Official Game Thread - Charlotte Bobcats

[nate33]

Did we fire Dave Hopla and just not tell anybody?

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Critt is intriguing but is not even interested in thinking about taking a jumper. Not just the three -- ANY jumper. Dude is absolutely non-existent from the perimeter.

[rashad20]

Game Notes: http://www.hoopsaddict.com/2009/01/11/g ... ashington/

[mohammed10]

Critt is intriguing but is not even interested in thinking about taking a jumper. Not just the three -- ANY jumper. Dude is absolutely non-existent from the perimeter.

He's AD reincarnated!

[yungal07]

Critt is intriguing but is not even interested in thinking about taking a jumper. Not just the three -- ANY jumper. Dude is absolutely non-existent from the perimeter.

He's AD reincarnated!

I have no problem if Critt develops into AD in his prime. There's nothing wrong with playing good defense and having one of the best assist to turnover ratios in the league.

[LyricalRico]

Critt is intriguing but is not even interested in thinking about taking a jumper. Not just the three -- ANY jumper. Dude is absolutely non-existent from the perimeter.

He's AD reincarnated!

I was thinking the same thing but I don't think Critt will have the assist/turnover ratio that AD had. But Critt does seem to have AD's ability to get to the rim (at least from the clips I've seen when he was in LA). Considering how many jumpshooters this team has already, I wouldn't mind that being backup PG's weapon of choice.

Another difference is that AD in his prime could guard either backcourt position. I don't think Critt is strong enough to guard most off-the-ball players. He's certainly quick enough to guard PGs, though.

[nate33]

Crittenton looks like he might become an above-average defender at the PG position. AD was never anything more than an average defender. That said, AD had mind-boggling A/TO ratios. I don't know if Crittenton can ever even manage to become a pure PG.

[doclinkin]

Crittenton looks like he might become an above-average defender at the PG position. AD was never anything more than an average defender. That said, AD had mind-boggling A/TO ratios. I don't know if Crittenton can ever even manage to become a pure PG.

Thing is AD often slowed up even when he had an advantage. Occasionally too cautious. There's a reason why the guys who lead the league in TO's are often gamechanging passers with the highest assist rates like JKidd or Nash.

I like JCritt. Nice game. He needs a jumper, but you can add that. It's tough to add the skills to pass in traffic or adjsut on a drive and finish high off the glass.

[miller31time]

Crittenton looks like he might become an above-average defender at the PG position. AD was never anything more than an average defender. That said, AD had mind-boggling A/TO ratios. I don't know if Crittenton can ever even manage to become a pure PG.

Thing is AD often slowed up even when he had an advantage. Occasionally too cautious. There's a reason why the guys who lead the league in TO's are often gamechanging passers with the highest assist rates like JKidd or Nash.

I like JCritt. Nice game. He needs a jumper, but you can add that. It's tough to add the skills to pass in traffic or adjsut on a drive and finish high off the glass.

Absolutely. Take a look at Calderon for the Raptors. Diehard Toronto fans have turned on him and state that he's cautious to a fault with the basketball. He'll pull it back on fastbreaks when the Raptors have a clear advantage.

He also plays no defense, but the ast/to ratio is one of the main reasons Raptors fans are taking a negative stance on their starting point guard.

[hands11]

Critt is intriguing but is not even interested in thinking about taking a jumper. Not just the three -- ANY jumper. Dude is absolutely non-existent from the perimeter.

The thing that amazes me about that is we are talking about the best of the best. These are NBA players. They make 100's of thousands... millions to do this. This is all they do. i can understand the offensive sets being complicated to execute and defense being harder but we are talking about hitting wide open shots sometimes. Any player at this level should be able do that... specially someone who made it to the NBA as a guard.

But with only 6 games of 10+ minutes, I'll wait to pass judgment on his J since we haven't seen much of it.

But what is inexcusable is shooting .474% from the line and being an NBA guard. The guys must be a ball of nerves at the line. You know he must be able to shot a FT.

[doclinkin]

Yup, Young is, without question, our best isolation scorer. I'd give him that shot every night if I were coach (until Arenas gets back, that is). I don't even have much problem with the fadeaway since Young was hitting them all night.

One thing Young needs to work on is drawing contact. He's very quick off the dribble and he's good at splitting the double team on the pick and roll. If he could only learn how to exploit these advantages by jumping into the defender, he'd earn a ton of free throws.

Problem with that plan. The reason Nick fades is because he's pretty skinny for all his length, he can't take contact without it affecting his shot. Same reason he doesn't try to dunk in traffic much. Weird thing though is that it seems he shoots better when guarded, he drives towards an opponent and pulls up, but he can't seem to hit the wide open shot, the standstill jumper.

DMac, McGee, Dray or Nick all of our young guys need to get significantly stronger, for different reasons. DMac has crazy hops, I don't want to lose that with bulk, but with a bit more power in his arms he'd be able to actually finish in a crowd, not try to lay it up all dainty-like.

McGee will build muscle easily over he next few years, but he'll always have a high center of gravity, I'm not too worried about him, yes he may get bumped a bit on the blocks, but still will block shots and snatch rebounds, he's impossibly long.

Dray is right at the point of his maturity that he can actually begin to build muscle. He's practically sleek right now, looks good, moves well. This coming offseason will be huge for him. He's really teetering on the edge of being pretty good. The extended minutes now are giving him object lessons on how and where he needs to get stronger, but much of that lazy babyfat and slowfoot thickleggedness is starting to melt away. He'll never be the top athlete on the squad, but his arms aren't the twigs they were as a kid fresh from high school.

And Nick. I dunno. I don't expect him to build a ton of muscle weight. He can get stronger, will put on more muscle than say Reggie Miller or Rip, but I'm not sure he'll even get the TMac kind of lean strength. Weird though, he scores via natural talent, which means it's damn tough to unlearn bad habits. He may _always_ have to dribble before he hits a shot, the rest of his career. Unless Gilbert rides him to death pestering him about it. Makes it a contest. Kid wants to be liked more than anything, seems like, if Gil makes it a mission to bother him about it, maybe he'll actually be able to hit a shot off the catch in an actual game.

[go'stags]

Idk Doc, last year Nick could hit the standstill jumper. I think hes just struggling a bit with it right now for whatever reason.

I do think that he needs to start hitting it. Because Caron is the same way. He has to dribble before he shoots as well. One of our perimieter players next to Gil has to be able to do that.

[Kanyewest]

Crittenton looks like he might become an above-average defender at the PG position. AD was never anything more than an average defender. That said, AD had mind-boggling A/TO ratios. I don't know if Crittenton can ever even manage to become a pure PG.

I would say AD used to be an above average defender, especially when he was serving as Gilbert's back up. Daniels had too much wear and tear playing as a starter but as a backup (before Gilbert went down with an injury) for 10-20 minutes, he could play solid defense. I agree that Daniels defense from the middle of 2007-2008 season to the present has been below average.

[WizarDynasty]

i have to admit that Grunfeld really did make me eat my shoe with this move. I was the one who started the fire grunfeld thread but going out and getting us probably one of the best back up defensive point guards in the league...well you can't get any better than. Now all we need is out 6'9 s/f with 7'1 wingspand and we are good to go in our matchups with any title contender.

[Ruzious]

Absolutely. Take a look at Calderon for the Raptors. Diehard Toronto fans have turned on him and state that he's cautious to a fault with the basketball. He'll pull it back on fastbreaks when the Raptors have a clear advantage.

He also plays no defense, but the ast/to ratio is one of the main reasons Raptors fans are taking a negative stance on their starting point guard.

The technical term is TJ Ford regret. They were so stylistically different that they polarized the fans.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Hard to argue with that at this point.

I believe we will see this on the floor before to long.

McGee, Blatche, DMAC, NY and Crit

It almost happened today if only DMAC was in at SF and DSong on the bench.

McGee, DSong, Blatche, NY, Critt for 4 mins. They were +1 Not bad.

Wow, so we played Blatche at SF ? Hmmm. I thought that wasn't supposed to be possible

Wow. I didn't see the game, but I'm really encouraged by this. Substitute CB3 at the SF position and that is a group that creates mismatches everywhere. It would, at least, be fun to watch and would be a positive step toward the future (or three steps if you let CB3 crab dribble).