Charlotte Bobcats

Brandon Roy or Adam Morrison, or maybe Andrea Bargnani as the best performace so far by the semi-hot draft of 2006? It was a draft of alot of similar players and similar total package content but perhaps a very wide range of diffferent skill sets and styles.

Many thought Morrison was the most ready for the NBA on the offensive end of the game, and likely Roy as the most ready as a toal package. I watched both in College and Roy definately had the NBA body style and confidence so I am not surprised he has the highest point per game this year at 15.3 Point per game. Morrison comes in second of the rookie class at 13.1 point per game and many seem to have labeled him as not living up to the expectations?

Id say 13.1 a game on one of the worst teams in the league is really not too bad. I believe (without checking) Wade was 16.1 per game in his first season.

I think we should also try to find a way to factor in the overall weakness of Adam’s team in regards to how it slows his ability to excel out of the gate. Not doubt Andrea Bargnani has a huge advantage on a very talented Toronto team where he has nothing to do but sit at the arc and shoot open three’s as the defense collapses around Bosh.

Charlotte is 25th in the league in total scoring at 95.2 per game, so that 13.1 looks a bit better when it is considered to be 13.8% of the teams scoring. This is not a stars percentage but comparable to other 3 spots in the Eastern Conference playoffs this year.

Portland is even lower in total points with 94.26 per game and Roy’s 15.3 point from this lower number is made evn slightly more impressive.

But the above thought does space adam out from the next nearest which is Andrea Bargnani in third with 10.5 points per game on a team that is 13th in the league with 99 points per game total.

So scoring isnt everything, actually as a real basketball fan its not even my favorite thing.
Adam’s other lines are 3.1 Rebounds per game, 2.1 assists per game, 38% shooting, 70% freethrows, and 34% from the 3pt line.

That above bunch of first year stats are not good or bad. I would say at 3.1 rebounds per game he needs to produce more there. Adam is lucky to be on a team that doesnt need more rebounders with a good arsenal of them, but the person who thinks that way doesnt deserve to play in the NBA.

Rebounds are 90% effort so at his size and speed 3.1 is far too low to help his team night in and out.

2.1 assists is a solid number for his game style, thats a decent number, 38% from the field and 70% from the freethrow line need some serious work and both should come up at least 10% to be considered good.

I think his “struggles” that some may say, at the arc are forgiven as it is his premier skill and he is on a team that doesnt have many players to “free him up” for open looks. I am confident the 3pt percentage will get up to 37-40% next year as they gel.

When compared to Roy we have 83% from the line, 4+ rebounds per game from a guard and comparable assists and turnover numbers.

I think it’s unfair to look ar Roy as a huge success and think of Adam as a wishy washy so-so season. Both have been on a similar and on teams where you can only produce so much.

Roy has the benefit of running the point on a bad team and has a chance to look for his own shot more often and likely get to the line.

Take a look at this number
Branden Roy 135-163 From the freethrow line in 37 games
Adam Morrison 93-133 From the freethrow line in 55 games

Thats 42 more total free throw points in 33% less games played. That figure alone almost makes up the points per game difference we see at the top of this post.

Perhaps Roy is shooting a bit better percentage from everywhere on the court but Morrison is finding his stroke and still recovering his stats from a slow season start. Morrison is simply not on a team that is good enough to free up a shooter for many catch and shoot opportunities.

Roy appears to have been helped by being on another bad team, but he has the rock to find more chances to make points from the line.

Its simply harder for a Spot up 6′9″ jumpshooter to make points on a bad club than for a point gurad who starts off with the ball ever trip down the floor.

Now the most important factor is an experts eye.
For this post I will play the part of an “expert”, though I am a marginal one at best. I have seen both play and Morrison definately lacks the rythem and swagger and look of a pro that Roy already has.

If I had to guess 2 years from now I see Roy improving at a faster curve due to what appears to be a much better ease for the game. Nothing seems forced with Roy and thats the mark of a all-star in waiting. I love nothing more than determination and Adam is the man in this respect, but life has taught me that hard work and drive do have the limits imposed by what god gave you. The bright side to this statement is that the amount of respect hard work can earn you is limitless (see: Ben Walace)

With all this said I will append what always goes here at the bottom of any of my lame Morrison watch blog posts, which is an invite to play some Halo or Battlefront here in my humble crib. I know Morrison to be a geek for the games and would love to someday kick back and put the smackdown on him in Star Wars Battlefront (or get smacked, its’s all good).

Got to sit through an entire game which is harder and harder to do lately. So this also means I get to offer my incredible expert sporting insights. I asked the other day “why do the Bobcats suck?”, and I got most of my answer from this one game.

I would like to first point out the idiocy of the commentary and color man from the broadcast. The game went as many Miami Heat games do, where the color man spends 2 hours saying how great Dwayne Wade is and how badly he wants to have a “brokeback moment” with him.

On and on they went saying how the draft of 2003 and Legron and Dwayne and mostly how Wade was so much better than James.

Im not sure if I agree, but this fools assertions didn’t stop there.

He said how the Heat are still going to outmatch Detroit if they met in the first round. How they are in 8th place without Shaq much of the season and thats as good as Detroit’s weak 1st place record.

How Wade has so many points, assists, rebounds and a ring on his finger and how Lebron doesn’t. He also pointed out Lebrons loss the other night in Cleveland to Detroit where he went 9 of 24 I think?

Now for what he isnt smart enough to point out before he names his kids Dwayne.

Wade almost broke the NBA record the other night for turnovers in a game where he had 12 by himself with 8 minutes still left to play.

This is because he drives recklessless and throws balls away hoping for free throws.

Dwayne Wade shoots more free throws than any player in the league.

Wade is not “amazing” in the 4rth quarter of games, he is a ball hog in the fourth quarter of games. And, if the officials stopped bailing him out with free throws when the defender is backing up trying to get out of the way then he wouldn’t be a top 10 scorer in the league.

This fool commentator also didnt point out that Wade has all these stats while playing alongside 3 and maybe 4 NBA Hall of fame players. (Shaq, Zo, Payton)

How many Hall of fame players has Lebron James played with in his career? ZERO.

He also say that wade goes to the hoop and “cant be stopped,” but the fact that you have the opposing center occupied with Shaq means wide open lanes. And Wade is often stopped jst to get a whistle after never intending to get a decent shot off.

Wade had 16 points per game before Shaq arrived and 24 point per game after Shaw arrived in Miami. Wide open lanes that have no center to guard the hoop.

The fact of it is, Wayde is the flopper of the current NBA great players and Bryant is the true best player in the league.

When compared to the current big three asnd compared to the great Jordan and even to the greatest flopper of modern era Reggie Miller, Wade is shown to be nothing but a flopper who needs far more freethrows and still scores less per game.

Dawyna Wade :6064 points 1824 from freethrows = 30.1%
Lebron James: 7532 points 1732 from freethrows = 23.0%
Kobe bryant: 18,162 points 4689 from freethrows = 25.8%
Michael Jordan:32,292 points 7327 from freethrows = 22.7%
Reggie Miller: 25,279 points 6237 from freethrows = 24.7%

And here is another reason to squash any Wade is like Mike talk, or anyone is like Mike talk for good.

Here below is the career turnovers per minute played.

While Reggie Miller doesnt really count as he didnt handle the ball as much, the others all played a similar style of game and Dwayne Wade has by far the highest turnover percentage of the bunch.

Reggie = .050
Lebron = .081
Wade = .099
Bryant = .080
Jordan = .071

So Any Miami fans that want to dispute that Wade scores the least point per game of the big 4 (James, Jordan, Bryant, Wade).

That Wade gets the most freethrow points per game of them all.

Wade currently plays with the best supporting cast and wade has a much higher turnover ratio than them all. 30% higher than Jordan.

Well, as I said at the start I know basketball, and if anyone is going to “be like Mike”, maybe its Kobe….maybe, but Wade will be lucky to “be like Reggie”.

Dwayne Wade, Wade, NBA, Overrated, Bobcats, Miami Heat, Basketball, NBA PLayoffs

So I flicked on the Bobcats - Knicks game tonight as I dont have time for much basketball, and if i do get a game to watch it isnt going to be Charlotte and NYK’s as that is generally a crap game to watch. But why is that a bad game? I see top flight NCAA level ballers out there…so….

I get to thinking,…why are the Bobcats bad?

I think all these blue and orange bricks we have now, may build something we can live with in the future.

They dont look bad in a player to player breakdown, they appear to be a NCAA all star lineup with alot of NCAA level team and league leaders.
I know that doesnt translate to pro success, but its hard to deny they have gotten their hands on alot of talent but it doesnt seem to add up to much.

There are lots of reasons why talent can fail to equal wins, and i think we can eliminate a few.
1. Lazy millionaire syndrome: This isnt the case, when I look at the lineup.
No denying that Wallace is a hard worker, Okafor is a hard defending player that enjoys what he does, and Morrison is a players player and natural competitor, all the way down to his XBox 360 on a weekend night. (I respect that) Couple this with Sean May, whom I enjoyed watching in his senior season at UNC. His 19 (or 20?) rebounds against Iowa State in the round of 32 was impressive, and lastly Raymond Felton who appears a few years away from being a franchise type point guard.

Nope not a lazy team, good hard workers all trying to make a name.

2. No leadership? Ths could be the case.
Omeka is a solid player and seems to be leader role, but at the same time doesnt sem like he wants to take the lead role. In comes Morrison, who lead Gonzaga no doubt, but that was mostly because only he and the Mexican-Amer player at 6′8″ at center were the only real talent on the team. Can Morrison assert himself amongst a team of equals? I dont think so, but I respect him anyway for bringing his own gameface every night/

3. Bad Coaching Bad Management? Not likely
I think this is too often the weak excuse for failure and it falls on the players 90% of the time. The Owners have brought in alot of talent, now they need to work till it equals wins.

4. Young not ready yet? This must be it.
This team must be inevitable success just building up to their day, I can timagine this quad intact doesnt get to be a 5th or 6th seed in the East next year or the next.

Im not Bobcats fan, but Im fan of good defense and playing the game right. No doubt they have players who come to play, are not all show and no fundementals. They have a solid 6-7 player rotation and aside from peraps one or two more long arms and down low atheletes I think this team is just a matter of persistence and time (and Patience).

Magic 97  Bobcats 83

“Emeka puts up these numbers the last 4 games, MAN numbers.
25pts 9rbs, 19pts 9rbs, 25pts 16rbs, 22pts 12 rbs are the last 4 huge nights by the now league star putting up francise player numbers.

When I play against someone like Emeka, I try to play as hard as I can,” Howard said. “That’s something I’ve got to start doing every night, not just against the top players.” 

Which is cool respect starting to come the Bobcats way, but respect dont pay the bills, and Emeka posting another huge game with 13 of 15 and 25 point - 9 boards, was great butnot enought to beat a team with more than one scorer.

When Darko outscores and plays Morrison, something was off that night.

Howard posted his second 20-20 game this season with 24 points and 21 rebounds, and the Orlando Magic ran away from the Charlotte Bobcats 97-83 Saturday night.

It was the fourth time in his career that Howard had 20 points and 20 rebounds, and the second against Emeka Okafor, who was taken one spot behind Howard with the No. 2 pick in ‘04.

Darko Milicic dropped 14 points and eight rebounds and Grant Hill added 15 points as a team of many scorers is beter off than Emeka all by himself in the middle doing the work for the team.

Just another example of the lack of athleticism around the glass, ecspecially on the defensive glass. But again huge props for a night of hard work by Emeka.

Sploosh, Adam Goes for 27! Sploosh is the sound we used to shout when our character went “on fire” while playing NBA Jams, everything makingcord sounds and making the net jump like waterdrops. This seemed like the right way to describe the sploosh, sploosh splash of Morrison’s hot shooting this week. I hope Adam as a gamer-geek like myself appreciates that and invites me over for some PS3 (im sure he found one).

Back-to-back career (albeit short) high games for Morrison have the playa haters thinking he just needed to settle in an relax and the magic is yet to come.

I took great pleasure in the win coming over Manu “flop”-obli, and the highyl respected Spurs.

“Adam Morrison decided to relax a little bit after putting too much pressure on himself in the first few games of his career.

The idea paid off as Morrison scored 27 points, surpassing his career high from one night earlier, and the Charlotte Bobcats beat the San Antonio Spurs 95-92 in overtime Wednesday night. ”
“The coaches were telling me I was putting too much pressure on myself,” Morrison said. “Everyone was expecting so much out of me, especially at the pick I went (third overall).”

While Morrison has been stinking up the town with alot of shooting and alot of bricks having been at 32 percent for the season, including 10-of-43 (23 percent) through five straight games before Tuesday, he has turned that around in a hurry.

Adam has gone 21-for-41 the past two nights in Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

“This is a big win for us,” Morrison said. “We’ve been in all those games we lost, so to finally get one is exciting.”

Also worth mentioning, and reminding us that this is still Okafor’s team.

Okafor entered the contest with four straight games of at least 20 points and 15 rebounds. In addition to his 19 points Wednesday, he had nine rebounds, five blocked shots and five steals.

I had in my mind been hating on Okafor a bit as being a bit undersized for the long haul, I am glad he is proving me wrong there with phenomenal play this year.

Well, we have been so wrapped up in the Panthers we forgot about Charlotte’s red-headed stepchild the Bobcats.

Morrison and the Stache are the buzz of the town, and likely he deserve the buzz. Morrison really strikes me as a good guy, basically that college roommate we all used to play xbox (or genesis) with and you could always count on to share his pizza.

So hows he doing on the court full of hype?

Well his debut was a huge success

“Morrison, who led the nation in scoring last season at Gonzaga with a 28.1 average and was the third overall pick in the NBA draft, had a game-high 19 points.
The 6-foot-8 Morrison gave the Bobcats instant offense coming off the bench. He scored 10 points in his first five minutes, including a fall-away 3-pointer at the buzzer to close out the first quarter.
Morrison hit seven of his first 10 shots from the field, including two long-range bombs, and finished 7-of-14.”

Unfortunately the buzz has turned to some cold shooting by Morrison showing a 3 of 16 night against the Pacers. In his defense Primoz was not playing and he was getting double teamed.

To get double teamed really is a service to your teammates. Getting double teaed is like the “phantom assist”, you get everyone else ‘one player’ more open then they were before it happened. This phenomenon is what made Wade and Kobe look so effortless when everyone collapses on Shaq. In these cases crdit is given to Shaq, and for that reason Okefor went 5 of 6 and maybe a bit of credit should be given to Morrison for this side effect?

BUT NOW THE OTHER SHOE:

3 preseason games so far and a total of 7 of 34 shooting for 8,4 and 7 points. This is not getting it done, but it is also preseason and a rookie. I think a full healthy team which will mean an inside presence that can open up better shots for Adam’s outside game will be a big impact.

Think of Derrick Fisher hitting 3 pointers in his LA days, and know that was due to great kickouts and good inside play opeing him up for shots. I think when the season starts we will see a sharp increase in shot selection and percentage by Charlotte’s newest NBA resident.

Again to sum up, its early and Morrison is impacting, be it directly with points or indirectly with attention drawing. Aside from basketball, I like him, hes cool and he can play Xbox on my couch anytime he wants.

Simply put, I was pulling for that drafting of Rudy Gay, but for reasons other than skill and Bobcats success. I had the enjoyment of watching a few Adam Morrison fist pumping games in the past 2 years, and I do know he is the best thing for Charlotte. Some players in the last 10 years have very similar styles to Morrison, and though these players are not Sportcenter “pets” and marketing hype like Wade, they are the key to winning teams.

So Adam I am your coach for the next 30 seconds, and if \you really prize the idea of being a respected player with many years and playoffs memories, and building a history of being loved by Charlotte fans, and respected by other great players…..here’s the deal.

First off realize what you are and see others with your type of game that have thrived, use this as an example of how sticking to what works for you and how that is a good path to success.

If you feel its a compliment or not, I see your game as being the same road as Richard Hamilton and Reggie Miller. And while I think Reggie is a complete candy-ass who can only score from the free throw line, I do greatly love the game of Rip Hamilton.

Becoming that guy wh motors around screens and moves without the ball will be appreciated by fans and teamates while annoying as hell to the opposition. A great head and ball fake combined with 85%+ free throw shooting will add 5 points to your NBA scoring average over your career.

I know Mr. Jordon will never let you forget the importance of a mid range jump shooting game, nor will he allow you to forget that working to get open and moving constantly will pay off huge in the tiring forth quarter when your defender starts foulng out of fatigue.

I hope you do Charlotte proud and work for shots every game. Charlotte needs someone we can respect, and North Carolina is the state that best understands basketball and will recognize the value that brings to a team.

Lastly, I was not a huge fan of yours in College, nor a hater.

I regonize your game is great, but saw a few finishes that looked handed to you by the refs.

 Again dont hear that as a bash, I am just hating the best guy on the floor, which is what all jealous on-lookers do.

Hit your freethrows
Move without the ball around screens hard all game
Tip Rebounds out!, dont always try to bring them down (See:Ben Wllace)

And lastly, I look forward to your obvious successful future and wish you the best.

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