Herrmann will be needed

Stray thoughts after a gruesome first preseason performance by the Bobcats:

-- Walter Herrmann is on the outside, looking in, on the rotation. Sam Vincent is leaning toward taller guys (Ryan Hollins and Jermareo Davidson) to complement Emeka Okafor inside.

I made the mistake last season of writing off Herrmann too quickly. When he got minutes in March and April, he was productive, tough and a clutch shooter. I appreciate Vincent’s concern that an Okafor-Herrmann frontcourt is awfully small. But as shorthanded as the Bobcats are inside, how can you not exploit what Herrmann provides?

It’s still about three weeks before the Bobcats play a game that counts, so there’s plenty of time for Vincent to revisit Herrmann’s role. But this one baffles me.

-- Gerald Wallace summed it up well, saying his team played "dummy defense’’ against the Magic. Orlando is a screen-and-roll team and Jameer Nelson made Raymond Felton look silly several times, losing him on the way to the basket.

The Magic’s 60 points in the lane is a ridiculous measure of how easily Orlando got to the rim.

-- Offensively, Jason Richardson looked like exactly what the Bobcats need; three times with the shot clock burning down, he saved a possession by breaking down a defender one-on-one.

However, he doesn’t recover well on defense. J.J. Redick continuously created space for himself to make wide-open jump shots against Richardson. Richardson is too good an athlete to let that happen continuously.

-- Matt Carroll came into camp in great shape, but his shot isn’t falling. Never thought I’d see Carroll throw up an air ball, but it happened Wednesday.

-- You might wonder why Jared Dudley didn’t play. He has a sprained big toe and didn’t suit up for the game.