Mid season thoughts

[BigSlam]

Ok, it's a little past the mid season, but you know what I mean!!

The Good:

Crash and JSwish: They have come together just the way we all had hoped they would. The more they play and get comfortable with each other, the better we are.

Free throw shooting: Crash is up to 73% from the line on the season from the low to mid 60's he has been in the past. Ever since MJ spoke to the guys before the Nets game, JSwish has been great from the line and is 72% on the season. If it wasn't for a horrible Nov (58%) JSwish could be around the 80% mark on the season.

Health: While things started badly with Ammo and McMay out all year and Piggy always hurt (see below), the great news is that Crash has missed only one game this season so far and EO50 and JSwish haven't missed a game all season. Hopefully this will put the"injury prone" talk to bed once and for all?

The Dude: A few of us were excited when we drafted him and he has shown a lot of grit and hustle when on the court. He's the type of glue guy that all teams need and he hasn't dissapointed.

The Indifferent:

Twiggy: Coach put some faith into him at the start of the season and anointed him as a starter only to change his mind. Twiggy wasn't horrible and still shows some great potential, hustle and energy, but he'll need to see the court for more than the last 45 secs of a game to be able to improve.

EO50: When he's bad, he's really bad and a non factor. When he's good he's outstanding. After a pretty strong start to the season, he slumped but over the past 4 or 5 games seems to be "back".

Coach V: Indifferent seems to be the best word to sum him up. He shows little to no emotion on the bench and can often be seen gazing at the floor with a blank look on his face while breathing through his mouth!!

The Bad:

Hammer's free throw shooting. He was money last season shooting 90% on 208 attempts. He was top three in the L (I think). This year he's shooting a respectable 78%, but he really needs to be up around the mid to high 80's. His ft shooting is one of the things that created his appeal. Without that he's still appealing but just not as much.

Thrashing the starters: We can't keep running our guys 40+mpg. We HAVE to start using the bench a little more and tighten up our rotations other wise even if we do make the playoffs, our guys will be too gassed to make any noise.

Continuity: We have to try and allow players to know their roles. Changing them between positions and mixing up their minutes for no apparent reason does nothing to enhance thier game and our chances.

Roster use: Piggy and DA are a waste of roster space. I like DA and though he did a great job for us - but V isn't playing him so cut him and bring in someone at least young who might have some potential. Watson seemed the obvious choice here. Piggy is never going to be healthy so cut him for God's sake. We also have an open roster spot made available in the Primoz and Fabio trade that it seems like we are never going to use (see missing out on Watson)

Our record: We all knew that our schedule was heavily loaded towards the road to close out the season so we had to get off to a cracking start to really have a shot at the playoffs. While not all is lost, we haven't made it any easier on ourselves. The +.500 start never really happend the way we wanted it to.

[chrbal]

I like-
1- How well Richardson and Wallace have blended. Seems like they almost feed off each other.

2- How well Nazr seems to fit. Of course that could be the fact that this team has had some really bad centers (Brezec, White, Sampson, Voshkul).

I dislike-
1- Giving up two expirings for Nazr, who Detroit didn't want anymore. A 2nd, a future pick, rights to someone....We couldn't get any of that.

2- The fact that Harrington is still a Bobcat.

3- 15 available spots, 2 guys out for the season, and we leave one spot open. FOR WHAT?

4- Jeff McInnis. 'nuff said.

What I think needs to happen:

This team needs to trade Harrington to a team looking to open some cap space (atlanta for Zaza) or a team looking to unload someone (indys pot smoker Harrinson).

BRING IN ANOTHER PG. Whether its a buyout guy, a free agent still waiting, a trade, or an NBADL guy...THIS TEAM NEEDS ANOTHER ONE.

Hollins should be playing more. Same for Dudley.

[fatlever]

could agree more with all points made...

[Walt Cronkite]

Do it then

[fatlever]

LOL... meant to say "couldnt agree more"

[nolimit16]

The coach sucks and I bought me a 55 gallon fish tank to deal with the anger. It'll be more fun to watch.

[August Us Seazr]

If I could name this season for the Bobcats, I would title it "Year 4- The Year of Arrested Development". At this point, Vincent looks like a terrible fit to continue what had been an UP elevator in the standings. Injuries aside, the only consistent bright spots seem to be Crash and J-Rich. Guys, the Bobcats had 2 players going upwards in year one! I am one to not give up on promise, but Vincent is not honing our guys talents.

Would Michael have wanted to play under a coach that was so out of tune with the players? NO. Unless something I read last summer is the underlying thought, my opinion is that Vincent's ship has sailed. Do you guys remember the guy in Florida who was a waiter at the Bobcats pre-draft meeting? I seem to remember him saying something about Michael having some doubts about Emeka either being resigned or a long term priority of his. Unless something is at work on making core changes to the team, I think that we fans will be worried about this team underachieving until Vincent is relieved of his duties. It does appear to me that good assistant coaches like Lee Rose should be working with Vincent to show him that this business of airing out your player concerns in the press is the wrong way to win over players to have you lead them.

I agree that leadership is the one commodity that is lacking on our roster. We have players with nice individual talents-- we just don't have that take charge kind of guy that leads on the court, on the sideline, and in the locker room. Maybe this is one quality that needs to be addressed in the off season.

Claw on, Cats!

[doc.end]

What I think needs to happen:

Fire Sam Vincent; let Bernie calm the situation; start finding a new coach

Decide whether we still want to make playoffs or prepare to next season and develop young players

which should be based also on our trading activity before the deadline.
sign/trade for pg or purchase him via draft after season (if semi-tanking - I doubt we are able to really tank)

after season:
Without Vincent - we should try to re-sign Fabio
bring players to suit well the new coach system
and so on

[BigSlam]

Health: While things started badly with Ammo and McMay out all year and Piggy always hurt (see below), the great news is that Crash has missed only one game this season so far and EO50 and JSwish haven't missed a game all season. Hopefully this will put the"injury prone" talk to bed once and for all?.

Damn me and my jinxing ways!!

Injured Wallace will be out a week
Bobcats star strained his foot vs. Warriors

http://www.charlotte.com/bobcats/story/475863.html

[Walt Cronkite]

OMG SLAM THANKS A LOT