RealGM

to answer the question.

NO

never have been and never will with this moron. Sam is horrable.

Without point guard Raymond Felton, who turned his left ankle a night before in a win in Chicago, Jeff McInnis ran the point. McInnis had four points on 2-of-5 shooting, and Vincent didn't like what he saw, playing him only four minutes in the fourth quarter.

"They were really sagging off Jeff and they were really trying to help on other people," Vincent said. "Whenever they do that, it makes it tough because now you're playing four on five."

And Vincent JUST noticed this? It's been like that all season!

At least we still get McInnis' experience and orgainizational skills.

From the game thread:

The fundamental problem with this team...and I said it a couple months ago and people slammed me, but I'll say it again...is lack of any leadership on the court. No one wants to assume the leadership role. Emeka is a role player. Richardson is a scorer who doesn't speak up. Wallace, an athlete and great complimentary player, doesn't seem to know or care whats going on and rarely shows passion anymore. Felton is so soft spoken and shy, and he doesn't even run the point anymore. McInnis is vocal, but sucks so bad that its not even worth it. Carroll is a role player. Nazr has helped some, but apparently not enough to do anything about it. And Dudley is the only one out of the WHOLE bunch who can step up and be a leader, but his being a rookie and lack of minutes and experience prohibits it right now.

So unless Dudley gets the starting role again and because active, or we make a trade for a star, or MJ takes over and becomes the 15th player off the bench and a player-coach, we will remain leaderless, mediocre, and forgotten until the end of the season.

Its the sad reality. I don't want it to be, but apparently we don't care enough to fix the problem and our fine with our eventual 32-34 win season.

How much could this team use Paul or Roy right now? Its so laughable that I don't know why we should even think about it. Do you really think the Hornets have the best team in the NBA? On paper, hell no. Its the chemistry and leadership that trumps talent, and our organization (much like Atlanta) fails to even consider it a component to a winning team.

Shiny Head is RIGHT. On our HOME floor and we let crappy God awful Philadelphia (who lost at NY last night) come into our house and put a whoopin on us in the second half...that is inexcusable!

And JRich needs to STFU. What kind of stunt was that he pulled in the first half doing a 360 dunk?!?!?!?!?!? Are you kidding me??? This isn't the And1 league. That had to fire up and piss off the 76ers heading into the locker room at halftime because they just got embarrassed. You know Iguodala wasn't too happy about that.

This game came down to defense. We played none in the second half and Philly stepped up the pressure defensively, wanting this game much more than we did.

Vincentv comments and his coaching is more unacceptable. Sure, it sucks lose to sixers at home after we were up by around 10. But Vincent doesn't help a bit (at the best).

Last night (I didn't follow tha whole game) I remember a situationearly in the game when Dudley gets on court and as soon as he statrted to make some plays he went to bench. i looke like (we were up by 11:

Mohammed scores 2pt (Dudley assists)

(some Sixers play - I guess they didin't score)

Dudley scores 2pt (Mohammed assist)

Sixers time out

Dudley, Mohammed, ... out
McInnis, ..., ... in
One would said, great we are up by more than 10 (and subs are keeping this margin), our most promising prospect is starting to gel with a back up center, we have many injured players and tough schedule, let rest stars a little bit and send them in this quarter only if needed. Let the rookie get some confidence and expirence against a weaker team. No, Radio thought otherwise.

What I didn't get was why he kept Okafor on the bench without fouls for such a long time when he was nearly perfect in shooting.

And is very interesting how we are playing Emeka at C recently. Didn't Sam Vincent want him to be Pf again. Once we have reliable center in Nazr, we play small ball. (I didn't support Okafor as PF, but this describes how clueless Radio is).

Well, this is what I'm talking about:
http://www.nba.com/games/20080126/PHICH ... lay.html#2

We were doing well with Anderson-Dudley-Wallace-Okafor-Mohammed, he insert McInnis,Carroll, Richardson (Anderson,DudleyMohammed to bench) and we started losing our lead (for a while this time).

i dont like how vincent handled this situation, but there was absolutely a point in the third quarter where the team was getting complete out-hustled by the sixers. there were faster to every ball, beating us to every rebound and getting after us on defense and we did not respond with the same intensity until the 4th quarter when it was too late. jrich was the player i noticed to match the sixers intensity during that time, but it took a few minutes of getting abused by iggy before it happened. maybe the real problem for guys like nazr, anderson and mcinnis was simply too old and too slow to keep up with the pace that was set by the sixers.

anyway... vincent should have addressed the players immediately during this stretch rather than waiting to say something in the media after the game. as a coach, i think he could have handled that better.

i would also prefer that jrich not argue against the coach in the media as well. that is not a good sign.

Crash said they were just worn out, and JSwish said pretty much the same in that they play hurt and tired. Isn't that exactly what looked like Crash's problem last night?

Maybe it has something to do with playing the starters 40 mpg and only going with 7 guys night in and night out? Crash & JSwish are great in part because of their high energy and athleticism. You can't expect them to keep that at 100% throughout every game without rest.

Vincent is the one who took it to the media; I have no problem with JSwish and McInnis throwing it right back at him the same way.

Motivational technique??

the 40+ mpg and a 7 man rotation absolutely has something to do with our sad record on the 2nd night of back2back games. i've never followed a team that used a 7-8 man rotation for this long of a stretch during the regular season.

My issue with the rotation is that I can't really blame Vincent. Against certain teams, DEFINITELY it has been inexcusable for Hollins to not play a little, but he's pretty raw. Davidson is doing well in the dleague, pretty raw against nba competition as well. Harrington isn't playing b/c of his knees, Anderson is more prone to flu-like symptoms than any player I've ever followed...

and that's the bench. Dudley should probably play more, but we've got a glut of wings and I can see how he would seem like a bad matchup against some teams.

On the 1st page of the SAS game thread I realized that when we go 6 deep, we lose (should surprise no one). I believe my cut off for being in the rotation was 14 minutes, in which case we went with the winless 6 man lineup again last night.

7 is the magic number for us, but I think mostly that's because it means we play our 5 best guys as much as possible, a guy with leadership to call plays and a 6th man and playing anyone else more would be counterproductive.

Truly, I'd love to see a roster that was actually justifiable, because I think we ought to be able to get an 8th guy 13+ minutes (Dudley), but Vincent's job is to win, so I dunno.

i found typical that Vincent critisized McInniis for something what he has doing for a long time after a game in which he shot well (early in the game; 2-5 is 40% that's not that bad) *

I wonder if I can imagine a situation in which coach can dare to say "4 on 5"-esque comment. That's unacceptable no matter that his target is non-popular overused player.

funny fact*McMinus was McPlus against Sixers.

Has vincent ever taken responsibility for a loss? I know he has taken credit for wins with his zone defense. I think the problem is the players dont respect vincent at all. They know the coach is learning as he goes so he really has no credibility.

therebirth wrote:Has vincent ever taken responsibility for a loss? I know he has taken credit for wins with his zone defense. I think the problem is the players dont respect vincent at all. They know the coach is learning as he goes so he really has no credibility.

I think he said is was a rookie mistake for him not to have the Hammer on the court and EO50 on the bench on the bench for the last play against the Celts when we lost it on the Allen 3pr buzer beater.

I guess that V can only work with the roster he has and maybe he is frustrated at the lack of depth, the injuries to Ammo and McMay and the fact that piggy and McMinus are a waste of roster space, but to take that out on the players - especially Crash and JSwish is just wrong IMO.

You should NEVER air your dirty laundry like that.

After I left the game last night, I listened to this on the radio...and was shocked that Sam said the 4 on 5 statement.... I was like **** it has been 4 on 5 since he started McMinus. We were blown out the last time we played the Sixers without Ray...So I thought the beginning of the game was fools gold. This time we really looked flat in the 3rd...

I don't blame Mcinnis for sucking, I blame the Bobcats for giving Mcinnis an opportunity to suck as much as he does. No other team in the league would give anywhere close to as many mins as we give this guy. Now he wants to point fingers at him? THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE SAMMY! Well everyone except you apparently.

Maybe he'll end this horrid experiment and let Felton play PG for a whole game for once. Whoever told him to stop penetrating to the rim as much should also be kicked in the nads because our best games has come with penetration to the rim by Felton which opens up everything else for Wallace, Richardson, Okafor, etc.

I don't believe Felton can play 48 minutes.

Vincent isn't able to cut/sign players, that's Higgins' job. Bobcats didn't contact Boykins, Vincent did--don't you guys think he'd prefer to probably not have McMinus as one of 2 ball handlers on the team? I really think McInnis starts to keep Felton fresh, but what happens when Felton is hurt and can't play?

Walt Cronkite wrote:I don't believe Felton can play 48 minutes.

Vincent isn't able to cut/sign players, that's Higgins' job. Bobcats didn't contact Boykins, Vincent did--don't you guys think he'd prefer to probably not have McMinus as one of 2 ball handlers on the team? I really think McInnis starts to keep Felton fresh, but what happens when Felton is hurt and can't play?

Don't understand Walt, wouldn't playing McInnis instead of Ray keep him fresh. How does playing them together keep Ray fresh?

This goes back to my point when this 2 PG crap started. Forget the fact that we all think (actually know) that McInnis sucks. If you want to start 2 PG you got to have 3 on your roster. Playing the only 2 PG's that you have 32+ minutes everygame. Leaves you open for situations like the Detroit game and the Sixers game. Playing without a PG can work for a few minutes (Crash can hold down the fort so someone gets a breather). But when this happens the offense has no flow at all because it is the Crash show. That isn't fair to him or the other guys on the court

We do well when we play Felton/Carroll/Richardson/Wallace/Mohammed (Okafor lately instead of Nazr) to end the 4th.

The Spurs bring Manu Ginobilli off of the bench because they like his scoring punch from there, but he's always out there to end the 4th in place of Oberto or Finley, who start.

I think McInnis is terrible, just like everyone else. But at this point, once Vincent is saying publicly to the media that it's playing 4 on 5, I think it's safe to suggest that he'd prefer having a different guard than JM0, but his hands are tied.