The Bobcats - Schooling the Outsider Thread

[tsherkin]

Thought I'd man up and come to the board after talking in that thread on the GB.

While I don't think much of Raymond Felton (a little bit more with the recent LB comment), I tend to enjoy a lot of the players on your team. I know Raja is a long-time LB favorite but he's playing better in Charlotte than he was in Phoenix and that's awesome to see. I love seeing Diaw play well; he's not a reserve, he doesn't belong on the bench and he's great with the ball in his hands, so it's awesome to see him succeeding and at the same time, helping to make someone else I really enjoy play better. Okafor and Diaw look great together, it's good stuff. I like Augustin. I wish Wallace was healthier and that you guys had a legit, YOUNG 2-guard who could slash, but whatever, little steps, right? It's been really nice to see the team play well since the Diaw trade and the little improvements they make on a game-to-game basis. 0.525 winning percentage for 40 games, that hasn't gone unnoticed, you guys are neck-and-neck with Chicago for the 8th seed and if you both maintain, I think it'll be a tie-breaker to see who takes the spot, because you're both on-pace for about 38 wins (if Charlotte maintains it's winning percentage from the last 40 games and Chicago maintains its seasonal winning percentage to date).

That's pretty wicked, considering Charottle's been in the league for what, a half-decade now? Lacking the sort of immediate firepower a team like the Magic got in Shaq, that's pretty impressive.

So I was hoping you guys might school me a little on the players on your team. I've seen most of them elsewhere, but just from a plain look at their stats and hotspots and stuff, it looks like things are changing. Can you tell me a bit about how the offense works in Charlottle, and the defensive schemes and stuff, what players fill what roles and how that affects them in-game?

[Dexmor]

Felton has been our best player the 2nd half of the season.

What did LB say about Felton?

[fluffernutter]

Hey, it worked!

Grab a merkin and belly up to the bar, tsherkin.

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On a serious note:

DJ was injured for a little while and it seemed to throw him off a bit. He's coming back now. Excellent shooter and great finisher. Defense is suspect but not hopeless.

VladRad: dude is so much better than AMMO it's not even funny. And he's just who he is...which tells you how bad AMMO was. Deadly shooter. Awesome high release and rainbow shot. He's hard to get plussed, i.e. he's nonplussed by pressure, it seems. Really bad handles. Drives too much for his poor ball handling. Defense is pretty bad, but not AMMO bad. Seems to be a decent "prevent" defender. Once his man has the ball...not so much.

Raja Bell. Seems like a legit starter. I have not paid attention to his defense. Much better shooter than I thought. Not so good with drives. Not at all. Felton and Bell and Diaw are getting used to each other and it shows.

Diaw. What can I say? Incredibly smart, super passer, makes everything happen. I don't miss JRICH one bit.

Okafor and Felton seems to be playing some of the best pro ball of their lives. Felton is more patient and shooting better; Okafor is finishing with strength and had some nice scoring games. LB seems to sub out Okafor a lot though, which is curious?

Diop is marginally better than I thought he would be.

GWall is, as usual, rather inconsistent but often doing positive things. When we play teams with weak interior D he often makes things incredibly chaotic. In a good way. Usually.

I can't say I miss AMMO, JRICH, MC HAMMER (Carroll), or HOLLINS one bit. We are simply better now after all the trades.

[tsherkin]

So how does the offense work? Let's say you've just grabbed a defensive board and the opposition has decent transition defense, so you can't pass ahead of it and burn up the court with your athletes, what does the halfcourt set look like?

[fatlever]

our offense is mainly focuses on high p&r. felton or dj with the ball and mek or diaw on the pick. from that point the offense has tons of reads that he pg is supposed to make. in training camp LB put in 20 plays, each with 4 reads. no telling how many more he has added since.

if felton keeps the ball he'll either look to drive all the way to the hoop or hit mek on the roll, or sometimes keep it and take the shot (which is always the least prefered option considering his streaky shooting). when diaw sets the pick, he will often get a mismatch and post up, from there diaw starts looking for wallace and mek on the cuts into the lane. if that does work, diaw will go to work in the post where he has proven to be one hell of a post thread.

dj, will look for his jumper a little more coming off the pick, which is fine cause he is deadly from midrange and out.

when all else fails, wallace or felton will get the ball in an iso (usually with a few seconds left on the clock) and try to take their man to the basket, felton usually at the top of the key and wallace usually on the baseline.

raja will come off baseline screens/curls and knock down mid range jumpers, if that is the read.

meks is not getting as many iso post ups this year, which is a good thing. he is getting the ball in scoring position and doesnt have to make a post move. diaw has been great for mek. diaw is the number one post option.

overall its a very balanced offense. any of the top 6 (includes dj) is likely to lead us in scoring.

and it should be noted, at the end of games, felton and diaw have been huge this year making clutch baskets. so what you want about felton, but he does not shy away from the pressure of taking big shots. he has made numerous huge baskets in the last 5 minutes of games this year... but also has a tendancy to look for his own shot a little too often in those cases. still, hard to complain about his results this year.

defensively the team just plays hard nosed man to man defense. wallace doesnt gamble as much, which has helped the overall team defense. each of the starting five is very good defensively, man to man, imo.

[tsherkin]

Great read, fatlever, that was exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

[dmutombo321]

Brown is renowned for his offensive play calling and is notorious for his voluminous book of offensive routines that always take his players time to memorize. With Brown drawing up the plays and with a player like Diaw on the floor, I don’t know if there is anything you could classify as the typical possession per se.

Naturally, there is an emphasis placed on feeding Diaw and, to a lesser extent, Okafor in the post but there are also a good number of screens being set at the same time. And, as Fats noted, there is a lot of high pick and roll. Charlotte’s beat writer recounted a pre-season incident when Brown stopped practice for 45 minutes to give a team tutorial on the proper way to set a pick. He’s meticulous.

Watching a properly executed offensive set, performed the way Brown has drawn them up is a thing of beauty. There are a lot of subtleties that some casual observers may miss.

For example, Felton gives Okafor an entry pass into the post. Last season, under Vincent, Felton would generally stand there to spot up in the unlikely scenario Okafor was doubled. Occasionally, you would see a repost. This year, after Felton gives Okafor the ball, you’re likely to see Ray cut through the lane, taking his man with him (and giving Okafor ample room to operate one-one) while setting a back screen on another opponent and freeing up Bell who is spotted up on one of the wings. In all the organized chaos, Okafor is free to make his move or swing the ball back out to a Diaw who is aware in advance of an open wing.

The first 12 minutes of last Friday’s game against ATL was hands down the most fluid quarter of basketball any of us has seen from this team.

I think its entirely possible they make sneak into the playoffs but I have to say that I think Brown has this team playing greater than the sum of its parts. All the complimentary pieces are in place for this team to be great.

As you noted, the team is only lacking an elite two guard (I love raja but in an ideal situation, would prefer to be able to bring him off the bench for spot up shooting and defensive spurts). I would love for them to find someone to acquire a late 1st this summer to get an athletic 2 like Terrence Williams.

[fatlever]

building on D321 - "organized chaos" is a good way to describe it. there is so much movement on offense, its really fun to watch, when its clicking, like the atlanta game. larry has been preaching, sharing the ball. the team as a whole is very unselfish, especially after boris arrived. his passing has rubbed off on everyone. wallace is back to passing again, like when herrmann was here. (damn, walter would be great in this system - damn you sam). guys are creating open shots for each other. they dont force 3s. all you have to do is look at the 3pt% to see that most of our 3s are open. larry also loves to swing the ball from side to side. he is always talking about revsersing the ball. the teams struggles when felton or dj hold the ball too long.

[Dexmor]

Bell has been playing like a almost star. A guy that doesn't make the allstar team but is one of the best players to not make an allstar team. I hope he is happy here because he is playing his best ball here.

[tsherkin]

Great post, d321, that was an awesome read.

[Dexmor]

This is how Bell and Diaw have been playing. If the trade was Bell for JRich straight up it would have been fair. If it was Diaw for JRich straight up we probably would have still won.
Them 2 together isn't a supersteal because they weren't producing for the Suns and the Suns made out good but on our side we got a big steal.