Community projection: D.J. Augustin

stats were not against starting line-ups during the first quarter or during crunch time when a game was on the line. He played against the other teams second tier on the rare occasion when Felton needed a rest. One would expect DJ to have good numbers against the second string. But were the numbers really good?

I hope he does well next year, but he needs to improve to be an asset.

There will be more trades, DJ is still possibility to land elsewhere.

I had very high hopes that he would carve a niche for himself as a quality starter or a constant contender for the 6th Man Award depending on which team he wound up with.

Last season he seemed trapped in a very long shadow. Oddly enough, it wasn’t Felton’s or even Jackson’s shadow. It was Larry Brown’s. A lot of people have commented on whether or not DJ is a “Larry Brown point guard.” But what exactly does that mean?

Coach Brown builds his teams around defense. In essence “play the right way” means prevent the other team from playing THEIR way. He expects his point guards to be the anchor of the defense and the role model for the rest of the squad when it comes to throwing other teams off their rhythm.

At the offensive end, Coach Brown trains his squads to pounce on fast break and transitional opportunities as they arise but his primary focus is on a very methodical half-court offense. Four passes before the shot, movement without the ball, and a massive number of set plays are all trademarks of LB’s teams. The burden on the point guard is heavier than on many other pro teams because orchestrating and executing such a large number of sets is challenging – particularly for a shoot first guard like Augustin. I personally think there is a basketball player trapped inside Brown’s body and nobody on the Bobcats sidelines wants to be in the game more than the coach himself. I think he hates the fact that he has to live vicariously through the young men actually on the court. Larry Brown is the ultimate armchair quarterback and every single time a play occurs – whether it succeeds or not – Brown can’t keep himself from thinking about how he might have handled it differently had the ball been in his hands. This is why the most common phrase Augustin heard from the sidelines last season was, “Why the hell did you do THAT?”

Coach Brown doesn’t want Augustin to play LIKE Larry Brown, Coach Brown wants to BE DJ Augustin. Last season it was a no-win situation for Deej and as the season wore on the frustration both men were experiencing became fairly obvious. Meanwhile, Raymond Felton succeeded largely because all he needed to do was elevate his existing game rather than adapt his play against his own court instincts.

Although Felton has gone away, the DJ situation has not. From the impressively researched numbers David has provided it’s pretty clear that Augustin was making an effort. This season Brown has little choice but to rely more on DJ to play the one. A good coach needs to adapt his gameplan to suit the skills of his players and Larry Brown is a damned good coach. Augustin tried hard to meet LB halfway last season and I believe his future success with the Bobcats depends on Larry Brown’s willingness to loosen up the leash just a bit. It’s advantageous for LB to do so. If he’s thought it through he’ll realize that he has a real opportunity to present several different offenses this season depending on how well he matches his compatable players up when they take the court. It would pose a real problem for opposing coaches because they can’t focus on defending the Bobcats one way throughout the game.

As the first choice off the bench, DJ could anchor a much more fluid Bobcats second squad and speed up the offense – especially if Derrick Brown continues to develop as a slashing/cutting forward. It would be just enough to catch defenses flatfooted if all of a sudden instead of defending carefully constructed sets they were faced with sharp passing combined with sudden and unexpected shots. A defense settled into a casual zone that protects the paint and expects screens and picks would be slow to recover and move out to the perimeter to handle a threat from a new area of the court.

The big question is, will LB realize this and use Augustin as the flag bearer for that sort of play or will he continue to try to force DJ into a mold he simply isn’t designed to fit into?

We’ll have our answer within 3 weeks of the start of the season. I also think we’ll know by then whether or not DJ will still be in a Bobcats uni the day after the trade deadline.

Well…LB doesn’t….
But I’m going to
Wait for it…

I’m cracking myself up at the possibilities!