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February 29, 2008
Time to find out Felton's ideal role
If the incentive for cutting Jeff McInnis is what the Bobcats say it is - taking the training wheels off Raymond Felton the rest of the season - then this move was overdue.
The Bobcats need to settle whether Felton is the long-term solution at point guard. That means leaving him there for long minutes, to play through his mistakes, over the remaining 25 games.
Only the craziest of optimists believes the Bobcats still have a playoff life this season, so at least use the remaining games as a laboratory.
Coach Sam Vincent can’t seem to decide what he thinks Felton is. A point guard? A point guard in the making? A combo guard?
It made sense in the beginning to pair then-rookie Felton with Brevin Knight; Felton lacked experience and his ability to play some shooting guard found him extra minutes in the rotation.
Then McInnis arrived, Knight left, and Felton kept running in mud. Anything that forestalls learning just what Felton is sets the whole franchise back.
Posted by Observer Sports on February 29, 2008 at 08:15 PM | Permalink
Comments
I agree. It is clearly time to sink or swim with Felton. And yes, they may sink. But in his third season, you have to give him the chance for more than a couple of games at a stretch.
Posted by: George | Feb 29, 2008 9:27:25 PM
I can't figure out what Vincent is either. I thought he would be a cheap black guy I could hire to keep my consecutive string of black head coaches in tact. It looks like I made a bad decision.
I don't really care anyway. The people of charlotte are a bunch of hillbillies anyway. I hope one day we won't suck so much and I can sell this poor investment.
Posted by: Boob Johnson | Feb 29, 2008 10:04:52 PM
So when do we try him out as a 6th man who comes in for offense only and doesn't run plays? If we're searching for the "ideal fit", anyway.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Feb 29, 2008 11:49:53 PM
Very good comment, Rick (while on NBA.com they didn't know how to explain this move).
Posted by: Sandy | Feb 29, 2008 11:51:17 PM
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 29, 2008 11:55:52 PM
Michael Procton said: "So when do we try him out as a 6th man who comes in for offense only and doesn't run plays?"
Hopefully that will start in training camp '08, after Felton leads us to what will be a disappointing finish to this season and we finally replace him as our starting PG in the offseason, once and for all.
Posted by: Will | Mar 1, 2008 12:02:13 AM
Sam Vincent was only creating confusion regarding Felton's role in the team, so it's good that the management stepped in. I hope Raymond will make the best of this opportunity. With 6.9 assists per game, he is already fourth among point guards in the East (or, fifth if you add Dwayne Wade here, though he's not really a point guard). There's no reason he couldn't average above 8 APG, now that he finally doesn't have to share the back court with another point guard. I think Raymond will prove he is a good NBA point guard - though, of course, there will always be those for whom you either belong to the point guards elite of this league (such as Steve Nash, Chris Paul or Barron Davis), or you're no good (or "garbage", to use one of Michael Procton's favorite terms of indictment) - without much left in-between.
Posted by: Sandy | Mar 1, 2008 12:15:53 AM
Joshuavbarr, you're far off the mark. In college, Felton was one of the top point guards - behind Chris Paul, but pretty close to Deron Williams. That's why he was able to lead the Tar Heels to the NCAA title (with him and Sean May being the team's top players - and the huge disappointment with Sean May now comes from his awful self indulgence and lack of self discipline, not from lack of basketball skills). That's why he was drafted with the 5th pick - contrary to the popular silly belief that it was just the Tar Heel connection that brought him here, as a gimmick. Bernie was into building up a young team, not into gimmicks. As for Roy Williams, he wasn't quite happy with Raymond's shooting skills, but he was quite pleased with his playmaking.
Posted by: Sandy | Mar 1, 2008 12:33:34 AM
all pgs in highschool that make the nba are scoring machines in highschool.
Posted by: dr | Mar 1, 2008 9:43:53 AM
This mess makes me so mad, I bought season tickets this year thinking that I would be watching a quality team with playoff potential. Instead I get a bungled/mismanaged 2/3 of a season and now the rest is going to be a talent evaluation. Great. That's just great.
Posted by: Dan | Mar 1, 2008 12:21:41 PM
Not that it will help your wallet much this season, but it should definitely help out in the future, because:
(1) Felton is going to start at PG, where he will continue to disappoint, which means...
(2) Our team will continue to disappoint, which means Vincent will more than likely be a goner, which means...
(3) We'll end up with a nice draft pick, and an obvious realization that we need to go different routes with our coaching and PG positions, all of which means...
(4) Unless the team truly is incompetent, we will upgrade those positions in the offseason, add a high lottery pick, and be much better next season without Vincent and without depending on Felton to be our primary PG.
Posted by: Will | Mar 1, 2008 1:46:28 PM
GO HORNETS HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS
GO HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS
GO HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS
GO HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS GO HORNETS
Posted by: Hugo | Mar 1, 2008 2:44:28 PM
Look what Detroit News says about our team, Sam Vincent, and MJ:
http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/pistonsblog/index.cfm?blogid=1180
Posted by: joshuavbarr | Mar 1, 2008 7:14:06 PM
Yea like that guy really know what he is talking about. He criticizes us for drafting Brandon Wright. Does the guy know that 1) he isn't on the team 2) we only picked him because GS had agreed to swap J-Rich with us if we did? He also seems to suggest that Portland has been making great moves like drafting Greg Oden. Does he not think we would have done the same thing if we had the #1 pick along with 28 other teams!?!?!
Posted by: Blogger = dumb | Mar 2, 2008 2:38:56 AM
As a season ticket holder, this season has been entertaining, with the exception of maybe 3 or 4 games where the 'Cats showed no chance of getting close to the opposition. For those in attendance, we're lucky that the team was it's least effective while on the road. . . just kinda bad at home.
The talent evaluation stretch of the season is just harsh for those who spent cash for the tickets. Supposedly, each game would be a competitive match. No wins were guaranteed, but competition is assumed. It's going to be hard to justify renewing tickets if we simply got 30 solid matches and then 11 exhibition games billed at the same rate.
Tanking is inexcusable for an organization still striving to build a fanbase.
Posted by: Fire Vincent | Mar 2, 2008 1:54:29 PM
Wait...they haven't been tanking all along?
Posted by: Michael Procton | Mar 2, 2008 2:50:00 PM
It sounds like the Detroit writer figured the bobcats and mikie bobcat out with one game. This entire experiment David Stern mandated on us has turned out to be a total failure. The sooner they leave the better.
Posted by: go hornets | Mar 2, 2008 8:10:19 PM
Procton, shut up. This team hasn't been tanking - it was probably the only team not to do so last year when everyone wanted Oden or Durant. If they wanted to tank at that point, they definitely wouldn't have played Walter Herrmann - he was ballin' the last 20 games averaging 20 a game.
Posted by: Blogger = dumb | Mar 3, 2008 1:31:27 AM
Walter Herrmann? Who's that? Was he on the team this year or anything? Sounds like a good player to have around.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Mar 3, 2008 1:58:52 AM
Walter was a guy that Vincent refused to play, for some odd reason
Posted by: Blogger = dumb | Mar 3, 2008 3:54:47 AM
Oh, weird...I had heard Vincent had a lot of coaching success before he got here.
Posted by: Michael Procton | Mar 3, 2008 12:11:41 PM
Walter is getting lots of minutes in Detroit. I guess he is pretty good.
Posted by: goey | Mar 10, 2008 1:04:07 PM
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