I’m dead serious.

It’s true our guards are shooting poorly but there is a reason for it. Last night, for the fourth game in a row, the Bobcats gave up on Larry Brown’s set plays and began opting for low percentage jumpers in the third quarter. We went over 8 minutes without a single inside shot and during that time the Jazz took over. Public enemy number one was Stephen Jackson. Don’t let his numbers fool you. The moment he started “Jaxing” up the jumpers the forwards gave up even trying to post up or make cuts into the passing lanes. It creates a multitude of problems.

First, the defenders come out further toward the perimeter. The Bobcats aren’t a great outside shooting team to begin with and when the shots become contested it drops our percentage even further. While it does spread the floor and open those passing lanes it does no good if nobody is driving the lanes anymore. With fewer Cats inside the paint when the ball is “Jaxed” up, we get less rebounding opportunities. While Jackson is capable of scoring well from the outside, our other guards are sporadic at best and Wallace is much more effective inside than he is when he’s trying multiple treys.

Coach Brown sees it too. Once the set plays go out the window and we start opting for jumpers Brown starts barking at his forwards from the sidelines. But bared teeth and threats aren’t enough. It’s time for LB to pull the guilty parties off the court and bench them until they learn to play the game the way he wants them to. If this means pulling Jax or Diaw during an important stretch of the game and replacing them with our rookies, so be it. Yeah, I hear you. “That would cost us the game! We’d be handing it right over to our opponents!” My response to that is, “exactly what game will it cost us?” I haven’t seen many wins on the ledger since this trend started. It would only take a game or two before the egos would be reined in and the guilty parties revert back to the set plays that brought us the successes we’ve enjoyed this season.

The upside is a return to our competitive and winning form. In addition, our rookies – particularly Derrick Brown – would pick up some minutes for at least a few games. The downside is the likelihood for a couple of more painful losses. But so what? If the situation isn’t changed we’re going to lose them anyways. It’s time for LB to adopt an “if you want to play on this team you will play MY way or else” position. Otherwise teams will continue to pull away from us and kill us on the boards every night the moment we abandon the game plan and start throwing bombs from long distance instead of using the inside. Yeah, I know our centers are hurt. But we have a pair of recent acquisitions that should help us until Nazr’s back is healthy. One of the reasons THEY have been successful is that they are effective inside. THE reason the team has NOT been successful since they arrived is that we go long stretches shooting from 18 feet away instead of passing the rock to them.