The Mike Dunlap Thread

[JT2006]

I love everything that Dunlap is doing (apart from playing Mullens a little too much), but I've got to say, part of the Dunlap love is the Paul Silas effect. A halfway competent coach looks like Greg Popovich in comparison to Silas.

When Silas replaced "Hall of Fame" Larry Brown, he lead us to a good second half of the season. People seem to forget that.

Most likely because he was running things the way LB did and didn't institute any of his system until the next season.

From what I remember, the next season didn't change much in terms of implementing a new system. In part because Silas is old, and also partly because of the lack of a training camp in which to do so. It certainly felt like the same system.

[fatlever]

silas doing well with LBs team was not a surprise. silas not doing well with last years team was also not a surprise.

silas is a veteran players coach. give silas a team full of vets like jax, crash and kwame or like those hornets teams from the late 90s and he will do fine (or at least back in the day). he is good at knowing when to rest vets, when to get on them, when to give a day off and he is smart enough to stay out of the way. however, silas is not good at developing young players. he is not a good teacher of the game.

its not really silas' fault we blew up the team while he was the coach and left him with nothing. he was never going to do well in that situation. higgins and cho should have known better and realized silas was not the correct coach for a rebuild.

that being said, it was shocking how out-of-touch and lost silas was with last years team.

dunlap on the other hand is the perfect coach for a rebuild. but not sure how dunlap would fare coaching a team of good, proven vets. they might just tune him out.

[fatlever]

what swedd says is also true, silas used LBs system for that first half season. he kept the same plays but simply told the team to take the shot when open rather than always running the play to the very end as LB wanted it done.

last year after the lockout silas put in his old UCLA cut system, the same system he used with the hornets. it was a bad fit for the players we had, we didnt have time to really practice the system and silas never was able to properly adjust his system to fit the players strengths.

[fatlever]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/1 ... bcats.html

[catch20two]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/02/3702236/overloading-defense-helping-bobcats.html

Oh, so this is why we give up so many 3-pointers and why the Thunder beat us to a pulp last week? Aye, I'm not complaining. 7-8 is better than 7-59.

[Liver_Pooty]

Hopefully Dunlap learned ALOT after several miscues tonight.

[fatlever]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/1 ... tegic.html

[Elden Payton]

Cheers fats.

Good point but I believe we can blend them both.

[-Ian-]

Peter Vecsey ‏@PeterVecsey1
Mike Dunlap has crashed into the rookie wall

[countryboi]

A head coach can only help so much in the NBA...you have to be talented and right now we ain't there yet

[HornetJail]

Peter Vecsey ‏@PeterVecsey1
Mike Dunlap has crashed into the rookie wall

At the same time as MKG. Convenient.

[LamarMatic7]

Peter Vecsey ‏@PeterVecsey1
Mike Dunlap has crashed into the rookie wall

I don't necessarily agree with that tweet. Did we really expect our guys staying above .500? Not only are they inexperienced, so is Dunlap. We might as well have won those games against NYK and ATL and started off way worse. By that I mean, not winning all five games decided by five points or less.

By the way, I know that there are some Panthers fans on here. There's a random fact I heard the other day - they have lost all 12 games decided by less than a touchdown in the last two seasons.

[fatlever]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/1 ... bcats.html

The data: Entering Wednesday’s home game against the New York Knicks, the Bobcats had committed 24 “team’’ turnovers. No other NBA team had committed more than 17. A “team’ turnover is typically either a shot-clock violation or an in-bounds violation. The vast majority of the Bobcats’ team turnovers this season have been shot-clock violations.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/1 ... rylink=cpy

Why is this happening? Lots of reasons, but here are some factors – they have two big men, Brendan Haywood and Bismack Biyombo, who are limited offensively. The ball tends to end up in their hands late in possessions, which would be precisely what the other team wants.

Also, Kemba Walker has some trouble when the opposing team blitzes a pick-and-roll by having both defenders stay with Walker, obscuring his driving lane and limiting his passing vision.

And finally, the ball ends up far from the basket sometimes, leading to frantic air-balls and an expiring shot clock.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/1 ... rylink=cpy

[JMAC3]

Is it already to start thinking about calling it quits to the Dunlap era?

I know that we haven't really given him the most talented team in the league by any means, but I think we should still be winning more games. We started the year off hott, but since then we have gone on a 15 game losing streak.... Is that really acceptable?

I know that this team really does need another top 5 pick so this isnt the end of the world, but what is Dunlap really bringing to the table?

I feel like we are pretty horrible on both sides of the ball anymore... We struggle to score 90 points a game. We give up 110 plus way too often. We get blown out by teams that have no business blowing anybody out. Honestly I was happy with the start to the season, but take a look at those wins... They all came against teams that were battling injuries to major players.

On Defense we can't defend the three point line at allllllll and its not like we are a brick wall in the paint by any means. On offense we pretty much look like we are just free lancing 80 percent of the time. The only times we really score are when we get out in transition or when Sessions decides to put his head down and get to the basket. I feel like we hardly ever generate wide open looks for guys like Henderson, Taylor and Gordon.

As an NBA team we should be able to consistently get good looks throughout a game, but under Dunlap I hardly ever see this. Especially with a Dynamic point guard tandem in Walker and Sessions who both should be more of a threat coming off pick and rolls. Mkg should be getting more offensive plays ran for him whether that be isolations, post ups or flex cuts.

Point is even if we do land a top 5 pick who can come in and be a franchise changer like a Muhammed, Mclemore or Zeller are you guys confident Dunlap will be be able to do anything with them???

I would almost rather see an offensive minded coach come in and make this team fun to watch, because it is clear to me now that Dunlap does not have the offensive mind to be a coach in the league. I would be down for bringing in Stan Van Gundy for the rest of the year and seeing how he does. He has been able to have his teams over perform in the past without much talent outside of Howard.

Bottom Line: We are headed for the worst record in the league once again and will become the laughing stock of the NBA. No free agents are going to want to come for a losing team with a coach no one believes in. Van Gundy could maybe at least bring in a borderline allstar without having to over pay like hell. SVG has proven to be a great pick and roll coach in the past and I think he would be a great fit for Kemba.

If we could land a lineup of something like:
Kemba
Ben McLemore or OJ Mayo
MKG
Milsap (overpay and sell idea of being a franchise player) or Zeller
Biz

with Van Gundy coaching has some serious upside vs Dunlap coaching a team like that so why wait?

[JT2006]

I'll bet we're scoring more now than last year

[JMAC3]

I'll bet we're scoring more now than last year

Big Deal......

we should be scoring more because we have more scorers on this years team. The additions of Sessions, Gordon, Warrick, MKG, Taylor, and Haywood along with the huge improvements of Kemba.

What is more frusterating is tonight is the first time in the last 13 games we held our opponent under 100 points and we have lost all those games. It doesnt do you any good to score more points a game then last year if you are giving up even more points a game this year.

Some of this has to come back on the coaching because this team is really not that bad.

[JT2006]

how would you know if the team is bad other than by how they're playing?

[Red Larrivee]

Well the Lakers fired Mike Brown after basically 1 season. The Nets fired Avery Johnson after 28 games with a playoff-caliber team. So sure, why not. There's plenty of hirings that didn't work and you only needed one season to see it.

If this losing keeps going into January, the Bobcats wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't considering firing Dunlap. In fact, they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't fire him. The Bobcats are dead last in defense...again, and can't throw a rock in a river.

I mean wasn't the point of this season to make fans forget about the abomination last year? To get take a step in getting rid of the whole "Lol, it's the Bobcats" stigma? Over a month ago the Bobcats were 7-5. They are 7-22 now and six games away from tying their 23-game losing streak of last year. The Bobcats are the only team in NBA history to have two 16-game losing streaks in the same calendar year.

If things don't turn around quick, Dunlap is a goner.

[mrknowitall215]

I'm not ready to say "fire Dunlap", but I am becoming very skeptical of his philosophies, especially on the defensive end. This is one of the worst defenses, if not the worst, I have ever followed as a fan of the NBA. I've witnessed many of bad teams junk it up or even slow up the pace to keep teams under 100 points on a nightly basis. Whatever it is, it just seem like teams have a green light to score when playing these Bobcats. I won't even count tonight's moral victory of keeping the Nets under 100 points because they missed a lot of open looks from beyond the arc & took their foot off the pedal around the middle of the 3rd quarter. I'm unsure of Dunlap's motive & intentions, but I sure would like to be a fly on the wall at one of their coach/team meetings

[JT2006]

who do you even hire? who the hell takes this job? stop drinking the kool aid, homers, stick with dunlap because he at least makes the guys practice