Charlotte Bobcats Report Card

My overall grade based on pre season expectations: A

Overall: This team loves to slow the game down and force teams to milk up the clock on both ends of the floor.

Key to their success: Like I said tempo. The Cats only allow other teams to shoot under 80 shots a game, and they themselves shoot less than 80 times a game. Yes, the Cats are also allowing the fewest points per game, but when they slow the game down, they're going to give up less points. They are among the leaders in FG% and 3P% defense. They give up more threes than most teams (7 given up a game which is 5th most in the NBA, but they give up almost 21 three point attempts a game too). When you see this state, it is clear that the Cats are giving up more threes than a number of teams because of their great tempo management on D especially rather than because they give up open shots like the Sixers do because of their defensive strategy to clog up the paint.

Bad points for the Cats: Offensive efficiency. They are among the worst teams in FG%. A:TO ratio is 1.33 (19.9 assists to 14.9 TO's). It's sometimes amazing that they are able to control the tempo that well on Defense.

LeBron money available: 11-18 million depending on what they do with Tyrus Thomas. Don't expect LeBron to come here.

How far CHA can go right now.
Playoffs are not set completely in stone yet, but they should make it. They will likely face either Orlando or Cleveland. I like the Cats' chances against Cleveland, another team that likes to play slow, and a team that they gave fits throughout the season. I don't like them as much against Orlando where the Magic have taken the series 3-1 this year. Though teams want to get the best seed possible, it may almost be in the Cats' interest to play Cleveland since they have a better chance of beating them in a 7 game series than against Orlando. Either way, Charlotte is 29-9 at home, will love to make this a 7 game series by winning all of their home games and maybe steal one on the road. Even if they do, best hope is a 2nd round appearance this year.

nah I would give them a B+

they lost a lot of games they should have won. they're only gonna end up winning like 42-43 games.. which is a big improvment from last year.. but thats why I would give the cats front office an A. They brought in the right guys.. first larry brown, then traded for Jackson, chandler and thomas.

I gave them an A because their goals were to basically go for the running for a playoff berth with their core of Bell/Diaw/Wallace/Felton/Chandler. Instead they got JAckson who helped them get over the hump and Bell isn't even playing right now. Also a lot of people counted the Cats out of the running because of Atlanta flying high, Orlando's wizardry, the Heat have Wade, and the Wizards were also bound to be playoff bound and were better than the Cats on paper.

well Raja bell is kinda on the warriors now haha

and other than the first month of the season... The bobcats have looked like a playoff team. There was only 9 teams in the east the whole year that were capable of making it to the layoffs and the cats were one of them. It's no surprise that they're better than the raptors or bulls.

Nenadidas wrote:

well Raja bell is kinda on the warriors now haha

and other than the first month of the season... The bobcats have looked like a playoff team. There was only 9 teams in the east the whole year that were capable of making it to the layoffs and the cats were one of them. It's no surprise that they're better than the raptors or bulls.

Actually, being the dumbasses we are, we released Raja so we could sign Reggie Williams for next season...instead of dumping Devean George or Speedy Claxton.

last I heard of him he got traded to the warriors for jackson... havent heard of him since.

this must have been recent

yup, it happened like last week...all because our GM said this:

"We can't dump healthy players. We just can't."

wait... was raja bell injured or no?

and it doesnt matter.. raja bell wasn't in the warriors future plans.. he's like 35

yeah raja was out for the season.

and we actually were gonna bring him back, till we got Reggie Williams...which is fine cause he's beasting.

oh, then its not a big deal. might as well get a good look at someone and release someone who isnt gonna play.. and they could still bring him back if they really want him..

khai, i think we actually dumped speey's contract to keep either tolliver or hunter. and we kinda needed to keep deaven, cuz we have like 8 healthy bodies w/o him.

cats- A-. they surpasses the preseason expectations by a decent amount, but they didn't really become the team they could have been after acquiring Jackson. they were hit by injures in the paint (chandler and nazr have missed a lot of games), but they still have had a successful season.

I'm pretty impressed with the JORCATS (I'm assuming Jordan will name the team after himself as former owner Bob Johnson did).

Any team run by Larry Brown is going to play slowdown basketball and make it hard for you on the defensive end. Oh yeah, and a lot of trading.

Whats amazing to me is that this team was really built together this year. Crash is a first time All-Star and Jackson was cast aside as a malcontent and locker room cancer. Raymond Felton has been on and off as has Boris Diaw. Brown has even started Theo Ratliff for the past couple of games. Larry Brown excels in taking guys people give up on and making them jell (NY is a slight blip on his resume... hell... you coach Marbury and have Isiah Thomas a president. I dare you).

Yet his team is probably one of the scarier low seeded teams to face in the playoffs.

GRADE: A

I love this Bobcats team...but they're inconsistent and desperately need another offensive minded player besides S-Jax. They also can't get the job done against teams they should beat.

However, they do play extremely well against the top seeded teams, so I see no problem with them making it past the first round and even second if lucky. It all depends on how Chandler plays and how this man encourages his team...MICHAEL JEWDAN!



Just kidding.

the bobcats defensive depth is pretty much unmatched around the league

c-ratliff, chandler
f-wallce, diaw, thomas, graham (probably not in the playoff rotation)
g-felton, jackson, hughes

all of these guys are at least above average defensive players, and the only player that it isn't particularly good defensively is:

g-augustine

however, they don't have a single reliable offensive option. jackson and wallace can score, but neither is consistent, nor are any of their other players, besides maybe diaw, who is consistently average offensively. none of them are reliable jump shooters, even though they can get hot.

so they are dangerous because of their ability to defend, but they'd have a hard time staying consistent enough over a 7 game series to beat anyone. it's a high probability that they play 3 very poor games (essentially giving them away) and have to play outstanding in the other 4 to win the series. they could do it, but it would be incredibly touch, even against a team they have ownage against like cleveland.