What is the hardest part of building a championship caliber team? Getting the superstar. There are only a handful of true stars who can take over a game in this league (the Lakers are lucky here having not only Kobe but also Gasol and other guys who can do it for a game or even a week).
That is sort of where the Bobcats are now: They have a nice collection of complimentary players, but lack THE MAN. I like Gerald Wallace, he can be a good number two guy on a quality team. Tyson Chandler is now in Charlotte and with Larry Brown as coach that has the makings of a potentially good defensive team (they were seventh last season in defensive efficiency, almost even with the Lakers, and Chandler will improve that). They will stay in games this season, but when the offense stalls and there is 6 seconds left on the clock, who do they go to? Worse yet, tight game with two minutes left, who takes over for them and leads them? They need that guy, but getting that guy is very, very hard.
To learn more about Charlotte, check out Queen City Hoops, which is a fantastic blog on the team. (We are really spoiled as Lakers fans with the quantity and ā in a number of places ā quality of content about out team. If I were a hardcore hoops fan and a Bobcats fan, I’d be living on Queen City Hoops because there just aren’t a lot of places to get great content for this team.)
As for the Lakers tonight, I just want to see Bynum continue to grow, I want to see Artest working to figure it out and feel comfortable, I want to see some good play out of the bench guys. Also, Iād like to see a little more movement and offensive flow from the starters against a better defensive test.
The Lakers game starts at 7:30 and here in LA you can catch it on Fox Sports, on the radio on 710 ESPN. Remember this is part of the Staples Shootout, so the Lakers will play tomorrow against either the Clippers or Utah.
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Now, the Central Division Preview:
Chicago Bulls
BlogABull.com | Give Me The Rock
Cleveland Cavaliers
Fear The Sword | WaitingForNextYear | Cavalier Attitude
Detroit Pistons
Motown String Music | Empty the Bench | Pistons Nation | Need4Sheed.com
Indiana Pacers
Milwaukee Bucks
Bonus Links:
j. d. hastings says
I love the fact that the lakers chose to play the Team They Cannot Beat in preseason. There can be no greater test- unless Boston somehow agreed to a match…
Maes says
The only quarrel I have with the Bobcats is their lack of a vision for the future, the age of their core is average, and for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in its history, that’s just unacceptable.
PeanutButterSpread says
Don’t be too hard on the Bobcat’s front organization.
First, they’ve got Jordan in the mix. What did you expect after he botched the Wizards?
Second, they were only founded in 2004 and have only been in the league for 5 years … it’d be pretty amazing if they had made it into the playoffs in their first 5 years.
chibi says
Charlotte has a respectable team and identity; it’s too bad their management has kind of sabotaged their growth trajectory in the draft.
I’m not critical of the Okafor-Chandler deal; it’s like the Gasol deal, in that the Bobcats weren’t going to go very far with him, IMHO.
Bobcat I’m most looking forward to seeing is DJ Augustine; if there’s a player that might eventually redeem the GM for passing over Brook Lopez, I think it’s Augustine. He’s not the passer Steve Nash is, but he can shoot like Nash. Too bad there’s a minutes crunch at the 1, or this might’ve been his breakout season.
Simon says
Hey Kurt, do you still have those Mark Jackson Bingo pictures anywhere? I checked the original post and they’re not there any more.
m0nkeydump says
Whether it’s a positive or negative depends on how you look at it, but the Bobcats are always mediocre. They’re not good enough to get into the playoffs, but also not bad enough to be able to draft a team-changing rookie.
So what can they do? Trade for veteran pieces (which they have been doing, imo)? Or completely rebuild?
For some reason, I think if Iverson had gone to Charlotte, they would actually make the playoffs this year.
Joel says
6
The Bobcats have had good enough draft picks to be a playoff team in the East by now.
– In 2004 they took Emeka Okafor #2 overall. There were a couple of better players available but hindsight is 20/20, so you can’t criticise them too much for that pick.
– In 2005 they passed on Danny Granger twice to take Raymond Felton (5th pick) and Sean May (13th).
– In 2006 they chose our own Adam Morrison at #3, ahead of Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay.
– In 2007 they traded the 8th pick for Jason Richardson, but it doesn’t seem like they passed on anyone special.
– In 2008 they took Augustin at 13; Brook Lopez and Anthony Randolph will probably be better but Augustin looks solid.
So that’s 6 lottery picks in 5 years, and only 2 of them (Augustin and Felton) are still on the roster. May and Morrison bombed, Felton and Okafor have done OK without making the impact their draft position warranted, and the jury is still out on Augustin. Obviously every team makes mistakes in the draft, but the Bobcats simply haven’t done enough with the chances they’ve had to improve their team. Even one great pick – like Roy or Granger – could have been enough to get them into the postseason by now.
Anon says
Anyone have a link for those of us not in the states?
Craig W. says
Iverson help Charlotte???
At this point in his career, I think Iverson serves mainly to sell tickets to see him and not to assist team unity.
Yes he would always take the last shot, but if he is only making 40% of them then you are not going to be better as a team. Besides, he is high maintenance and that is not what the Bobcats need.
Kurt says
5. A few old pieces of art loaded into the system seemed to get lost in the server transfer last month. Sorry about that, but I think I have the GUNDY stuff in my email. I’ll try to find it and reload it into the system.
Kurt says
RE: Iverson, I left him out of the post because I didn’t really know what to say. What is interesting is I read a couple of Bobcats chats/sites and they barely mention him. Not really sure how much of a role he is playing.
PhilAus says
This is working for me at the moment:
http://www.justin.tv/soccer_online21
wiseolgoat says
http://www.stream2watch.com/watch/603/1/watch-online-Basketball-Charlotte-Bobcats-vs-LA-Lakers-Pre-NBA-live-stream
PhilAus says
Or try this (which is choppy for me):
http://www.stream2watch.com/watch/603/1/watch-online-Basketball-Charlotte-Bobcats-vs-LA-Lakers-Pre-NBA-live-stream
Toheeb says
Bynum has been great this pre season. But boy, the guy is a black hole, he cannot pass out of the post to save his life.
the other Stephen says
i think it’s amazing that we can nearly sell out preseason games…then again, we did just win a championship.
the other Stephen says
i wonder if andrew and stoudemire have talked about their experiences rehabbing their knees. i also wonder if josh powell has been taking a leaf out of andrew’s book. i’m seeing a few new shots out there!
m0nkeydump says
Who is the chick sitting courtside in the background when Raja was talking to the referee?
I know I’ve seen her in something before. Movie?
busterjonez says
Interesting lineup right now:
Fish
UPS
Kobe
RonRon
Drew
DTC says
I love how Andrew has looked, and I don’t want to seem like a whiner, so I’m only pointing this out. Andrew is scoring very well, but his rebounding #s have been unimpressive compared with what he used to do. Before the first knee injury, he used to go into half-time with 10 pts and 10 rbs. I wonder why he has not been rebounding as well these days…
m0nkeydump says
Let me clarify. Who is the girl sitting in the second courtside seat from the scorer’s table on visitor side?
I apologize, but I know I’ve seen her somewhere before. If I’m on the verge of realization but can’t get to it, it really annoys me. So if someone could satisfy my curiosity, thank you.
Warren Wee Lim says
That chick was a cross between Olivia Wilde, Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman… gives me the shivers LOL.
Anonymous says
How bout Sasha being 3-4 from 3 point land tonight, huh?
I know it’s the preseason and all, but I’m willing to see this as a little encouraging creak of optimism heading into this season about Sasha’s stroke.
Kurt says
I just realized that I totally got that wrong in the comments earlier, that Iverson is part of the Memphis assist-free experiment, not the Bobcats. Silly brain freeze on my part. Not that he is going to help anyone, but the only time he helps Charlotte is when they play Memphis. I really need to stop doing meth while commenting.
sT says
We needed Sasha back to his 07-08 form, aka ‘The Machine’, he looks like what we will need from him so far in this preseason. Kobe needs that reliable backup and it is Sasha’s job to do that.
themonkey says
If only they signed A.I. they would have had “The Man,” and he would have fit perfectly too sadly because everyone think A.I. is a bad feature they kind of ignore that option or they just wanted to save money
Vincent C. says
I find it funny no one has mentioned this:
66 personal fouls, 78 free throws attempted between two teams… watching last night’s game, i can not recall going 60 seconds without a whistle… as a basketball fan it just annoyed the heck out of me, as a result, most players can’t really establish a rhythm to their shots… now i see what larry brown was fined for… the replacement refs are a joke…
on the light of things… they are calling consistent calls… moving pick, palming, etc… that’s about the only thing the refs have going for them…
enough ranting, let’s bring the regular refs back!!!
P. Ami says
Vincent, I totally disagree. I think the players need to adjust and start playing by the rules. If this is a concerted effort by these replacement refs to get the game called like it is in the rule book, then I love it. Plus, that two and a half step traveling rule that was put in this year is absurd. The players will get their rhythm back when they’ve gone to playing by the rules rather then expecting that the refs will let them get away with plays so long as they are entertaining.
Kurt says
P. Ami, but they are not playing under any consistent form of the rulebook. What is a foul on one possession is not the next. Enforcement varies dramatically from crew to crew. Second, is it really fair to call the rules in the NBA one way for decades then just up an change without a discussion? Also, if you are going to start an “enforce the rulebook as written” campaign then you need to get high school and college refs on board, because how the game is called in the states starts there. And, you need to get the international refs on board because it is far more physical (70s style) overseas.
j. d. hastings says
HAHAHAHAHA- Maccabi Tel Aviv is playing the knicks in MSG this morning and their coach, not fearing the wrath of David Stern, has made his feelings clear about the replacement refs. He received 2 techs in the 3rd quarter, then refused to leave the court. It looked like they might let him stay but the refs finally gave him 3 minutes to leave or forfeit the game.
Replacement refs: so bad they cause an international incident! Glad it wasn’t Iran.
Kurt says
new post up