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February 09, 2008
Bobcats lifeless at wrong time
The Bobcats Friday were a team going through the motions.
They didn't go through the charade of denying that, either. Raymond Felton, as guilty as any of them, apologized afterward to the fans for his own lack of passion and fight.
Now, you can try explaining this away with talk of injuries or fatigue or the can't-wait-until-All-Star-break blues. But look who they were playing: The New Jersey Nets, the very team they must pass to reach the playoffs.
The Nets have struggled for a month. Their All-Star point guard, Jason Kidd, wants out, and for all their talent, the Nets have been dysfunctional most of the season. This was a home game (one of only four in February), against a team generally begging to be put away, and the Bobcats looked downright disinterested.
Management should be perplexed by this one. They had three days off between games, yet they played like this was the fourth game in five nights, all on the road.
There's a real possibility they'll enter the All-Star break on an eight-game losing streak, and look the opponent immediately following the break: At San Antonio.
Yeah, that sounds like a get-well game.
Posted by Observer Sports on February 9, 2008 at 12:20 PM | Permalink
Comments
Look on the bright side at least the season is half way done.
There is always next year.
HOW BOUT THEM HORNETS
Posted by: BringBackTheHornets | Feb 9, 2008 4:32:32 PM
Hey Bring Back,
If the Hornets were here you would probably be known as Kick ou the Hornets. No "Cred" should be your moniker.
Posted by: D-Cat | Feb 9, 2008 8:11:18 PM
What's funny is, we had such a better future than the Hornets.
We had just finished our first season. Had the rookie of the year in Okafor. Had Wallace developing. Had two lottery picks. Had the same record as the Hornets.
And the Hornets drafted Chris Paul, and we passed on Paul, thinking we'd get more use out of our lottery picks if instead we drafted the UNC twins.
Now, the Hornets are one of the best teams in the league, and we are just about on pace to be worse than last year's team.
Ugh.
Posted by: Will | Feb 10, 2008 9:37:46 AM
Will, we did not pass on CP3. The Hornets and Bobcats were tied for the same draft position that year. The draft order was actually decided by coin flip. Because of the coin flip the hornets were able to select in the 4th position and the bobcats 5th. The hornets selected Paul 4th overall and the Bobcats reached for Felton.
Posted by: m | Feb 10, 2008 10:00:41 AM
We did pass on him.
We were offered to trade with Portland, for our #5 and #13 picks. We would have had our choice of Chris Paul, or Deron Williams.
We said, "nah, these two UNC kids will work out better for us."
Heh.
Posted by: Will | Feb 10, 2008 10:32:13 AM
As big as an MJ fan as I was I never thought I would say this but he kind of sucks as a GM. I don't say that as it relates to trade decisions but simply on his decision to hire a rookie coach to coach a team that was on the verge of getting over the expansion team hump and make it to the playoffs. When you are on the verge of getting over the hump you dont hire someone who is still trying to learn about coaching you hire someone with experience! MJ could have hired Rick Carlisle, SVG, Paul Silas, Rick Adelman, Mike Fratello, hell even Doug Collins or Larry Brown. Instead he chose to hire a coach w/ no NBA experience. What a dumb decision, he could have kept Bernie. Sam Vincent needs to be fired....IMMEDIATELY! He doesn't know what hes doing, a team needs a consistent lineup, not a new one every five games. He is in over his head. MJ, the experiment didn't work let's just cut our losses right now. This guy should not be back next season.
Oh and by the way, for all of you who think Felton is a pure point guard I just wanted to let you know he's not. Back when played high school ball back here in SC. He was simply a scoring machine, rarely ever passed the ball. He was the listed as the PG but he was actually the PG, SG, SF, & PF (to short to be the C). He was basically Stephon Marbury (scoring PG). Once he got to UNC they tried to make him a true point guard but that never really worked and played a part in Doherty being fired and replaced by Roy. Once Roy got there he played it smart and simply let Felton bring the ball down the court and dump the ball inside or pass it to McCants and let him do something crazy w/ the ball. Felton is too short to be what he was in high school & b/c he was trained to primarily be a scorer and not a playmaker he struggles at being a true PG. So in the long run he is not the Bobcats answer at PG.
Posted by: joshuavbarr | Feb 10, 2008 10:59:36 AM
Joshua you are on point. But even if they didnt package the two picks look at all the talent that came behind May. The Bobcats need to stop pandering to the businessmen the want to woo into their seats and concentrate on winning basketball games!(What basketball fan wants to see Skipper Beck win an award from Mercedes for getting rich?!) Get somebody with some attitude and some meanness in the paint and get a real coach! (We need a point gaurd too)
Posted by: BDUB | Feb 10, 2008 11:49:56 AM
The MJ experiment has also failed. What if we hired a real president and a respected gm and started drafting players other than carolina boys?
Posted by: wesuck | Feb 10, 2008 6:30:58 PM
The first step to success is declaring failure. The Bobcats will not start to compete consistently until the ownership, the management, the coach, and the players admit that what has transpired to date is a complete and miserable failure. Just as drunks can't start recovery until they put voice to their deep seated problems the Bobcats can't climb back to respectability until someone high up in the organization admits failure and takes the first difficult steps on the road to recovery. Even though I think that first step should be MJ firing himself I believe the next best option is to fire Vincent and the sooner the better. If no one in the organization noticed Detroit laughting tonight at the Bobcat players it may be only because the Bobcat owners are tuning this team out just like the rest of Charlotte.
Posted by: RoyFan | Feb 10, 2008 9:15:49 PM
GUYS!
We still have adam morrison!!!!!!! He might be the best thing yet to come?!?
Posted by: Greg0ry | Feb 10, 2008 10:05:47 PM
Just think. We could have traded May to the Nets for the #17 pick last year. They used that pick for Sean Williams. We could have either packaged the #16 & #17 picks for a player or pick or we could have thrown in #8 and moved to the top of the draft.
And don't get me started on the incompetance of Sam Vincent. He needs to be jettisoned quickly.
Posted by: Season Ticket Holder | Feb 10, 2008 10:57:50 PM
MJ is not a gm you idiots. Maybe he should bring in a more qaulified gm and let them do their thing. Jordan is a part owner not an employee.
Posted by: mjfan | Feb 11, 2008 2:45:22 AM
The Bobcats don't have that many players from UNC. The organization has had 4 first round draft picks: Okafor (UConn), Morrison (Gonzaga), May, Felton, and Wright (UNC). The Wright selection doesn't count because it was made for Golden State. It is clear that the blind hatred some of you commeters have towards Carolina has carried over to the Bobcats organization. It's not like Ademola Okulaja and Dante Calabria are rounding out the rotation.
Granted, McInnis should be let go after this season and Sean May needs to lose some weight. Felton needs a coach to let him play SG because he obviously isn't comfortable running the point on a consistent basis. I know there are coaches and front office people who went to Carolina as well, but that is the nature of the business. All organizations have some form of institutional nepotism.
This organization has some issues, but they are not as huge as some of you make them seem.
Posted by: Token | Feb 11, 2008 2:43:22 PM
MJ may not be the official general manager, but no move gets made without his approval. As such, it's not hard to argue he's MORE important and powerful than the actual GM (Rod Higgins, who is just one of his lackeys anyways.)
As for the UNC thing, it is absolutely present and it does bring our team down. I would have traded the picks that brought May and Felton for Chris Paul in a second, and even if we had to take Felton, there were better players than Sean "Snacktime" May availible at 13. Among the players who have been significantly more productive were: Danny Granger, Gerald Green, Hakim Warrick, David Lee, Jarrett Jack, and Nate Robinson.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Feb 12, 2008 2:02:54 AM
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