GT: Charlotte v. Denver 7:00pm 11/11

[spectre_]

What a BS call. That whistle didn't blow until we'd started heading the in the opposite direction.

[pballa]

wow refs are blind, melo pushed DJ

[pballa]

felton at least do something productive.

[BigSlam]

Shows just how mentally weak we are when we allow them to cherry pick like that by not getting back on D.

[pballa]

god damnit

[ohara]

34 pts the entire 2nd half. That's a sure way to lose. What crappy FG %.

[99problems]

So the Bobcats have scored 83 pts or less in 4 out of 7 games....thats just horrible. It doesn't look like there is any rhyme or reason to the offense, just winging it, and therefore they are susceptible to long stretches of bad play and no points. Two games in a row now the offense hasn't been able to keep pace and cost the Cats what would have been nice wins.

JRich needs to be more aggressive on O and take more shots. Felton needs to stop shooting from outside of 17 feet and him and Augustin need to perfect 9 foot pullups. Wallace needs to continue to slash. Dudley seems to be solid and have a nice midrange stroke. Okafor needs to go up stronger or develop a short turnaround.

When the offense goes cold the defense ends up collapsing at some point as well. You can't expect the defense to keep you in the game in the fourth quarter when you aren't scoring on the other end.

[fatlever]

i leave the board at halftime and look what happens.

jesus, did LB really think may was going to save the day? that was just odd.

dj was brutal tonight.

i knew that when i signed brown our offense would slow a bit, but damn, i didnt think he would bring our offense to a crawl, making us the slowest paced team in the league.

who's ready for a trade?

[99problems]

who's ready for a trade?

I don't want to panic and make a deal, but it may be whats best at some point, and maybe sooner rather than later. Problem is the Bobcats have a lot of problems. They need a scorer, a defender, and a big man presence. Most frustrating thing is they could have had an NBA ready big man in the draft and took Ajinca instead. To be honest, DJ has been a pleasant surprise for me, though he is very small and it shows sometimes. I like Felton and DJ at the point, they just need more aggressive scorers around them.

[BigSlam]

i knew that when i signed brown our offense would slow a bit, but damn, i didnt think he would bring our offense to a crawl, making us the slowest paced team in the league

MJ? Fats, are you MJ???

[W_HAMILTON]

The problem isn't the players, it's the coach, or the coach's system.

Considering the talent we have this year that we didn't have last year, there is no reason for the players to be responsible for the poor shape our offense is in. It has to be Brown's system.

That's why I wouldn't trade players just to trade them. If our entire team is having problems with the new system, a new player probably isn't going to help matters much. Even if they "get" the system, how is it going to help our other players which clearly are having problems learning it?

We might as well just wait it out; or as I said before, stop being so strict with the players on offense and let them play more like they did towards the end of last year. Work in specific plays after time outs, and as the clock is running down, but get away from calling a set play everytime down the court, because it's obviously not helping us offensively.

[BigSlam]

The coach can't take responsibility for the lack luster performance of the players and the total unawareness of what is going on around them on the basketball court.

[W_HAMILTON]

We can barely score 80 points.

Even last year, during our worst times, we did better than that. And we've added a lot more offense since last year.

That certainly can be blamed on coaching.

[fluffernutter]

There is no doubt that the players have not figured out what the coach is coaching. Not yet. The question is, will they? And will it happen soon?

At least we can see distinct improvement on the defensive side, which indicates they are trying, at least, and LB isn't totally insane.

Give them twenty games. That's a decent amount of time.

After 20 games, I expect to see a solid and sometimes very good defense game in-game out, and we should see (at least) a improved if not consistent offense.

If after 20 games we throw down 3 sub-80 games in a row... well, it's time to start asking some serious questions.

[Paydro70]

This doesn't absolve Brown, of course, but actually our defense (24th) is slightly worse than our offense (23rd). The key is that we play at the slowest pace in the NBA (ironic, right? We want to "run" but May is the one slowing us down, except without May we're even slower?), so our super-low point total makes it seem like we play good D and bad O.

So it's sadly worse than just saying the offensive system is stagnant... we're equally bad at everything (seriously, low 20s in every category except offensive rebounding and defensive fouling). I don't really think our talent is much better than last year... I guess DJ is an improvement over McInnis, but Morrison is the same as ever, and we haven't added anything else.

[fluffernutter]

Defense is one thing I trust my eye to judge, at least somewhat.

We have simply more defensive energy. We trap more. We press more. We don't make as many completely screwed-up mistakes. We are capable to shutting down offenses for short periods of time.

The statistical impact might not yet be significant, but I don't worry that it will show up, and soon. People are doing the right thing on defense. They might be a bit slow getting there; but they are beginning to know what to do (for the most part).

For example, the NO game. We played smart and consistent defense all game. Sure, Paul went off in the 3rd quarter (it's kinda inevitable), but we bounced back. We played, kinda, like...smart.

That's new. Shocking, even.

Now, it's not as consistent as it could be. But I have no doubt the defense is getting there.

Offense? That I am not sure about.

[Felton for Pres]

The reason our offense is so slow is because everyone is afraid to shoot. And when they do shoot, they aren't really committed to it. Its hard to shoot when you are thinking "uh oh, coach is going to take me out for shooting."

I think they need to run the Hoosiers offense. 4 passes and then fire away. That'll take some of the over thinking out of it.

Its kinda funny, I typed that as a joke, but as I think about it, it actually sounds like a good idea.

[Paydro70]

Keep in mind that our defense is also "slow." We do indeed trap and press a lot, which tends to drain the shot clock... the trouble is that we then follow it up by allowing the other team to make shots and kill us on the defensive boards. When you trap like that, the idea is that you're going to force a lot of turnovers... but we've only been average at that so far. So while our energy is up, it's not actually stopping the opponent from scoring.

In general, I agree with fluffer though... it's far better to be a team that's trying to play D and failing than a team that doesn't know what to do at all or isn't even giving the effort.

On offense, I think you can see something of a similar effect, at least compared to last year... we're actually running plays, we attempt to get open sometimes before we shoot, at least on occasion plays happen where I say "hey, that worked well!"

Unfortunately that's balanced by the fact that we turn the ball over 5th most in the league (to some degree high turnovers are inevitable when you slow it down, but not like this), and our eFG% isn't up to snuff because we can't score inside (we're about average on 3pters, and take very few, so it's really those 2pters that are dragging us down). We actually make it to the line a lot, and are shooting OK from there.

Maybe it's time to strike up the old Hamilton refrain and suggest that Emeka needs more shots?