Only things you need to take away from this game are:
If Bismack “gets it,” he can pull down 21 rebounds while chipping in 9 points and 2 blocks like he did last night. That’s kind of scary for a guy plagued with happy feet (traveling woes) and unresponsive hands.
Zeller is a rookie and like all rookies he’s going to have his struggles, especially on back-to-backs like this one.
Pargo is a wily old vet that can still ball and should probably eat up all of Ben Gordon’s minutes.
Chemistry amongst the starters and the resulting FG% is not pretty so far. (MKG and Hendo specifically looking subpar)
The Bucks have a player whose name is Czyz which sounds hilariously like ‘jizz,’ lending itself to a seemingly incessant number of low-brow puns. I like what I saw from Czyz, looks fluid and I hope will stick to a roster. (C wut I did thar?)
Yea! Preseason NBA basketball is here! The Bobcats quickly fired a few torpedoes into the hull of the ship that is Bobcats’ fans’ overzealous optimism by looking fairly awful against a diminutive Hawks team playing a back-to-back and sitting their best player, Al Horford. They did rally back to nearly win with a last second three but alas, there is more cause for worry than for joy. Under the deceptive flash of new toys in Al Jefferson, Cody Zeller and uh, Anthony Tolliver was a familiar theme for Charlotte basketball masochists fans, a team with more weaknesses than strengths.
The Good:
Razor Ramon is back! Slashing and balling all the way to the hoop with his endless array of layups, he looked like he hadn’t skipped a beat after going down last year to injury. He burned rookie (and Dragonball Z character lookalike) Dennis Schroeder by getting by him at will. I don’t know how you say “Guard against the drive” in German but new Hawks coach Budenholzer might need to learn the next time the rook goes against the Lord of Layups.
Al Jefferson can score in the paint and capably rebound on defense. We already knew this but when making 13.5 million per year, it was kind of a relief to see some sort of return.
Jeffery Taylor is a viking with a purpose. The Jeff Taylor that pillaged Summer League opponents and invaded the Eurobasket tournament for his native Sweden seems to have replaced the often timid, deer in headlights rookie Jeff Taylor we saw last year.
Anthony Tolliver and Josh McRoberts look and remain valuable additions. Despite a nagging toe injury, McSuave continues to breathlessly improve the ball movement on offense and bring his lunch pail on defense while new signing Tolliver brought his own brand of hustle swag to the team dynamic.
The Bad:
Kemba Walker looked a little caught between two minds. Look to score? Look to pass? With Jefferson on board and relegating Kemba from de facto go-to guy, the onus is on the 3rd year PG to display floor general skills.
Cody Zeller was athletic, active, and pesky in the passing lanes. Aside from a nice one dribble pull up, Zeller’s stretch 4 ability looked like a stretch of Mr. Fantastic proportions. Shaky handle, flat jumpers clanking off the front iron and some poor free throw shooting well underscored the ESPN worthy dunks he got. He did absorb some contact and finish a play as well as pick off some passes with nice defensive awareness but the high IQ, perimeter shooting stretch 4 that was drafted 4th overall was nowhere to be found. Instead we got a guy that awkwardly played woefully like a rookie and made absolutely dreadful passes and olé defense that doomed Charlotte to an early deficit they spent all game trying to crawl out of. At this point, Zeller is clearly a very dependent player lacking the skills to make a large impact on the Bobcats.
Gerald Henderson had a lackluster game and seemed to struggle figuring out what his role on offense was. Having limited 3pt range is one of our biggest Achilles’ heels and Hendo didn’t do much to assuage our doubts this game.
Bismack Biyombo is not what you’d call a warm starter. As a raw, inexperienced player of basketball, it takes him awhile to acclimate himself to the game so his early stint in the game looked like typical, bumbling Biyombo as he rushed a couple of contested shots. In the 2nd half with some prolonged playing time (probably because Clifford quickly realized how terrible defensively Zeller and Al were) Biyombo looked a lot more comfortable on offense, a stud on defense, and snagged what few rebounds there were to be had against a good shooting Hawks team. Biyombo also looked ineffective thanks to playing alongside 2nd unit villain Ben Gordon who has a way with making everyone look worse.
The Ugly:
Ben Gordon makes endangered snow leopard kittens cry with his selfishness and complete non-existence on defense.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist looked like a rookie and completely terrified to take an open shot, forcing some layups in the pain already packed with Al Jefferson and sometimes Zeller. Not good for a team dreadfully in need of floor spacing for Big Al and a 2nd year player drafted 2nd overall.
As part of their preseason NBA preview, the Bobcats rank 26th on their hit list. Here’s a quick summation: MJ is the worst owner of all time and a terrible evaluator of talent (not true at all), Al Jefferson was a good signing (probably wrong), Cody Zeller looks really good and might win ROY (probably very wrong), Kemba is the only other decent player on the roster and will be a good 2nd/3rd PG on a playoff team one day (a vast underestimation), and Jalen Rose will get engaged before the Bobcats make the playoffs again (if they continue to blow draft picks and overpay guys like Jefferson, they might be right). Oh and MKG has no offense at all (not true, his J is just terrible but not as bad as they say it is).
This vid was probably as informative as the “contents are hot” description written on cups of McDonald’s coffee. If you followed the NBA at all and play some 2K you could have easily come up with the same “insights” as these two hacks.
—————————————————————————–
I’m probably not going to finish the NBA preview, but I might. I’ve gotten really lazy. There, I said it.
bobcatatonic.wordpress.com 