Game #1 thoughts

[dav7z]

http://www.bobcatsbreak.com/?p=430

1st for me Nazz proved he can still ball with the best last night . I don't think TC could have showed any better. As far as im concerned he locked down his backup center position last night. Leaving me with thoughts of a lot of a large frunt court of Nazz and TC.
2nd I like the idea of going big To me Lexy showed flashes of what he could be . His rebounding along merrit back up time at the p/f position . The guy is just very very long and can guard the four and could mismatch most 4s in the league. He all so showed a nice hook to go along with his short jumper .
3rd UPS is a keeper and will be a starter next season. Hes ready to back up Wallace now. Brown needs to put him in the rotation now and keep him thair.
4th Hendo showed flashes last night but i need to see more to decide if hes ready for rotation play. With Bell and Flip
5th Graham tough lunch pail typy guy ever team needs to provide spot mins. He showed he could do that last night in at least three positions.
6th DJ is geting close to taking the starting spot from Felts . This could be a healthy battle pushing each other to get better.
7th Diop if last night was any indication . Diop just feel out of the rotation.
We all know what the starters can do
But over al i saw tons of positives. A much deeper well rounded team.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/237/story/988753.html

Your thoughts on any or all the players last night?

[murphman]

Vlad Rad continues where he left off, unimpressive (although it was at the #4 which is not his strong suit). Still, if UPS becomes a solid backup, I would love for Vlad to be traded away by February. Of course that puts more pressure on Lexy to be a legit backup to Diaw but he did show glimpses last night.

Not sure if we could get any team to take Vlad off our hands unless he steps it up.

[BRNC]

I think we started the preseason better...some individuals stood out (Nassy and UPS in particular)...one area (for me ) that remains a concern are the TOs...I thought they killed us last year and if they continue they will kill us this year...

[spectre]

I was very pleased both with how our starters stuck with theirs and also with how our bench hung with CLE's bench. I think it's pretty darn good when the starters only get behind like 4-6 points when you're missing your starting C & PF as well as your starting SF & SG couldn't hit the side of a barn. Nazr played a big role in that.

*DJ had one particular pass from roughly their FT line to ours near the end of the game, hitting (I think) UPS for a fast break layup. Excellent court vision I thought. He's also moving a lot better on both offense and defense. Personally I didn't see anything wrong on the D side...but he was playing the bench. Mo Williams did hit one shot during the very short time they were matched up but that was no fault of DJ's...I thought he defended the shot very well.

*UPS...boy can shoot and he's smooth doing it when in the paint. He had one moment where he faked towards the baseline and threw off 2 defenders; he juked back to the inside and had a easy 3 footer. Wow! Like Bernard Robinson with brains! Near the end I thought he got a little shot happy (same with Hendo) but with all the bench guys it kind of broke down into street ball.

*Hendo...not bad! Took a couple of ill advised shots, but as I mentioned above that was the style we ended up playing at the end. I thought his D was pretty good too for a rook.

*Ajinca...I'd give him at least a C+. Had his mistakes but he showed some good moves in the paint. His midrange and hook looks pretty darn solid.

*Nazr...star of the game! That works sure looks to have paid off. More aggressive and successful at it. He also played solid D in the paint.

*Graham...I can see why LB likes the guy. Has range on his shot and not afraid to take on the hard cover. Granted he didn't do that great vs. LBJ...but Crash didn't either.

For the knocks on Felton (which I totally don't understand)...Mo Williams didn't score a bucket the whole time he had Felton on him. Also, when DJ hit 16 minutes (around the PT Felton played) his line was something like 3 of 6, 2 assists and 4 TOs vs. Felton's 2 of 5, 3 assists and 1 TO. During the last stretch when DJ came back for the final run he played VERY well...getting those extra 4 assists, 2 more buckets and no TOs.

Not that I think DJ played bad; indeed I thought he played pretty well. I just didn't see the bad in Felton that others supposedly saw.

This was a preseason game (1st no less) and I treat it much like a SL game in that you can only take so much from it. Staying close to such a good team throughout like we did is one good sign to be somewhat optimistic I think.

[G-Force for MVP]

ajinca better not start in the d-league

[dav7z]

ajinca better not start in the d-league

Lexy showed some of the skills Brown has talked about last night. He made mistakes but with no back up power foward Brown has to bite the bullett and play the better player.
Vald didn.t seem to have the speed to guard or wasn.t instrested. He seemed to be a liability on defence to me .
Lex is three times as long and seems to have a big edge on speed . His offence looked as good if not better to me . The kid needs burn and i think it's a perfect time to have him back up 3D.

Spectre i agree about Felton and DJ. But i do see inprovments in DJs speed and defence. He all so seemed to be seeing the floor a little better.

[BigE]

I know it was just a preseason game but I liked the fact that we stayed close with the Cav's the entire game without Chandler and Diaw.

[ND22]

I know it was just a preseason game but I liked the fact that we stayed close with the Cav's the entire game without Chandler and Diaw.

Agreed. And you can say, "Well Lebron only played 15 minutes." But G-Wall only played 10. And, like you said, Chandler and Diaw didn't play. At least we showed some promise, unlike our other Charlotte team that showed little if any during their preseason.

[BigE]

Agreed. And you can say, "Well Lebron only played 15 minutes." But G-Wall only played 10. And, like you said, Chandler and Diaw didn't play. At least we showed some promise, unlike our other Charlotte team that showed little if any during their preseason.

Yeah it's a good sign that our depth played really well against their depth and the Cav's are a legit championship contender. I can't wait to see this team at full strength when we get Chandler and Diaw back, we could be THE surprise team this season but then again I have been saying that for the past 2 seasons now...