GT: Charlotte v. Dallas 7:00

[ohara]

uhh.. and hand felton the keys to the team again with no backup? No thanks, give me DJ over Lopez then and now.

I'm no Felton fan, but we'd be better w/ Lopez and Okafor on the front line than what we have now.

[BigSlam]

I was just thinking about starting a college hoops thread and making it a sticky.

Will do now.

[BigSlam]

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=853327&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

[Walt Cronkite]

uhh.. and hand felton the keys to the team again with no backup? No thanks, give me DJ over Lopez then and now.

I'm no Felton fan, but we'd be better w/ Lopez and Okafor on the front line than what we have now.

I haven't watched any nets games, but based on hot zones, they're pretty similar in offensive efficiency. Okafor's a 60% shooter in the immediate hoop area, 54.5 for Brook. Brook is 5/16 in the extended paint, while Okafor is 2/10. Brook is 1/3 between 15-23 feet while Okafor is 0/0. Seems kinda like the "let's get Kaman so he and Okafor can clog the pain and neutralize each other" suggestion, not to mention we'd STILL have no one to guard pfs.

[BigSlam]

uhh.. and hand felton the keys to the team again with no backup? No thanks, give me DJ over Lopez then and now.

I'm no Felton fan, but we'd be better w/ Lopez and Okafor on the front line than what we have now.

I haven't watched any nets games, but based on hot zones, they're pretty similar in offensive efficiency. Okafor's a 60% shooter in the immediate hoop area, 54.5 for Brook. Brook is 5/16 in the extended paint, while Okafor is 2/10. Brook is 1/3 between 15-23 feet while Okafor is 0/0. Seems kinda like the "let's get Kaman so he and Okafor can clog the pain and neutralize each other" suggestion, not to mention we'd STILL have no one to guard pfs.

And only one PG.

[ohara]

But Walt, we'd be a ton better in scoring and rebounding, and with those 2 big bodies in the painted area, we would not be giving up all the easy buckets we have been giving. You make some good points, but there is no ? we'd be a better team than currently constituted.

[Walt Cronkite]

I mean, if we want two big guys in the painted area, why not stick Mohammed in there with Okafor? You've followed the small ball trend though, right? Few team put out a c and pf that operate exclusively on a block and the opposite elbow as it is, but can you imagine if we put in two guys that couldn't guard those shifty bigs? Whatever points Lopez would add would be washed out by his defensive matchup and inevitably we'd be complaining about how we need to keep giving felton chances vs. let's find a new floor general instead of "ZOMG WE NEED A PF LIEK YSTERDAY!!"

[fatlever]

i'm fine with the dj over lopez pick, atm. i liked what bonnell had to say about dj today.

[BigSlam]

i'm fine with the dj over lopez pick, atm. i liked what bonnell had to say about dj today.

What did Bonnell say about DJ?

[Walt Cronkite]

i'm fine with the dj over lopez pick, atm. i liked what bonnell had to say about dj today.

What did Bonnell say about DJ?

link me too please, I just read about Jeff Caple sr.'s ft school thinking that was what you meant (glad I know why we keep that guy around though).

[ohara]

Walt, it's not just putting ANY 2 big bodies in there. I mean 2 who can at least be quality starters. Remember, Lopez is doing this as just a Rookie right now. And he's already much better than Nazr ever was or will be. And again, I love DJ and think he's our future starter at PG. But he was not a necessity. We needed big, and Ajinca is 2-3 years away. LB wont even be coaching us then. But he's a LB kinda player - he can play both the PF and C spot for you once he becomes NBA ready. LB loves those type players. But that wont help us over the next couple years. And God knows May sure wont help us.

This team has been put together in such a disjointed manner, it is almost laughable if it weren't sad. We have a starting PG who is more of a Combo Guard. J-Rich is the one player right for his position. Crash is inconsistent and I worry about his health. Okafor is not big enough or strong enough to play at Center, and not agile, quick or talented enough to play at PF. He's a man w/ no real position - a tweener.

This is frustrating. I love this team, but damnit we stink.

[Walt Cronkite]

Lopez is playing like an average NBA bigman. Mohammed has done this for the majority of his career, he's certainly not "much better than Nazr ever was or will be", that's hyperbole.

i don't get the Ajinça hate (in general, you just think he's years away which I can't debate). We played it safe with established college players in every draft and we finally swing for the fences for an actual NBA prospect... and it's lambasted as the worst thing we've ever done.

If the bobcats had a balanced roster, I don't know what I'd do.

[ohara]

Walt, Nazr career avg is 7 pt and 5.6 reb over 10 yrs. And he costs us $6 mil/yr

Lopez has played only 10 games, and he avg that already. And costs only $2 mil/yr. And those numbers will go up quickly as the Nets have only in the last couple games started going to him for scoring. The numbers are down simply b/c his first few games he was just getting his feet wet. It isn't just hyperbole, the kid is legit and will be better than people thought.

It is a good point that often the concept of twin towers in the painted area doesn't always prove a winning strategy. But it varies, depending on the players. And although many of us question okafor's ability to play the PF role, he isn't that much better at Center. All off season, the press kept saying we wanted a true Center so Okafor could play his natural position of PF. That drove me nuts as Okafor lacks the talent, speed and ability to play PF. But maybe the Mgmnt knows that and just decided that playing him at PF mostly is better for us if we get a more true Center, as opposed to playing him at Center mostly and getting a true PF. I quit guessing at what is in mgmnt's mind as I am not sure that even they themselves know.

[fatlever]

i'm fine with the dj over lopez pick, atm. i liked what bonnell had to say about dj today.

What did Bonnell say about DJ?

http://blogs.charlotte.com/inside_the_n ... on-ri.html

from the comments part... bonnell was responding to some posts

Fan:
It's no secret Brown wants another true point guard, but do you want somebody with Tinsley's baggage as the third guy at the position?
Surprised you think D.J. has been "terrible.'' He's not shooting all that well and he initially had some struggles guarding without fouling, but as rookie point guards go, I think he's doing really well.
Less than a month into his first NBA season, he runs a half-court offense about as well as Raymond does in season three. I think he was a good use of the ninth pick.

However -- and this is a big however -- you are one of those people living in a microwave existence. D.J. is doing just fine a month into the working world. I'm not impressed with him because he's a good kid. I'm impressed with him because he's damn good at what he does at the hardest position to play. He's athletic, he's skilled and he's a quick study. Brown, who can melt point guards like burning candles, is quite impressed with the kid's recognition of how to play and how to improve.
My essential point: There's so much else to rip them for, and D.J. is not the problem.

[Walt Cronkite]

Mohammed's contract is irrelevant. Carroll's career average is 8.8 points, 2.4 rebs in more minutes than Mohammed and he makes only 1m less. And? You can bet your ass that if Lopez keeps putting up those numbers once his rookie contract is over he's going to get more than 6m/year. Furthermore, Lopez and Mohammed have similar career numbers, except that you didn't point out that Mohammed has 2 less minutes in that average and a better fg%, but whatever, it's a completely inane comparison. It's like comparing apples to vegemite.

I looked at PER, where Mohammed has been around the league average for his entire career. Lopez is close to the average, good news for the rookie. We're comparing a 10 game sample size to a 273 game sample size. Lopez could very well go on to become a hall of famer while DJ gets broken in his next game due to his size, the point I'm trying to make is that even if we took Lopez, our problems wouldn't be solved...we'd need a pg still. You like to lambast the FO as clueless, but you note their opinion of Okafor as a PF as sound judgement? How does that make any sense? I liked Lopez a lot, I don't know if you were around the board back then or not, but freals, I liked Brook and was stoked when he was projected to fall to us at 9, but I didn't think he was a good fit for our team because he operates on the low block. Maybe we take Lopez and move Okafor, but we wouldn't be any closer to the playoffs than we are currently. All of this written, I LOVED DJ but didn't think the FO would ever take him because of Felton, but we did, and I'm stoked.

Look: 1.5 years ago, we had a huge hole at SG and PF with a promising PG and C. SF has never been an issue for the cats for as long as I've followed them. We answered the SG problem, but unfortunately with no competition Felton actually regressed as a player, so one question was replaced by another. Even if we kept BK instead of the McInnis or bust strategy we wouldn't have a long term solution at the point. PF has always been an issue. Always. Always, always, always. Malik Allen wasn't the answer. Othella Harrington wasn't the answer. Sean May wasn't the answer. BROOK LOPEZ IS NOT THE ANSWER AT PF AND NEITHER IS EMEKA OKAFOR. THE HOLE WOULD REMAIN, EXCEPT WE'D BE FORCED TO WATCH SOMEONE WITH LIMITED UPSIDE BACK UP FELTON WHILE HE CONTINUES TO DO HIS INCONSISTENT THING.

[Bassman]

uhh.. and hand felton the keys to the team again with no backup? No thanks, give me DJ over Lopez then and now.

No, had we done the smartest thing we would have taken Lopez at 9 and Chalmers at 20. That was what I wanted at the time and we would be much better, with a brighter future, with those 2 on the court.

[Walt Cronkite]

...and we'd still have a gaping hole at pf!