At the All-Star Break, Bobcats Prove to Be the Worst Team In the League
By Editorial Staff
4 wins at the All-Star break. I have no way of knowing, without spending the entire All-Star Break looking at every team’s record at the break, if it’s truly the worst record at the unofficial mid-way point of any given NBA season. I can confirm that 32 games into an NBA season, the Bobcats have the third worst record ever. While it’s not the worst, it feels awful bad though.
4 wins at the All-Star Break. The next-worst team is Washington, but they beat the Bobcats twice and have one more win otherwise to get to 7-26. Just saying that, the second worst team in the NBA has beaten your team twice…wow that sucks.
4 wins at the All-Star Break. Scoring is uneven, with the leading scorer, Gerald Henderson, being good for 15 points or so but he’s missed 11 games, roughly a third of the games. Next down the list, Corey Maggette at 13.5, but he’s missed 19 games. So where does the scoring come from? No one knows, which sucks.
4 wins at the All-Star Break. I don’t care if you’re all for “Tanking for Tony,” or if you’ve bought into the “Own Tomorrow,” at the expense of today mantra the Bobcats sold in the off season. I don’t care if you were hoping for zero wins in order to get the greatest chance at a high draft pick in what many think is a “loaded” draft. Four wins at the All-Star Break just plain sucks.
I can’t say that the Bobcats lack talent. There are 7 lottery picks on the Bobcats roster. These players either have great unrealized promise, or had it and we can confirm it’s lost (Diop, I’m talking about you). Supposedly, there was a meeting where all this was discussed. We talked about it back when it came up with KeepingItHeel.com, the source of the meeting seems to come out fully in this story in the New York Daily News. My contention would be that the Bobcats simply have mismatched talent. The parts and pieces don’t work together. I don’t know if all the pieces have been together, in any sort of stable situation. It’s like once you think the picture is starting to come together, a piece drops on the floor while another one changes shape. There is no completing this puzzle.
As the story goes, it’s not the coach’s fault. Paul Silas isn’t to blame. His staff, young by NBA standards, isn’t to blame. It’s almost as if, it’s no one is really to blame. It’s just a confluence of ineptitude.
I don’t mean to be Drew Downer over here, but these are facts. There are a handful of bright spots. The rookies are playing well. Kemba Walker will be in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge tonight and he’s been impressive all year. He’s the leading total scorer. His turnovers haven’t been all that bad, for a rookie point guard. Kemba hasn’t led the team to wins, however, with DJ Augustin starting in each of the Bobcats’ wins. Bismack Biyombo has been far better than I expected. I really thought we might have another Alexis Ajinca on our hands but he’s proven me wrong. He’s the 8th best rookie in rebound rate. He’s second in the overall NBA rankings of blocks per 48 minutes, while staying at 6th in blocks per foul, showing that he’s playing intelligent defense.
There is a great gulf of talent and ability to pull out victories, between playoff teams and the Bobcats and that has scarcely been the case in seasons past. The Bobcats have never finished last in their division, let alone in the entire league. There are tons of people saying this is one of the worst teams they’ve ever seen. You could point to the worst final records ever, such as the ’72-’73 Philadelphia team that finished 9-73, a winning percent of .110 and say the Bobcats are on that sort of pace, definitely but the winning percentage wouldn’t be as bad by a few points.
It’s not that they’re bad players, bad coaches, bad front office executives. It’s just that wins aren’t coming. You’ll hear people say that it’s intentional. The other night, in a home game against the Pacers, the Bobcats had 9 players play at least 15 minutes, as if that was the goal and not winning. Basically every game lately comes down to garbage minutes. In this deeply depressing season, I guess, seeing guys who wouldn’t otherwise get the chance, get a chance is the redemption that we as fans are looking for.
Andrew Barraclough is Senior Editor for RobertoGato.com, a Charlotte Bobcats Blog on the Fansided Network. Follow him on Twitter @therobertogato and Like the site on Facebook.