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April 30, 2008
Just wondering ...
-- Will Sam Vincent’s departure increase the likelihood of Emeka Okafor staying in Charlotte long-term?
Okafor is too nice and too circumspect to broadcast it when he’s upset with a coach. But it was obvious during portions of last season that he didn’t mesh well with Vincent.
Okafor becomes a restricted free agent in July, and though he said he wants to stay here, that sounded a bit hollow while Vincent was the coach.
That’s not to say Okafor will definitely sign a long-term deal with Larry Brown as coach. Remember, Okafor turned down an extension that would have paid him more than $12. million per season before Vincent coached a game here.
But you can’t tell me, if the Bobcats want to retain Okafor, that it won’t be easier following this change in direction.
-- There will be ABCers saying the only reason Phil Ford is on Larry Brown’s staff is to appease Dean Smith. But Ford will serve as an essential buffer zone between Brown and Raymond Felton. Brown can be brutal on point guards, and Ford will keep Felton’s confidence from eroding in the face of Brown’s demands.
-- I bet Sean May playing for Brown will either save May’s career or end it for good; nothing in-between. Brown is famous for the high standards he sets for his players’ conditioning. May is coming off micro-fracture knee surgery, and if he doesn’t do the max to keep the strain off his lower joints, he won’t keep up.
The Bobcats need what May potentially delivers, because their biggest deficiency is still rebounding.
-- Brown said the last thing he did before signing with the Bobcats was quiz managing partner Michael Jordan to make sure he was "fully committed" to building this team. Obviously Brown was satisfied with Jordan’s answer. But I guarantee you Brown will challenge Jordan and front-office executives Rod Higgins and Bernie Bickerstaff along the way. It’s Brown’s nature not to accept status quo as being good enough. That’s what makes him a winner.
Posted by Observer Sports on April 30, 2008 at 11:00 PM | Permalink
Comments
I have to agree that Emeka is probably very happy about Vincent leaving and Brown coming in.
Posted by: Yes! | May 1, 2008 12:12:19 AM
Coach Brown is in Charlotte! I would think he would want to keep an ex player of his from UCLA Michael Sanders as member of his coaching staff!
Posted by: Brad | May 1, 2008 2:06:25 AM
Wow, In just a few days I've gone from total dispair to total excitement about this team. I don't think we'll be hanging a banner anytime soon, but the buzz is finally starting to get positive. I'm looking forward to the draft and next season.
Posted by: apauldds | May 1, 2008 8:01:18 AM
I hope he whips Gerald Wallace into shape... he's pitiful getting hurt like he's Shaq or J. Kidd... he has yet to establish himself as a NBA Allstar. Get him out of Charlotte if he can't perform without an injury performance every night!
Posted by: Mannie Tide | May 1, 2008 8:08:10 AM
May has potential, but will we suk it up to be a role player
Posted by: cobra commander | May 1, 2008 9:27:31 AM
I don't think anyone expects May to be anything other than a role player. He definitely makes us better when he plays, which has been seldom. I just hope Morrison and May are able to contribute next season if for nothing else than to raise their trade value.
Posted by: apauldds | May 1, 2008 10:02:14 AM
Maybe this is irrelevant, but Brown did let Okafor languish at the end of the bench during the terrible '04 Olympics run. In fact, I don't think Emeka made a basket.
Good to hear that Tarheel Phil will have the bottle ready when Ray Ray comes crying to him.
Good news about May finally eating himself out of the league. At this point, what he "potentially delivers" is a more expensive bill for the pregame spreads. Sad that people would be more upset at Gerald for getting hurt while playing hard than May for getting hurt because he's too fat.
Posted by: Michael Procton | May 1, 2008 10:03:30 AM
Procton, did you go to Duke?
Posted by: apauldds | May 1, 2008 11:09:20 AM
no, Procton went to a technical college where he specialized in pulling the wings off of butterflies.
Posted by: noj | May 1, 2008 12:29:37 PM
Just a thought, would the Bobcats be a better team w/ Gerald Wallace in the line-up and May out injured or vice versa? Though I think Wallace is a much better player and May might not ever be healthy, I think the Bobcats are a better team w/ May.
On another note, our team desperately needs May healthy or to add another offensive/rebounding threat in the post via the draft. However, where does Adam Morrison fit into our line-up. We already have Wallace and Richardson as starters plus Carrol and Dudley off the bench.
Posted by: Mason | May 1, 2008 1:04:46 PM
I lurk more than comment, but boy do I hate Procton. He is such a know-it-all jack@ss. The unreasonable grudge versus the tarheel connections has to mean you are a jealous State fan. This is bc I've found a lot of Duke fans to be intelligent observers of the game, which you are not. You obviously hate the bcats so much, just leave already. Despite all your "statistics", like on the panthers' message board here where you put the wrong 4 40 time in for Hilee Taylor, you dont know what you are talking about.
If, however, you're just here to rile people, then two points: 1. congrats, you are very good at it, 2. find something better to do with your life.
Back to the discussion, I really do believe that Bcats would be better with a healthy may then G Wall. May fills in as an offensive PF that can rebound and do the pick and roll with Felton. Wallace demands to be treated like a T Mac, with iso after iso being called for him. Last year the best lineup was Felton, Carroll, J Rich, okafor and Nazr.
Having said that, LB will have the team in a better working order, using the players to their strengths and not weaknesses (like having Felton hoist three's all game).
Posted by: Bonnell=Procton | May 1, 2008 1:26:07 PM
Hah...you think coaching will change Ray Ray's tendency to jack up awful threes? He's done it with two of 'em for four consecutive years. I doubt it's ever changing at this point.
Posted by: Michael Procton | May 1, 2008 1:36:08 PM
Phil has been coaching under Larry Brown since Bill Guthridge retired. He was a good enough coach that when the Knicks fired Brown, they wanted to keep Ford. He is a good coach of PGs, he just also happened to go to UNC.
Posted by: Brian K | May 1, 2008 2:25:52 PM
Let's just get our biases out of the way, Procton. I'm a UNC alumnis and would love to have solely tar heels on the team, but know that's silly. You like the wolfpups, just admit it already, so we can start talking about the bobcats.
Ray did not jack threes at UNC. He sacrificed his scoring for the team to win a championship and there's no reason to think he wouldn't do it for the bcats. He and LB have said all the right things and I really think that it is a perfect fit. I think Ray can take whatever LB lays on him and don't think he needs Phil ford as a go-between. Bonnell's an idiot for thinking so.
But I am glad to see that you agreed with me on the May/Wallace point and so had to resort to your ol' Felton bashing.
Posted by: Bonnell = Procton | May 1, 2008 3:27:21 PM
Get over it. Not everyone gives a damn about the NCAAs. I don't like Felton because he's a trigger-happy PG that has taken too long to develop even though he's been given every opportunity, and I don't like May because he's an out of shape loser that has added nothing to this franchise because he's perpertually injured.
The only time where they played in college comes into play is when you have UNC homers defending them when it's clear they deserve plenty of criticism.
Add in the fact we could have traded what ended up being those two bums for the best PG in the league, and an MVP candidate -- Chris Paul -- and there are plenty of reasons to dislike them, none of which have a damn thing to do with where they went to college.
Posted by: Will | May 1, 2008 3:48:13 PM
The Hornets would not have traded CP for our picks. He was the best PG in the draft and they desperately needed one. We would have taken him, but lost the coin toss to N.O. So we took Felton, who was the best PG available at #5. You say he has been given every opportunity but you are dead wrong. Seasons 1 and 2: back-up for Brevin Knight. Season 3: totally screwed over by Vincent. No doubt this season will be Raymond's chance to sink or swim.
Posted by: apauldds | May 1, 2008 4:30:35 PM
No procton actually went to UNC before he became academically ineligible
Posted by: SAM | May 1, 2008 4:33:29 PM
Way to recycle an 'article' that you posted just two days ago. Amazing.
You and Sam Vincent certainly have a couple things in common: glaring mistakes in judgment and proclivity to ridiculous public statements. Here's hoping that you soon get fired, rounding out the list of similarities.
PLEASE RE-ASSIGN RICK BONNELL TO OBITUARIES and the YARD SALE GUIDE!
GO BOBCATS!
Posted by: BonnellBasher | May 1, 2008 4:45:45 PM
Wrong.
Portland traded down, with the Utah Jazz. That's how the Jazz were able to select D.Williams. They traded their pick, plus two picks in the latter part of the first round.
Portland wanted #5/#13 from us. And we though we'd be better off using those picks, on Raymond Felton and Sean May, instead of trading them and selecting Chris Paul, or even D.Williams.
It was easily the biggest mistake in our franchise history.
As for Felton, yes, he has been given every opportunity. The reason he ends up getting displaced as our starting PG, is because he sucks. Why would you force a trigger-happy PG that likes to shoot a lot into the PG role, when you can play him at SG and let a PG that actually likes to get others involved play PG?
Felton has had every opportunity to be successful, and he has been far from it. I figured out earlier in the year he started something like 87% of the games he's ever played in, and averaged over 35mpg in those games. That's getting PLENTY of opportunities. He just stinks, and can't take advantage of them.
I'm glad to see Brown come in, because seeing how he treated Marbury (Felton is just a less crazy, poor man's version of Marbury), he will do to Felton what should have been done long ago. If Felton sucks and continues to turn in questionable performances as our starting PG, he will BENCH HIS ASS.
He'll learn to play the right way, or he won't play, and it's ABOUT TIME.
Posted by: Will | May 1, 2008 4:50:26 PM
woulda coulda shoulda. Raymond's gonna do well under LB, remember that this time next year.
Posted by: apauldds | May 1, 2008 5:06:54 PM
Yeah, well people like you have been telling us that every year he's been in the league, so we'll see if you're right this time around.
Posted by: Will | May 1, 2008 5:07:53 PM
I love the Felton bashing because Felton's career has been fairly similar to B. Diddy's at this point. Both good College players, both athletic and trigger happy, and both had reserve roles their first two years in the league. Now, Ray has started in his third year BUT was shuffled b/w 1 and 2 due to the great Jeff McInnis. So, logically, Baron Davis was an awful point guard like Felton, right?
Oh, and I'm a State fan but I draw a division b/w NCAA (sh!tty) and NBA (good).
Posted by: Bro D. | May 1, 2008 9:44:54 PM
Felton will show all of you haters. He is one of the best points in the league. You just dont see it. I have and you will! Soon and very soon. Holla'
Placing behind Orlando next year. We will be 45-37 next year, possibly 48-34. Come back to that, come then to date.
Posted by: Bobcat FanD | May 1, 2008 10:23:53 PM
Felton reminds me of another shoot-first point guard that Larry Brown helped mold and it isn't Marbury, it is Chauncy Billups. Billups had bounced around to several teams because he never fit the classic pass-first PG mold. Brown didn't try to remake him, he just taught him the appropriate time within a game to force the issue offensively and he became the MVP of the finals. You can be a scorer and play PG. Isaiah wasn't a pass first guy. Who was the classic PG in the backcourt of Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe? Not saying Felton is on par with those players but he aspires to be better and he can score. Plus he is coachable, having yet to complain publicly about his situation. In addition, with averages of 14 pts. and 7 assists after just three years, many teams would love that from the PG position. Now that he finally has a definable system under which to work, he will excel.
Posted by: Teddyld | May 1, 2008 10:32:32 PM
There's only one PG in the league that plays more minutes than him, he does the majority of initiating and directing our offense regardless of whether he's playing PG or SG, and we are more of a PG-dominated offense due to the fact that most of our players aren't good ball-handlers.
Of course he's going to get his stats. Too bad those stats are inferior to the ones posted by our previous PGs, but it's not surprising since he is an inferior player.
As for the idiotic comparisons that always come with Felton, if he becomes those type of PGs, no one will complain about him.
He is not Baron Davis, he is not Chauncey Billups, he is not Isiah Thomas.
He is average little Raymond Felton, a trigger-happy PG that has shown very little development in his three years in the league, and that is why he gets criticized.
Posted by: Will | May 1, 2008 11:14:26 PM
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