Charlotte Bobcats at Atlanta Hawks 12/15

[BobcatsAllDay]

You know what our problem is? We are the only team in the league without a single player on the roster who can create his own shot.

I do not agree with that. Felton, Augustine, and perhaps Diaw now can create their own shots. What we need is a big shot maker (Kobe, Dirk, Joe Johnson, Pierce, Wade, etc). Those guys bail their teams out on many occassions and stop runs that are made by other teams. We don't have that option on our roster and that option is usually not obtained in the draft w/o some luck on your side. Blake Griffin, or any other potential lottery pick does not possess that "big shot" ability that we so desepartely need.

[playoffs...PLAYOFFS?]

I do not agree with that. Felton, Augustine, and perhaps Diaw now can create their own shots. What we need is a big shot maker (Kobe, Dirk, Joe Johnson, Pierce, Wade, etc). Those guys bail their teams out on many occassions and stop runs that are made by other teams. We don't have that option on our roster and that option is usually not obtained in the draft w/o some luck on your side. Blake Griffin, or any other potential lottery pick does not possess that "big shot" ability that we so desepartely need.

big shot make..go to scorer...you can call it what you want

but we've never had that type of player in this team.. Jrich was supposed to be that guy, but frankly we lost too many close games

i think that finishing close games will continue to be tough for us without a player of this caliber

[TheBeagle]

That was just stupid stupid basketball in the 4th from our guards. Ray and DJ have just got to GOT TO figure out that they can't drive with blinders to the rim against quality bigs and not get blocked. That was preposterous. They left guys standing around too too much.

NO Ryan Hollins and too much Diaw. Diaw was great, just great; but he played too many minutes. AMMO and Bell freaking killing us and Nazr a little bit too. No Okafor at PF? Why not?

The postgame comments about finding minutes for Ryan and Juwan (especially Ryan) and how about Lexi? left me flat. I could have found minutes for them tonite.

Being that I wasn't as angry as Keetch, I edited some of his post, but otherwise, I agree with all this to a "t", and in the interest of being lazy, I won't add much more.

The guards lost the game for us tonight. Both DJ and Raymond fell in love with their dribbling, and as Keetch said, their stupidity to continue to take the ball right into the midst of a notorious help defense that flails that arms at the ball. No pull up jumper? No kick-out? Not to mention letting Boris do all the point generating for the team. Why not look for Mek in the post? The fact that Raymond hasn't gotten this in 3+ years now just proves how expendable he will eventually be.

And yeah, there was no excuse for not putting at least Ryan out there, if not Lexy and Juwan as well. Think of the technicals he could've generated out of Smith if nothing else. No shit you need to work on your rotations, Larry.

I would be as angry as Keetch and some others, but I expect this sort of thing over the next few weeks as Coach continues to tweak the roster, and begin to settle into a solid rotation.

[davcbow]

I agree with everybody tonight, why this? why that? why? why? why? we're rebuilding this mess and its going to take some time to tweak it and get the right players in at the right time. LB is having to learn the new players just like the players are having to learn LB. If we can make the right moves between now and "NEXT" season we will be a very dangerous team next season if not by the trade deadline....Our point guards are going to learn to set up the plays and pass off to the right guy to make the score. But when both points are going 9/27 shooting and 3/10 in 3 pointer land. Then our shooting guards only shooting 3/9, only 9 shots between 2 players? Ray and DJ were ball hogging last night. Then our twin towers (Hollins and Lex) didn't even play last night... I don't get it but I'm not LB either, hopefully he knows what he is up to.....

[docend24]

Well we have back to back game today, so maybe LB has already something in his mind regarding PT of particular players. But I agree, Hollins should get some minutes, our guards shut way too much and I guess we could foul their big men a bit more on purpose.

[spectre]

^ Crash is supposed to be out tonight so I imagine we'll see more of Twiggy and maybe we'll even debut Howard.

[110oldeast]

What folks have to realize is that proper ball distribution is a 2 way street. The guys with the ball have to look for others, BUT the guys without the ball have to be able to move APPROPRIATELY into positions where they can make a play with the ball. If we are trying to get quick shots and the the guys without the ball stand around in a position where they aren't going to make a play, the people with the ball are going to try to make one. That said, if someone drives to the hoop and the man guarding you goes over to help, you should be diving either for a dish or a follow up shot.

At times this year, Mek has shown the ability to properly roll on the pick and roll, getting himself in scoring position. And he has been rewarded and he has rewarded the team. What the people who think this all falls on the guards don't realize is that Mek has been inconsistent in his shaping up for, receiving, and finishing over time as much as folks have inconsistently hit him. When he does do the these things, he and the guards seem to have a synergy. When he doesn't, he seems to be frozen out.

I don't think it is all on the guards nor is it all on Emeka. That said, I have seen other big guys on the team receive the ball more in the pick and pop/roll situations, which leads more to my point about properly making yourself available for the feed. In the end, it is a chicken vs. the egg thing, but simply saying it is just the guards ball hogging is misleading, IMO.

Finally, when we are using the DJ/Felton lineup in the closing, at the 3 we need someone who can spot up when they are driving and creating. It opens up the floor for interior play and gives us and "out" player who can make the defense pay for helping on defense.

[dnbman]

So do you see maybe Wallace at the 4 and Diaw at the 3 in those situations?