as I would like to think that coach Silas’s decision to insert Kemba Walker into the starting lineup stimulated our flow, I’ll be much more convinced when it works against a team whose defensive strategy doesn’t revolve around Nate Robinson taking ridiculous dives against DJ Augustin as if he had just tried to tackle Earl Campbell.
Not that I’m complaining! After the previous night’s disembowelment at the hands of the Pistons, I’ll take what I can get. Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko ate our front court alive on Friday, and for awhile on Saturday it looked like the only thing that had changed were the names—to David Lee and Andris Biedrins. But Biedrins mysteriously vanished after just 14 minutes of playing time (Did he hurt his ankle? Was he kidnapped by aliens and returned to his home planet of Ken Doll Hair?), and the Warriors foolishly abandoned going to Lee down low. Why? I don’t know, because when you check out his shot chart of makes in the first and second quarters, it looks like someone emptied a Tek-9 a foot away from the rim.
Kemba Walker Saves Paul Silas’s Job (For Now)
I have to be honest. After reading a bunch of stories about the team during the week I was prepared to sit down Saturday night and write a piece on how Paul Silas might be the first coach to go in this abbreviated NBA season.
Personally, I think that we are too quick to call for someone’s job in this league. Guys need a chance to do their job. Anything less than a full season and training camp is not enough time for anyone to show what they can really do. Yes, I know Paul started last season, but he didn’t really have much of an offseason and training camp to work with.
That being said, having watched and followed this league of ours for a few decades I know the signs, and I know that owners/GMs have no problem canning anyone at any time. Some of the things that Silas said this week made me think the end is near:
“… [The starters have] just kind of given up now. I don’t know what to say.”
When asked what he could do to get an ice cold Boris Diaw going: “I really don’t know.”
“We’ve got to have more toughness and we didn’t (Friday). It’s just not a good sign for us.”
Overall, the stuff he said can be viewed as just him being honest about how he feels. What bothered me is that he sounded like he was/had given up. A coach that wants to stay employed is not going to bad-mouth his team too much. What he said along those lines I can live with, but it’s the frequency that he admits to not knowing that tells me he could be going soon.
