FoxSports NBA Power Rankings (funny!)
by JDuaneHipps on Aug 3, 2010 7:23 AM EDT
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http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/powerRankings
John Galinsky of foxsports.com does their Power Rankings.
He ranks the Bobcats 18th with this comment.
"(44-38) They kept Ty Thomas, lost Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler, and added nobody of significance. Good luck getting back to the playoffs."
Yet he list them as the 7th best Eastern Conference team
2. Heat
3. Magic
4. Celtics
8. Bulls
13. Hawks
14. Bucks
18. Bobcats
19. Knicks
20. Wizards
21. Cavaliers
25. 76ers
26. Pacers
27. Pistons
28. Nets
29. Raptors
I feel like we're firmly planted in the 7th spot next year barring any injuries. The sad part is that means we face Orlando again if things hold serve. We will be lucky to face a game 6. On top of Hollinger's ridiculousness today, I am now on board with the fact Charlotte needs multiple post-season runs for any type of respect. Despite the fact I'd like us to rebuild over time the correct way it's apparent this just isn't an option. Thoughts about our roster heading into the season? Please no CP3 or trade talk let's focus on the roster we have now.
A few positives I see in the upcoming season, if our roster remains unchanged.
1. Hendo will really get a chance to prove if he is our future or not giving us further flexibility to decide what to do with him next summer. If he shines there may a contender who would take Jax off our hands in the off-season (a very big if at this point.) I don't really include Brown in this conversation because I don't really see him as much more than a really good bench player for an above average team or role player for a below average team.
2. Diop should get to play. The man isn't as bad as we all think he is servicable, but once he got in bad with Dallas he didn't see the floor. He seemed to be getting back in shape during the course of the season and played well some games until hurting himself. Maybe well enough we can trade him near the deadline if any team suffers a major injury at the 5.
3. We could cut and resign Dampier, sadly he may be the best center we'll have ever had on this team.
4. It's likely DJ is not as good as we saw his rookie year, and not as bad as we saw last year. However, maybe he did hit the wall maybe he thought with the fan base and how he played he was the starter come year 2 and all of it was a confidence blow. He started playing better second half of the season minus the playoffs, and outside of Crash & TT we didn't have many players play well.
5. Next year hopefully we make the playoffs, but if not make Stern will pull some of his lottery magic and decide he wants to give MJ some help. Maybe a prospect slides to us and we finally hit at least a RBI double in the draft.
6. TT takes the next step & Diaw really helps sure up our bench giving us a formidable 2nd line that can hopefully maintain leads or close deficits by outperforming the other teams second line. Our bench has potential to be deep.
To me 50 wins isn't impossible.
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Good post!
Its funny to see these power rankings when the there is so much time before the season starts for teams to make trades. The Bobcats will be one of those teams as Jordan has already stated and proved that he’s wanting to make changes to the roster. I won’t go into any speculation at this point other than to say that there’s no way this roster is the same on opening day and that Dampier will be traded (and subsequently waived and hopefully signed by us for depth) because this team needs talent more than cap relief and his contract can help obtain a difference maker. If MJ is forced to waive Dampier, it will be a managerial blunder to say the least.
Jordan is not interested in building through the draft or waiting for players to make strides. He needs to get people excited about the Bobcats (other than ROFers) and to sell tickets and jerseys. He also needs his starting lineup to contend with the star-studded lineups across the conference. He needs to make a play for a star.
This team, if it stays put which it won’t, will not win 50 games. Maybe 40. I don’t think a lineup of DJ/Jax/Force/TT/Mohammad is going to strike too much fear in the eyes of the Celtics, Heat, Hawks, Bulls and Bucks. And our depth is loaded with potential (Hendo/Liv/Brown/McGuire) but little else. Diop getting a lot of PT should scare us all because there is a reason why he sits on the bench night after night. LBrown knows he made a mistake with that deal but what do you do with a liability on the court and financial burden on the payroll. Considering we’re so thin at the C postion, he’ll likely have to get 15 minutes a game-UGGGH! God forbid if someone gets hurt (yeah I’m talking to you Glass Joe Nazr!). Speaking of Nazr, he’ll likely be traded at some point this year due to his attractive contract. That leaves Diop and an out of position Diaw or TT to man the middle against the likes of Howard and Bogut. Man that’s scary bad. This is our most pressing need.
We’ve all said for weeks now-because we know this team better than most – that this team needs an upgrade at C and PG. I’ll add that we need a star to help build on last years’ popularity growth, marketing purposes and most importantly to content with the big boys of the East. You don’t think that the highly competitive MJ is going to sit on his hands and watch everyone else except the Raptors get better do ya? As long as you keep the core of Wallace/Jax/TT, you can make all the trades you want. But to do nothing, is sacrificing the season for a chance to play lotto. Center is most important. Next two months will be interesting to say the least.
That's what people like this guy and John Hollinger need to realize.
Even if we lost a starting PG and a guy we used as a backup pretty much the whole season to THEO RATLIFF that we are still one of the top teams in the East. Of course, not elite like Orlando, Boston, or now Miami, but still have more than enough talent to compete with all the second tier playoff teams like Atlanta, Milwaukee, and possibly Chicago. Before people tell me how bad the Bobcats supposedly are supposed to be, I’d rather them tell me how good the other teams will be. Indiana? Washington? New Jersey? All still a lot worse than us.
by Charlotte Bobcat on Aug 3, 2010 8:33 AM EDT reply actions
Your point shares my sentiment
DJ has played well with the starters before. I don’t think our team has regressed too much. Even if we make no additional move than cutting Dampier and resigning for less, Felton isn’t that much better than DJ (imo) & Dampier is better than Nazr/Theo. We also have Jax for an entire year. We may have overachieved last year, but even so winning the same amount of games as last year isn’t as crazy as most people make it seem.
I still...
I don’t think we overachieved last year, look at all the games that we should have won and maybe next year we can win some of those games with better experience and learning how to finish games.
That is funny.
I guess he forgot to analyze his own standings. I’d even argue that the Bucks and Hawks are well within our range to compete with using our current roster. I think a lot of critics or “expert analysts” underestimate the potential of Hendo, D. Brown, TT as a starting 4, and yes, even DJ as a potential starting PG. Time will tell, but my glass (as usual) remains half full.
Your post is a refreshing positive perspective that isn’t really too far fetched. I share the same belief with a handful of others here that we are not done making roster moves. I for one am not the least bit concerned, as the FO has more than earned my utmost respect and confidence.
* cough * 
* cough *
(sorry…couldn’t resist!)
50 wins isn't impossible, but I don't see it as being likely with the roster as is.
Miami
Orlando
Atlanta
Chicago
Boston
Milwaukee
All teams with more talent than us. I agree that we’re fighting for about the seventh seed but not 50 wins.
I’m actually probably one of the few people who will agree with you that it’s not an entirely worthless endevour to let Diop play. The guy can (not saying he will) play defense. A few stars will have to align to see it happen, but I would love to see Diop become a defensive force in the post again.
I also agree that we could do worse than Damps depending on how much we would pay him.
What I’m most worried about is the pg situation. Livingston will be as good as Felton was when he’s able to be on the court, but I’ve lost a lot of confidence in D.J. I’m a guy who’s biases tend to lean towards optomism (see statements about Diop above), but D.J. just isn’t the kind of player that thrives doing what Larry Brown asks his pgs to do. Conventional wisdom suggests that Jax and Diaw are able to take over ball handling duties, thus taking pressure off of any pg on the floor. But here’s something I haven’t heard anyone mention yet: Jackson’s assist/turnover ratio last year was horrible. Diaw’s was decent, but…well you all know what’s wrong with putting our offensive hopes on Diaw. In conclusion, we still need a point guard before we can think about becoming competitive in the playoffs.
I agree about Jax's A:T
it was awful. I would like to truly have a PG to setup our offense just as much as the next guy. The few things DJ has going for him are these:
His A:T last year was almost 2.5:1
For all the talk about Felton’s shooting last year it seemed to me he missed a lot of 3s when we needed them and the offense was stagnating. DJ despite having an “off” year shot 39.3% from downtown.
He started 2 games last year averaging 12.5 ppg 8.0 apg 1.0 turnover.
He started 12 times in 2008 averaging 17.8 ppg 5.6 apg 2.1 turnovers.
I really don’t think the guy just had a lucky season his rookie year. Even if we get somewhere in between we get a 14 ppg & 7apg basically what we got out of Felton last year.
Add to that the fact we didn’t get much out of Tyson (even though I think he would have been good/great this year) I don’t see where much of this so called fall off is coming from.
Yea but you're completely ignoring the defensive end
Some people have argued that D.J. is really no worse than Felts on D, but that’s just bogus.
Also, we can’t assume that D.J.‘s production against Minnie and Detroit last season and 12 starts from his rookie year (against mixed levels of competition) give us a reliable estimate of how he’ll perform when asked to start 82 games a season. The sample size is way too small.
If you look just at his 12 starts from his rookie year it’s easy to get excited. It shows that he has the ability to be a quality starting pg. The problem is, last year defenses seemed to focus more so on him and kind of figured out how to guard him. I’ll admit that he can put up some promising numbers and I promise you that I’m pulling for the guy to succeed. I just don’t have my hopes set too high for him.
Do you remember the game against Chicago? I think it was mid/late last season in the 4th quarter and D. Rose just blew by D.J. three straight possessions for an easy layup. That represents what worries me the most about having this guy play starter’s minutes.
To address you’re last point, if you’re talking about drop off in terms of total team performance, we both see the team as being in the 7th seed range. If you’re talking about D.J., then yea, I’m saying w/out improvement from him that he’s a drop off in performance.
I remember that game and those plays
It wasn’t just a foot speed issue either, DJ was lost on defense. He had no idea what to do.
That being said, one thing I like about DJ as a starter this year vs. DJ as a starter last year is the presence of Tyrus Thomas. He can be a great help defender when DJ gets burned on the perimeter. A full off-season learning LB’s defensive rotations and he could really make a difference in this area. DJ just needs to get his head on straight and build some confidence.
I agree drapht...
I actually considered throwing in some musings about TT’s ability to play help defense above, though didn’t want to get too long-winded.
However, in the scenario, we’re relying on Thomas (a guy w/ a ton of promise) to learn the defensive rotations and Not play the free-willing/seat of his pants kind of play that has characterized his stint in Chicago. Yea, I agree that Thomas can reliably erase some of D.J.‘s defensive lapses, but will he is the question that won’t be answered until the season starts. Here’s hoping for the best!
I remember the game also, the previous year Rose couldn't hold him
I think DJ thought he was going to start over or at least split time with Raymond. When this didn’t happen and he started off slowly it killed his confidence. DJ is a shooter and anyone who is a shooter once you lose your confidence it can take forever to get back.
I will argue with no one DJ is a liability on defense, but I will make to points to off-set how much his defense cost us.
1. Felton’s defense is good borderline great, however he gets killed by the elite pgs in the league his off-ball defense is exceptional maybe the best at the pg position in the league. Once his man gives up the ball he can often deny them the entire shot clock if he really wanted. However, his on ball defense isn’t exceptional.
2. Our defense was tops in the NBA last year we have enough players that player exceptional D, that having DJ on the floor is not going to cause us to drop out of the top 10.
We need the offense, if DJ isn’t producing by the first 10 games I’m sure we’ll see the FO exploring any and all types of trades to upgrade the position.
I said I wasn’t going to mention his name but since it’s not involving a trade. I’m not comparing DJ to CP3 but CP3 is a liability on the defensive end himself. You live with that based off what he brings offensively. DJ was an excellent distributor in college if he can display that vision again, we have something here at least a stop gap for a year or two until we get a pg that we want not someone else’s cast off and someone we can say is a definite upgrade to what we have now with considerations to money included.
CP3 a defensive liability?
The guy has a 2.4 steals per game as a career average and the last full season he played, 2008/2009, he averaged 2.77 steals a game. Sorry but Chris Paul is one of the best defensive pgs in the league and maybe in the last 2 decades.
by blueridgecat on Aug 3, 2010 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions
I plead ignorance on CP3's overall defensive game
but I will say that looking at steals alone can be misleading. His numbers are impressive for sure, but don’t speak to his overall defensive play.
Steals by no means tell how good defensively you are
Why do you think LB put an end to some of Crash’s roaming. When you go for a steal you leave you teammates out to dry, in the NBA every team in the league will make you pay for that.
CP3 is definitely not a top defensive pg. Chris Paul couldn’t even get a hand in my face let alone someone in the NBA. Like a good defensive center’s stats aren’t just determine in blocks but rather how many shots you “influence.”
CP3 has one of the lowest defensive PER in the league meaning his opponent has a high PER rating on offense. The only reason he is so good is that his PER still outnumbers his opponent night in & night out.
Okay...
How about 1st team All-Defensive team in 2008-2009 and 2nd team All-Defensive team in 2007-2008? Is that a misleading STAT?
All-defense is mostly about the show stats
It’s tough to leave someone off the All-Defensive team who either
1. Leads the league in rebounds
2. Leads the league in steals
3. Leads the league in blocks
None of this makes you a great defender. Only other way to get on is being acknowledged by your peers year in and year out as one of the toughest defenders (i.e. Bruce Bowen, Ron Artest, etc.)
So...
being first team All-Defense is no indication that someone’s a great defender? Hmmn. Is Gerald Wallace a great defender because he made the list? And he made the first team All-Defense without leading the league in rebounds, steals, or blocks ( 9th in the NBA in rebounds, tied for 14th in steals and 28th in blocked shots) and he was selected like everyone else by the 30 head coaches of the NBA (although LBrown couldn’t vote for him because of the same team rule). Could it be that someone makes the All-Defense first or second team because they are a great defender?
New Orleans was a top 5 defensive team in both the two years that CP3 was on the All-Defense teams. Considering how much he played those two years and what an integral part of the team he was would it not be logical to suggest that he had some possible hand in his team’s excellent defensive play? I fail to see your logic.
In any case, I’d hate to get too caught up on a player that’s not even on our team. You made a great post about what the players we do have and we should continue with that discussion.
Sadly it's true that making the all-defense team is mostly a meaningless honor
Of course it doesn’t mean CP isn’t a good defender either, but being named to the All-Defense team has everything to do with CP being a superstar who snags a lot of steals. The voting is no more sophisticated than that just as the secret formula to become an all-star is to score a lot of points for a winning team.
All-Defense team voting
and All-Star voting are two completely different systems. All-Star starters are voted on by the fans and the bench by the coaches. All-Defense is a voted on ONLY by coaches. It’s no popularity contest like the All-Star game-this is a true, respected accolade. Gerald Wallace was voted to the first team All-Defense because he’s revered by almost every coach in the league for his all around tenacious defense. Go outside I485 and see how popular he is to the casual fan. The All-Defense team means that the coaches in the league respected that individual the most at their position and to me, that is not a meaningless honor but one to be proud of. And yes, CP3 can play D.
I understand that two very different voting systems are used for both honors, but using coaches to determine the All-Defense team still introduces a tremendous amount of subjectivity into the voting. One only has to look at the past winners to see the bias in favor of “name” players and players with high numbers of easily quantifiable stats (steals and blocks). CP is a good example of this. Yes he can play D and gets lots of steals, but no he’s not one of the three best defensive PG’s in the NBA.
Also David Lee got a vote for all defense team
not sure how that works. Also LeBron is not first team all defense. He’s not bad by any means, but he’s not about to shut a guy down like say ron artest
Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is,
I get more props and stunts than Bruce Willis
- Guru, of Gangstarr
LeBron could shut down
just about any player in the league if he wanted to. Is he a better defender than Artest? I think they’re about even to be honest. LeBron crushes Ron in the big defensive stats such as def RBs-6.4 vs 3, steals-1.6 vs 1.4 and blocks-1 vs .3 and those numbers go up dramatically in the post season. However, Ron is a shut down defender who doesn’t have to concentrate on offense and thus can devote all his passion and energy to stopping the opposing player. When LeBron wants to stop an opposing player, he does. Easily. But he has to balance that defensive energy with offensive production. If LeBron just played defense like Artest, he would be better than Ron-by a mile and that’s saying a lot. But that’s not the case so, in my opinion, it’s a wash. In any case, they were 1st team and 2nd team respectively-both very highly regarded in their defensive skills. David Lee did not receive any votes for the All-defense team.
My fault, Lee got a vote for DPOY
But still, LeBron is a vastly overrated defender. He gets the chasedown blocks that always show up on Sportscenter but that doesn’t mean much. That’s just his extraordinary athleticism showing up. But LeBron doesn’t do any of the things that great defenders do to shut down a guy on offense, like Shane Battier getting a hand right in front of a guy’s face. All LeBron does is stay in front of his man and be athletic. And even then he’s often beat off the dribble. Another part of defense is drawing charges to cause turnovers. This isn’t to say great defenders must be able to draw lots of charges but .09 charges drawn a game? There’s more to defense than being very athletic and being on sportscenter
Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is,
I get more props and stunts than Bruce Willis
- Guru, of Gangstarr
Also
What does it matter that LeBron has to worry about scoring? If he’s not giving his full effort on defense because he has to worry about energy on offense, then he’s not being a first team all nba defensive team member anyway.
Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is,
I get more props and stunts than Bruce Willis
- Guru, of Gangstarr
Lee got a vote because he rebounds at a high rate
I agree with all you said. Lebron is a flashy defender making the game changing play but his defense is mediocre. I would even say Kobe’s defense is better than Lebron’s when he actually plays but Kobe himself can’t play defense all the time for age and energy concerns. Look at what he did at the Olympics.
Well according to 29
of the 30 NBA coaches for the years 2007-2009, he was one of the best 2 defensive pgs in the NBA and I’m inclined to side with their “subjectivity” than yours. So past “name” players such as Bowen, Camby, Bell, Ben Wallace, Gerald Wallace, Battier, Hinrich, Christie, Kirilenko, Prince have all slid onto the list based purely on their “name?” Not exactly household names. Do players like LeBron and KG get special consideration from the coaches because they’re all-world? I’d imagine some of the HCs are smitten fans. But the reality is that LeBron, Kobe, KG, Wade, Duncan, Howard are mega stars but also are great defensive players. My point is that this is not just some popularity contest as you suggested but rather a viable honor bestowed upon by one’s competitors. And CP3 is most deserved of his All-Defensive honors.
I hear what you're saying JD
I just think that despite D.J.’s promise, there is some cause for concern with him as a starter.
Agreed
I’m not thrilled with the lineup but it could be worse & sometimes to see how far you’ve come and how far you have to go you need to stop & take time to examine yourself.
Also if you look at Yahoo Sports splits
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4471/splits?year=2008&type=Fielding
DJ got noticeably better as the season progressed. Again minus the playoff series where outside of Crash & TT we didn’t have much on the court.
I can't really agree that he's getting noticably better as the season goes on
Pre and post allstar game, his points increase about 1 ppg, his assists stay the same, and his TOs go up slightly. His 3pt shooting does improve dramatically, which is good.
If you look at a monthly progression, his points do go up some, but the rest of the numbers appear to be random fluctuation. The exception again is his shooting %. He does seem to regain some of his confidence in his shot, which I agree is a good sign. Let’s hope it sticks.
When he starts doing what he knows he can (shooting) hopefully it gives him the confidence to expand his game and improve in other areas.
On another note, I love this post. It makes me feel better about next season. And with all the bickering and ridiculousness going on here lately, it’s good to have a conversation like this.
That's a premature prediction
You have no idea how the current Bobcats’ roster will perform or how long it will take the teams that added new players to gel.
"I could never be a thug, they don't dress this well." - Malice
by Julius Coxswain on Aug 4, 2010 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions
Why focus on the roster we have now? It's not finished.
by Ft.Mill Bobcat on Aug 7, 2010 12:19 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I'm waiting for Salma Hayek to realize I'm the only man for her.
I don’t want her in my life or anything, I just would sleep better knowing that she was out there somewhere in the night pining away for me – the man she can never have. I’ve debated getting a restraining order sworn out on her just for the hysterical media coverage that would ensue!
My sources can beat up your sources
by Ourdaywillcome on Aug 7, 2010 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm waiting for MJ to realize he should give 1 of his bench-side season tickets to me
The day is coming though, I’m sure of it.
Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is,
I get more props and stunts than Bruce Willis
- Guru, of Gangstarr
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