We are the worst D in the league

Bassman · Post #1 » by **Bassman** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:47 pm

Face it, this team IS the worst defensive team in the league. Until the Atlanta game we started a 6-8 center in Diaw, who is now playing badly at his natural PF position, have a host of horrible defenders at the 1 & 3, and struggle at nearly every level. Our best defender is Hendo, and he's not a lock-down guy by any measure. Biz can block a shot but his fouls cannot keep him in a game. He is so raw he may never be a servicable, heavy rotation guy. Kemba has shown flashes on defense (steals, position) but his height will always be a negative.

Amazing how far we've fallen from a year or 2 ago. If defense wins championships, we are officially in FULL TANK MODE. Seriously, I'm not sure MJ's rebuild strategy is going to work soon enough to save this franchise.

Post #2 » by **BigSlam** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:27 pm

You are like a little ray of sunshine Bassman.

A little ray of very obvious sunshine.

Seriously - what did you expect going into the season when we gutted the roster? Did you expect us to be a championship team? A playoff team?

Look how far we have fallen in the last two years? What are you talking about? We are in better shape than we have ever been in before.

Liver_Pooty · Post #3 » by **Liver_Pooty** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:22 pm

If you call going from having no flexibility, being on the fringe of an 8th seed and drafting in purgatory range (9th-12th) to just being flat out horrible with cap flexibility in the near future and the chance at drafting a potential franchise player with a top 2-3 pick this year. Yeah, you're right. We have fallen off the face of the Earth. Or not.

Bassman · Post #4 » by **Bassman** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:54 pm

When I spoke of how far we have fallen, I was speaking specifically to our defense (was among the best in the league during the season of our playoff run).

I understood that blowing it up would result in ugly games, but the product we have is not very encouraging early on. Compare this youngish team to OKC or similar teams that struggled with their youth early but showed promise.

Sorry I'm a downer with this post, but I gotta say this group is not showing me much. There is no formula that says the Cats WILL get a stud player in the draft, or WILL get an impact player or 2 in free agency. And even if we do, you've got to have other players around those guys to be a winner. Watching our team I just feel we stripped it to the bone, and it's gonna be a long time till things get better.

If our draft picks had been better I guess I'd be more encouraged. The guy I wanted with one of our picks (or via trade down) was Marshon Brooks. He's playing pretty well as a rookie...better than Kemba. Markief Morris is very solid and showing he can play in this league (on offense and defense), while Biz is so raw I don't know how he will ever get starter minutes.

So yes I'm down. Sorry to burden everyone with it, but I just feel the season getting longer and longer....

Fred Williamson · Post #5 » by **Fred Williamson** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:16 pm

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/21 ... e_Given_Up

funny. what did silas expect? the tight schedule with dozen of back-to-back games does not make it any better

Jaruff · Post #6 » by **Jaruff** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:55 pm

Fred Williamson wrote:http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/218258/Silas_Bobcats_Starters_Have_Given_Up

funny. what did silas expect? the tight schedule with dozen of back-to-back games does not make it any better

This.

Boys, when you watch the games this year, drink a little more than usual. You're going to need it. :lol:

Just be thankful we only have to sit through 66 games of this mess instead of 82.

dmutombo321 · Post #7 » by **dmutombo321** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:59 pm

[quote="Bassman"] The guy I wanted with one of our picks (or via trade down) was Marshon Brooks. He's playing pretty well as a rookie...better than Kemba. Markief Morris is very solid and showing he can play in this league (on offense and defense), while Biz is so raw I don't know how he will ever get starter minutes. [quote]

I remember we both seemed to be in agreement last summer before we moved up that the way to go in the draft was Vucevik or any of the top 8 guys who slipped with our 14 and then Brooks with the later pick.

Vucevic has shown some promise behind Hawes in Philly and Brooks has been putting up #'s similar to Hendo's in 10 min less per game (14 pts, 4 reb, an assist and a steal on 45% shooting, 39% from the three in 26 mpg).

Now I dont think the picks we made were terrible follies but I would have done things differently.

Seeing what we've seen now from Biyombo, its easy to understand why some teams were so enamored with his physical tools. But, as you note, he's extremely raw and has a LONG way to go to become even a poor man's Ibaka. The Dwight Howard comparisons and notion some people had that he was going to play center are looking pretty silly so far.

I view Walker as more of a career super sub, offensive bench type weapon then someone I want as a starting PG.

On the bright side, had the drafted Vucevic or Morris, they never would have explored acquiring Mullens who has been a steal.

Post #8 » by **BigSlam** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:06 pm

Bassman wrote:The guy I wanted with one of our picks (or via trade down) was Marshon Brooks. He's playing pretty well as a rookie...better than Kemba.

And DJA is playing better than Deron Williams.

So what?

Kembastockton · Post #9 » by **Kembastockton** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:39 pm

Bassman- You said that you understood that we would be this bad, but yet you still seem to be surprised. To tank for a high pick you have to LOOSE a lot of games. The Panthers lost every single game before getting Cam.

BigSlam wrote:
Bassman wrote:The guy I wanted with one of our picks (or via trade down) was Marshon Brooks. He's playing pretty well as a rookie...better than Kemba.

And DJA is playing better than Deron Williams.

So what?

Exactly it is way to early in the season to be passing out awards or burying anyone's career.

Post #10 » by **fatlever** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:47 pm

benching diaw and moving tyrus back to his natural position of pf would help the defense for sure. however, we went into the year with NOTHING behind maggette at small forward. UPS is and will always be a 12th man.

but whatever, we all knew this was coming. i think the more reasonable complaint at this point should be that despite being awful, this team is not much fun to watch. i've always felt that bad teams should at least attempt to play a brand of ball that is fun to watch. this crap of scoring 70-80 ppg is the real problem. score 100, give up 115. at least the fans are more entertained.

Bizz · Post #11 » by **Bizz** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:48 pm

Bash Biyombo as much as you want but the truth is he is our best defender. Ok maybe second best behind Henderson, but clearly second best. DJ and Kemba are bad defenders so are Mullens and DJW, TT is playing out of position, Diaw is average at this point. Ok maybe Brown is also good defender but that is it. I saw some games this year and our defense is non existing.

But that is not that much of a bad sing for me. A bad sing is that only Mullens and Hendo are playing up to what I expected (Mullens much better) the rest of the team is a disappointment. DJ is not a starting guard on a playoff team. Kemba is doing much worse than I expected. I had big expectations for him, maybe too big. He is struggling at the beginning of the season and his swagger is nowhere to be seen. TT is playing out of position and is not going to get better. He is the player he will be when we describe him from now on word potential shouldn't be in the same sentence. Diaw is coasting, trade him ASAP and give Biyombo more minutes. DJW is horrible defensivly. He has a nice mid range jumper but I can see why he didn't get much PT on OKC.

All in all even if we at least have direction, we still need to strike big in this draft if we want to be good anytime soon.

Post #12 » by **fatlever** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:58 pm

biz is probably one of the better pick and roll defenders on the team, already. that is at least somewhat encouraging. i'd still like him to focus a little more on positioning and boxing out rather than trying to cheap for help side blocks on every possession. you can see it in his eyes, he is always looking to leave his man to help. he has to figure out when to help and when to stay put.

best defensive team
kemba
hendo
ups
biz/tyrus
diop

sadly that team wouldnt score 50 points in a game.

Post #13 » by **BigSlam** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 6:59 pm

fatlever wrote:but whatever, we all knew this was coming. i think the more reasonable complaint at this point should be that despite being awful, this team is not much fun to watch. i've always felt that bad teams should at least attempt to play a brand of ball that is fun to watch. this crap of scoring 70-80 ppg is the real problem. score 100, give up 115. at least the fans are more entertained.

To be fair though Fats the guy we brought in to be our leading 20+ppg scorer is out.

I do agree that Boris REALLY needs to move to a 6th man role. It would really help Kemba and Biz to have him there to help with ball movement too.

DJA - Hendo - Mags (UPS) - T2 - Mully
Kemba - Reggie (Hammer) - UPS (DJW) - Boris - Biz

Marvel · Post #14 » by **Marvel** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 10:29 pm

Rebuilding takes time, relax, chill out and like Jaruff said, you may wanna stack up them liquor bottles, because we're going to suck badly for the next 2 seasons.

What did you expect this season? Playoffs.

The rebuilding phase of the Thunder was different. They actually had a full training camp and they had the luxury of full team practices, we haven't. Yet, they were pretty atrocious on both ends for 2 seasons. Remember that season they had one of the worst losing records in NBA history, 2-24. Yeah....that's bad.

Now i don't wanna jinx us into breaking that record, but we won't.

Chill out.

e4Nf6 · Post #15 » by **e4Nf6** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 10:53 pm

This isn't the NFL, teams don't get good from one year to the next. If you want to be good you gotta pay the price.

Would it really be significantly better if we had Felton/Chandler/Jax/Crash and were fighting for the 6-8th seed?

Eoghan · Post #16 » by **Eoghan** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:39 pm

e4Nf6 wrote:This isn't the NFL, teams don't get good from one year to the next. If you want to be good you gotta pay the price.

Oh I dunno, the Clippers got pretty decent in a hurry. :roll:

And **** the 6th man role, Boris needs to move down to the treadmill. If the starters have really given up, I hope Silas throws Biz and Kemba into the fire instead of making us watch DJA and Boris slough around like dudes at the Y.

SWedd523 · Post #17 » by **SWedd523** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:51 pm

BrotherDave wrote:
e4Nf6 wrote:This isn't the NFL, teams don't get good from one year to the next. If you want to be good you gotta pay the price.

Oh I dunno, the Clippers got pretty decent in a hurry.

The last time they made the playoffs was the 05-06 season, so they've sucked for the last 5 years winning an average of 28 games. So if 5 years of suck between playoff appearances (assuming they make it this year as they're currently 6th in the West) is your definition of in a hurry, then I think we're in good shape.