Good article - read it

[MattD]

Matt,
Admit that you have a Raymond Felton picture that you use for dart practice.

Just having some fun with you, btw.

still the only person i know of that doesnt support Raymond Felton.

i dont have one single worry about PG, SG, SF. its C and PF that concerns me oh and HC.

I know most dont agree with me here, but I think you need to look beyond Rays great 4th quarter moments. There is no doubt he has skill. He is a tough dude who can get into the paint and drive with tremendous skill. He can hit the mid range jumpshot (shooting 41%) and since he has finally been put into his "true" position at PG his numbers have gone up.

However his shooting is still crap, and sometimes when evaluating a player, you have to look beyond the stat sheet. You also have to get passed you UNC/Bobcats biases to look at what it really is. Ray does not run an offense very well. What's the number one rule of Highschool basketball? (Well at least at my highschool?) Dont dribble the ball without purpose.

Ray, who like other great basketball players, is used to being the best on the court, has not gotten past this mentality in the NBA. He stagnates at the top of the key, and litterally his decision making process goes something like this:

1. Wait to see if anyone gets open without me doing anything but dribbling here at the top of the key (If yes, kicks the ball to the guy, generally someone around the three point arc, and then waits to see what happens)
2. Okay no one is open can I drive it (If yes, drive, dont dish, put your head down with reckless abandon and go to the rim, maybe at the last second try to kick it to okafor if he is two feet away from me) hell sometimes that does work though
3. If none of these options are open, I can always rely on the trusty 39% jumper, just pull up (making 41%)

Now obviously, Ray makes great plays, great passes, and great shoots from time to time, and his mid range jumper was looking better and better as the year progressed. He is a hard worker, but it doenst change the fact that the offense under ray did not look like a strong offense centered around ball movement.

On Wednesday our offense looked better under Earl. That was when we were up by 23. Earl, who is not the best decision maker either, and is much more centered around scoring, did a better job distributing (no matter the assist numbers, he was able to free up other guys by his own actions)

Ray trys to do way to much. Its obvious in his game, but when we start to get down, he trys to takeover, something he just is not able to do very well. Maybe he is over confident, I dont know, but often when he gets into the mentality I am going to shoot/drive us back into this game, we just get beat even worse, and we start to ignore our other assets and skills.

My last point about Ray will be his irrating comments about how he is the leader of the team and how he wants to be the leader. Leadership really isnt to effective when one says, "Hey I am the leader, I am going to lead this team". I really love that he wants to lead the team, but seriously, earn the leadership. And claiming your the leader doesnt mean you have to shoot every single buzzer beater at the quarter, the half, and for the game. It drove me nuts when with 15 seconds left Ray would run the clock down, wait for it, then do his usual 17 foot pull up. His "leadership" appears way to forced, but granted I am not in the locker room so I cannot know.

These are just my observations. If you guys disagree with me, thats fine. I really dont have any beef with Ray, I even have a game worn signed jersey of his in my closet.

Can you imagine a starting line of Felton/Swish/Crash/Beasley/Okafor? The "lowly Bobcats" would never be so lucky, but for the hell of it now imagine that line-up with an actual coach too.

This is the most common mentality I see on the bobcats board and I am sorry to say but I think its a wee bit crazy. To think one player put into our team will make us great seems far fetched. No doubt I would be excited to see that lineup, even recently I saw Emeka put into a commercial coupled with Vince Carter, Chauncy Billups, Kobe, Lebron, and Tmac, that puts him way up there, but there is a reason why we lost 50 games this season.

Lets not forget how the Mavs are still very good even with a ehh coach, lets not forget how the Cavs are the 4th seed with an ehh coach.

Were not there, I will come back to this post next season, when if we havent made big moves, we will be dealing with the same problem, a sub 40 win team. I thought we could push above .500 this season. We didnt. There is a reason, and it is way to easy to blame the coach, I know he is a nut, but a team that is this close to making real noise in the playoffs as you guys have said, would be able to swing at least an 8th seed with the east being so weak.

Undoubtedly we had our moments this season, beating boston, nearly beating boston, but we also had our moments getting blown out by the knicks and Memphis.

Lets be real here.

God I hope you guys are right, otherwise next year will be hell.

[MattD]

by the way, that took me forever

[dnbman]

by the way, that took me forever

Interesting post, Matt, and I was glad to see a clearer picture of why you are down on Felton.

My only response is that our offense in general has been terrible-- meaning, we seem to have little in the way of vision or execution, no matter who is on the court. We are able to score at times, but it appears to be the result of free lancing more than any kind of strategy.

You point out that Boykins is better at running the offense, which doesn't seem true. Again, at times he is the pg when we are free lancing and make a run. However, he's also been the pg at the helm of us losing a lead or even dropping behind. And, again, he looks for his own shot as much as Felton does.

I like your observations about being at the top of the circle and waiting. However, when you watch our offense, hardly anyone is moving. You watch most other teams, and you see plenty of movement off the ball. We don't do that or we do it very little or we do it the exact same, ala the same pick for Carroll over and over again. Watch when any other player gets the ball at the top or on the corner and it's the same.

We're poorly coached. I have no UNC bias whatsoever, as I couldn't care less about UNC, ACC, or college basketball. I just see a guy who looks frustrated like every other player on the court at times and forces the action. The last month and a half we seemed to play much better, moving a bit more and relying on each more. Specifically, our interior passing-- big to big-- was great!

Felton definitely needs to learn more. But, I'm watching San Antonio and remembering what it was like during Parker's first couple of seasons and how the coach pounded on him. Yet, because of a good coach, Parker came around. I think Felton will do the same, especially once we have a reliable inside game that we can go to.

At any rate, thanks for the post.

[MattD]

Interesting post, Matt, and I was glad to see a clearer picture of why you are down on Felton.

My only response is that our offense in general has been terrible-- meaning, we seem to have little in the way of vision or execution, no matter who is on the court. We are able to score at times, but it appears to be the result of free lancing more than any kind of strategy.

You point out that Boykins is better at running the offense, which doesn't seem true. Again, at times he is the pg when we are free lancing and make a run. However, he's also been the pg at the helm of us losing a lead or even dropping behind. And, again, he looks for his own shot as much as Felton does.

I like your observations about being at the top of the circle and waiting. However, when you watch our offense, hardly anyone is moving. You watch most other teams, and you see plenty of movement off the ball. We don't do that or we do it very little or we do it the exact same, ala the same pick for Carroll over and over again. Watch when any other player gets the ball at the top or on the corner and it's the same.

We're poorly coached. I have no UNC bias whatsoever, as I couldn't care less about UNC, ACC, or college basketball. I just see a guy who looks frustrated like every other player on the court at times and forces the action. The last month and a half we seemed to play much better, moving a bit more and relying on each more. Specifically, our interior passing-- big to big-- was great!

Felton definitely needs to learn more. But, I'm watching San Antonio and remembering what it was like during Parker's first couple of seasons and how the coach pounded on him. Yet, because of a good coach, Parker came around. I think Felton will do the same, especially once we have a reliable inside game that we can go to.

At any rate, thanks for the post.

Yeah, I agree with you about our offense lacking real structure, and if your right and felton can become parker (I am watching the game too) Ill wait .

As far as boykins and going and losing the lead, I dont really blame it on Boykins alone, it seems like when vincent plays the bench, he plays the whole bench.

Oh well, it will be an interesting off season, and i know Felton will work hard. I have gone by the arena several times in the summer to see Felton getting shots up.