Rufus on Fire - All Posts

Charlotte Bobcats get fourth pick in 2013 NBA Draft

2013-05-22T00:57:40Z

Though the lowest the Bobcats could pick in the first round of the upcoming draft could have been fifth overall, they outperformed that percentage by receiving the fourth overall pick.

Though many expect Nerlens Noel to go first, the talent level is fairly consistent after that, much like last year with a number of prospects in the mix for the top spots.

The Bobcats tried to reclaim some magic today by also announcing the team would be renamed the Hornets beginning in the 2014-15 season. Unfortunately for them, a connection to past draft luck (see: Mourning, Alonzo; Johnson, Larry) could not return results for the Bobcats.

Alas, luck again was not on their side like last year, and they'll be slated to draft behind three teams unless they trade up or down. Anything can happen during the draft and trades go down fairly often, so you can't exactly count on the team holding pat at this time.

NBA players from past and present talk Bobcats-Hornets name change

2013-05-21T23:36:30Z

There hasn't been a lot of chatter from NBA players about the name change, but a couple tweeted about the news today.

In honor of the name change #13thpick #nbadraft #96 #freshface instagram.com/p/Zl7QeYRNrz/
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) May 21, 2013

Hornets, yessir. How it should be. #Grandmama
— Kendall Marshall (@KButter5) May 21, 2013

And Bobcats legend Sean May offered his support!

Glad to heat the #Bobcatsare changing the name back to the Hornets
— Sean May (@BigMay42) May 21, 2013

Hear*
— Sean May (@BigMay42) May 21, 2013

Whoops!

However, former Hornets star forward Larry Johnson seemed quite offended that he wasn't included in the ceremony or any events with the organization. It should be noted that Johnson does a fair amount of stuff with the Knicks so who knows if he can actually do both simultaneously.

“@patrickconnor7: @thereallj2 Is Grand ma ma coming to any Hornets games?”I would luv to, the club as shown me NO LOVE!!
— Larry Johnson (@TheRealLJ2) May 21, 2013

Charlotte, how about honoring me and Mugs. Just a thought. Show your love!!!
— Larry Johnson (@TheRealLJ2) May 21, 2013

I understand Charlotte, u don't need us you have M. Jordan
— Larry Johnson (@TheRealLJ2) May 21, 2013

I do think it's pretty funny that he didn't include Alonzo Mourning with him and Muggsy Bogues (who has been a part of Bobcats events for years now).

Draft lottery open thread

2013-05-21T23:00:07Z

A year removed from losing out on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes, the Bobcats have a 19.9% chance of getting this year's first overall pick.

There doesn't seem to be a consensus on which prospect should be taken with the first overall pick, but being able to choose before anyone else is a welcome advantage. Nerlens Noel was expected to be taken with the first overall pick, but teams are wary of his health after he tore his ACL in February. This allowed prospects like Ben McLemore, Anthony Bennett, and Otto Porter to garner some much-needed attention and keep the Draft interesting.

The Bobcats cannot fall lower than the fifth overall pick and are most likely to receive the fourth overall pick with odds of 31.9%. Still, the chances of them missing a top-three pick are slim are about 45%. That may seem scary, but I wouldn't worry too much.

The show starts at 8 p.m. EST on ESPN.

Let's talk conspiracy theories, y'all!

Bobcats to officially become the Hornets by 2014-15 season

2013-05-21T22:34:35Z

As expected, Michael Jordan took to the podium in Time Warner Cable Arena's practice gym to announce the team has indeed submitted papers to claim the Hornets name, with the estimated process being completed to be ready by the 2014-15 season.

Jordan cited the overwhelming support of a name change from the fanbase in regards to Charlotte reclaiming the 'Hornets' name in making the decision, which gained a lot of steam in the past couple years from the Bring Back The Buzz grassroots movement.

In the next months, the name must be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, which is probably a just a formality. Then the organization will likely undergo an extensive rebrand from everything including jerseys to highway signs.

Pete Guelli, the executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, said that the rebrand will cost an estimated $4 million.

As for the teal and purple colors (which I fondly adore), Jordan said it's too early to tell and that they haven't thought about colors or logos at this point. Though it should be noted that teal and purple were all over the backdrop and the new site, Back The Buzz, which advertises season tickets and flashy jacket.

The rebranding could offer a healthy revitalization of energy and nostalgia to drive a new feel to the team as they continue to try to build a consistent winning team for years to come.

As Jordan mentioned, the main focus is still on good basketball, so with that in mind, let's turn our focus toward the draft lottery at 8:30 on ESPN.

Bobcats press conference superthread

2013-05-21T18:00:06Z

First up, we have the Bobcats' news conference scheduled at 6 p.m. EST, per Rick Bonnell. They are expected to announce the team's decision to change the franchise's name to the Hornets.

Shortly after that, the NBA will have the draft lottery on ESPN at 8:30 p.m.

Godspeed, ping-pong balls.

The following are the Bobcats' odds for each draft pick:

First - 19.9 percent
Second - 18.8 percent
Third - 17.1 percent
Fourth - 31.9 percent
Fifth - 12.3 percent

Reports say Bobcats will announce they wish to change name Tuesday

2013-05-21T00:35:19Z

According to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer the Bobcats will announce that they wish to change their name to the Hornets Tuesday.

As many know, the Bobcats were originally the Charlotte Hornets throughout the nineties before being moved to New Orleans in 2002. New Orleans changed their name to the Pelicans, giving the Bobcats the opportunity to reclaim the Hornets name.

The announcement will take place at Time Warner Cable arena Tuesday at 6 p.m. EST.

This does not come as too much of a surprise considering news broke Saturday that the Bobcats started the name-changing process. I do find it weird that the team chose to make the announcement on the same day as the draft lottery, however. Maybe they're looking for some luck. Either way, according to Adam Silver, a name change can't take place for another 18 months which means the Bobcats would not be able to officially adopt the Hornets name until the 2014-2015 season.

More: Bobcats begin name-changing process Bobcats statement about name change (Jan. 20)

Season review: Mike Dunlap

2013-05-19T12:00:08Z

The Bobcats fired rookie head coach Mike Dunlap shortly after the season ended, to the confusion and anger of some, and satisfaction of others. A season after the infamous 7-59 record, he had helped the team win 14 more games this year, though with the benefit of a much better roster with more confident young players and a longer season. The Bobcats front office said that they were looking for something else to build their youth around.

And so today, we'll look at how well we think Dunlap did this season.

Ben

It's tough to grade a coach with only one season under his belt. A complete culture change cannot occur in a single season. Personnel turnover had only begun when Dunlap came in. Only a certain amount of blame can be placed on Dunlap for failing in defense when the team's roster has such limited talent on that side of the court.

And yet, Dunlap did fail, especially on defense. His zone defense scheme had neither the talent nor the discipline to work, helping make for one of the worst defenses in the league. The offense was only slightly better, but still lacked discipline and execution. There was a clear lack of off-ball movement and too much reliance on dribble-drive penetration as a result until Josh McRoberts and Gerald Henderson gave the Bobcats and offensive boon late in the season. However, he did get the team to consistently give their full energy every game, which is something I can appreciate.

The topic of player rotations was also a point of irritation for some fans, especially with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Dunlap often went away from Kidd-Gilchrist due to offensive deficiencies even though his on/off statistics show a net positive when he's on the court.

With all these things considered, I'd have to grade Mike Dunlap's first and last season as Bobcats head coach as a C-. He wasn't dealt good cards, but I thought he did slightly below average for what he had. With another season or two under his belt with a better roster and more experience, who knows how much he could have improved, but clearly the Bobcats felt that his potential improvement could not match the possibility of finding a better coach.

Chris

I give Dunlap a C- on the season. As many know I'm well documented on supporting Dunlap this season. I feel like with the situation he was given he didn't do as horrible as others may think. He was given a bad roster where he had literally no direction to go but up. He played the young players minutes (probably should have given MKG some more) and the team definitely improved. In January the team was almost unwatchable. Midway through March the Cats looked like an actual basketball team. So the young players grew and the team became watchable. That's about all we wanted or expected from him, right?

David

I really like that Mike Dunlap is a basketball guy, through and through. At the time of his hiring so long ago, that was the thing I was most excited about and so it probably makes sense that he's no longer the head coach of the Bobcats. For in the NBA, or really at any level, you do have to be more than just a "basketball guy." Everyone at the NBA level is a basketball guy, so you have to be able to relate to your players, work with your players and get them to buy in to what you're trying to do, among other things.

But it appears as if that failure to connect was his ultimate downfall. The pundits (pundits being everyone on the internet who LOVES cracking wise about the Bobcats, so...everyone on the internet) scream the what-did-you-expect-of-him line, and with good reason. The Bobcats were so bad the season before that almost any uptick in anything would have been an improvement. It was nice to see Charlotte get more wins, because hey, wins are fun. And Kemba Walker, Byron Mullens, and Bismack Biyombo all improved but those players deserve credit for making strides, it wasn't just Dunlap. The ineffectiveness of the zone defense seemed a fireable offense, but only when the Bobcats were running the zone defense. And the inability to juggle lineups and develop any real reliable rotation hurt Dunlap's look too. I can't fault him a ton for personnel decisions (although, yes...I want to see MKG play more) because the makeup of this team is still far from desirable. But the fact that no players have said much of anything on the subject speaks to the feeling that no one fought for him, or even will miss his practices enough to tweet something out. Whether or not the firing was good will ultimately depend on who the next hire is, and that has nothing to do with Dunlap. I will miss the chance for a national viewing audience to see his post game track suit jacket over his shirt and tie, but maybe some college will give him a shot. He's got a lot of basketball knowledge and has a place on some NBA bench if he so chooses. Still, I have a hard time giving him anything higher than a C+, but I'll give him some credit for starting fast out of the gate and finishing the season strong. Good enough for a final grade of B-.

Derek

In some ways Mike Dunlap's lone season as Bobcats coach is difficult to grade, but in other ways him being let go after the season makes it easier. He did some good things like getting the team to play hard almost every night and saw the team's key prospects continue to develop with his staff. However, there was also some downside as well. While some players developed, others found his approach off-putting. He also insisted on trying to incorporate the zone defense despite having that is athletically capable of playing man-to-man, and NBA teams are more than capable of shooting over a zone, too. If that's not bad enough, he never seemed to be able to lockdown a set rotation, which would be understandable as a rookie coach, but they were still rather questionable at years end. I mean, I'll never understand the point of benching Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in the 4th quarter in favor of mediocre veterans who have no future on the team.

It's tough to give one year to a coach and offer a complete grade, but based on the Bobcats evidence they must not have seen a coach that was capable of improving into a better NBA coach, or be the one who oversees this team growth for the coming years, so that effects his grade some. For now I'll rule Mike Dunlap's season an Incomplete.

Joshua

Traditionally, to "be in the zone" is a good thing. Not the case for Mike Dunlap and the Bobcats.

A few years ago, I fell in love with zone defense when I saw the Dallas Mavericks run it effectively in the NBA. Then, my hometown team -- the Toronto Raptors -- hired the architect behind the Mavericks' defense. I loved what I was being treated to. Zone defense is absolutely gorgeous if it's run well.

Then, the Bobcats hired Mike Dunlap. I admittedly didn't know much about him at the time of the hiring, but after reading about him learned that he liked zone defense. Well, Dunlap brought it with him to the Bobcats. But it was a pure zone defense, not one that had been adapted to the NBA game, like the Mavericks' "match-up zone".

Long story shot, it failed. Brutally. The trick to being a good NBA coach is changing your ideal system to exploit your players' strengths, rather than trying to box them into specific roles that limit their impact. Dunlap was a victim to the latter mindset.

I'm giving Dunlap a C. He's an ever-so-slightly-below-average coach -- like most NBA coaches -- but he was thrown a head coaching gig before he was ready. He didn't have a lot to work with, sure, but too many times we saw Dunlap make counterproductive decisions and sometimes fail to make a decision at all. He might be a good coach in the future. He just wasn't ready.

Charlotte Bobcats begin process to change name back to 'Hornets', reports state

2013-05-18T05:03:36Z

CBS Sports reports that the Bobcats have begun the process to return the Hornets name back to Charlotte's NBA team, citing a source with knowledge of the process and a website domain ownership change.

Honestly, what I write after this doesn't even matter. At this point, everyone's pretty much made up their mind whether they want the name back or don't want it back or don't care if they're called the Charlotte Centipedes.

As it seems, a majority undoubtedly wants the name back, but as future NBA commissioner Adam Silver said to season ticket holders in April, such a change would take at least 18 months. The Bobcats have been diligent in trying to judge public opinion with surveys and polling groups since the New Orleans Hornets announced their rebranding to the New Orleans Pelicans.

I don't know. Maybe I've just expected this regardless so I'm not excited or anxious for more developments or whatever. Perhaps I've been drained because of how the topic of a name change has been raised every six months for the past few years or how obnoxious some people are about a perceived necessity of a name change while many of us watch a miserable product on the court on a nightly basis. Honestly, I'm much more excited or anxious or whatever for the draft lottery, draft workouts, the draft and, hell, anything that actually has to do with improving the team's future at this point.

But by all means, I welcome everyone who wants to celebrate!

(sidenote: nbabobcats.com redirects to Lake Norman Real Estate)