Does the Bobcats have it in them to play like the Spurs?

[Hon-essim]

Let's get this out of the way. I'm in no way implying the Bobcats are as talented or as good at ball movement nor does Larry Brown's team have a history of playing like the Spurs are playing Dallas now in GM 6 but...

Part of why I predicted either Bobcats or Orlando in 5 is because I expected the Bobcats to play in some form of how the Spurs are playing. Not in terms of efficiency but at least in terms of aggressiveness and style.

Bobcats fans have mentioned everything from Larry Brown's stubborness or Felton's lack of talent or Orlando being a great team but...

I look at those games and I saw a Bobcats team that didn't attack. I saw a Bobcats team that found a way to get Dwight in foul trouble but couldn't find a way to be more aggressive against Gortat.

...which is what resulted in the problem. If you take out Dwight then obviously the 2nd stars on the team will try to take up the slack and Vince and Jameer obviously did and combined with shooters obviously it's very hard to defend so everything has to come down to frustrating those guys on offense like the Spurs are doing. Bobcats despite being a better driving team than a shooting team opted not only to shoot but managed to get Dwight in foul trouble but not force Gortat to defend them as much. (Yes, he drew charges but he was never forced out of position like Dirk is currently being forced to play as)

Even Thomas who everyone praised for his effort mostly got his points from jump shots.

I guess the question can be turned into a question of identity. Does Bobcats have one?

I thought they had one as a defensive team and a hard working team but it seems that's what holding them back. Albeit they're a young team and they can turn it around but I'm looking at some of the topics here and it seems everyone is in agreement that they need to change their roster or their coach but at the same time, everyone seems to think the Bobcats have finally gotten past being an expansion team.

Even someone who made a topic about blowing up the team said:

“Playing the right way” isn’t go to take you very far if you haven’t assembled ample talent through “rebuilding the right way.”

Really? The Bobcats are playing the right way? I thought they were but after seeing their playoff performance I'm not so sure anymore.

It's a small and early sample but I think every Cats fan expected Bobcats to play harder and better in at least one playoffs game compared to the regular season but even if Orlando didn't outplay them as much as outtalented them, the Bobcats right now seems more like a defensive version of the Golden State Warriors and even the Warriors managed to upset Dallas because they were able to turn their aggression up a level in the playoffs. Bobcats worryingly seem like they're a regular season team. This isn't a diss against the team because they lost.

I even said in my predictions, I'm only saying they won't get swept because of how the Bobcats play. This is more of a question of whether the problem is identity and less roster and talent.

You have to admit Larry Brown did keep the Bobcats close against Orlando. Felton did do less stupid isolated plays than Augustine. The way the shots were set up for Diaw and Wallace were low percentage shots for two guys that were already over-achieving starters. Chandler did catch many tough passes that many lesser big men would have turned over.

If it was really strategy or roster that's the main problem then how do you explain how the Bobcats started each game of the series.

[doc.end]

Well, I love LB, but he tends to do questionable substitutions sometimes. Like in game 3, down by few points and we played small ball with Diaw at 5. Pretty much with nobody to crash offensive rebounds except Crash. And Boris was send there at the expense of Tyrus who would surely helped on boards. When we need to make the basket it owuld make sense to get the baords no matter what just iín case first attempt won't go well.

But yeah our offense sucks sometimes.

Brown and Popovich are close friends, so it is only natural to see some similarities in palying styles of their teams. Of course (in hindsight) I would like to see one game of hack-a-Howard at full throtle - Magic vfans would go bananas even more One thing is sure - we don't have such a legendary power forward as Duncan is.

[Hon-essim]

If you're referring to the Spurs in general, sure.

Game 6 though, Duncan didn't really do anything that Chandler wouldn't have done if he was a more active part of the offensive rotation.

It's really a case of needing to watch the game.

In the case of the LB/Pop comparison, Brown in particular rarely plays young guys like Tyrus Thomas. It's not so much a questionable substitution pattern with him as just him being him.

A strong case is the worry by many Bobcats fans that you lost your draft picks but Brown has never been one to accomodate star picks. He's more of a team chemistry coach that gets his team over the hump w/ one borderline big trade and then resumes with the chemistry of his players.

That's why it's important to ask the question whether the team has an identity. Larry hasn't left a team he helped improve without hurting them. He's no Scott Skiles who can just leave a young team and they'll improve by leaps and bounds.

Even with veteran championship teams like Detroit, Flip probably was handed one of the best opportunities for a coach to win a ring and he couldn't get them past Eastern Champions yet when Chauncey left for Denver, he resurrected his career.

If this team doesn't have an identity/can't develop one and Brown is fired, it may be better to trade the desirables like Tyrus Thomas and Gerald Wallace instead of improving incrementally and getting rid of the poorer players because even a great coach may fail to develop this roster. (Tyrus in particular seems to be one of the few guys that can thrive under a LB mentality)

If this team does have an identity, then it may be an impatient mistake to remove LB in the assumption that LB has improved this team as far as he can because a LB team is a LB team. He may seem like he holds back his players but often times, he holds back his players the right way (except for the younger players needing playing time) and alot of holes in their game gets covered until he leaves and then the team just stagnates despite the individual players seemingly playing much better after he leaves.