Charlotte Bobcats NBA Season Preview 2012-13

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

The good news for the Charlotte Bobcats is that they won’t be able to do worse than what they did last season, so the future looks promising for this team.

2011-12 Regular Season numbers:

Advanced Numbers				4 Factors
Overall	#'s	Rank		Offense	#'s	Rank	Defense	#'s	Rank
Pace	89.86	17		eFG% Off	44.0%	30	eFG% Def	51.3%	28
Offense	96.20	30		TO% Off	13.85	16	TO% Def	12.76	26
Defense	112.39	30		Reb% Off	23.26	26	Reb% Def	28.85	26
Rebound	47.21	28		FT% Off	20.94	16	FT% Def	20.86	15

Jokes aside, it’s impossible for a team that has at the same time the worst offense, the worst defense and the 3rd worst mark on rebounding to be minimally competitive. By achieving this, the Bobcats were historically bad by finishing the season with 23 losses in a row.

Charlotte Bobcats month-by-month record:

Months	W	L	PACE	Off. H	Off. A	Reb%
January	3	19	90.8	96.4	110.7	48.2
February	1	10	88.5	94.5	115.8	45.4
March	3	14	90.4	98.7	110.1	46.2
April	0	16	89.0	94.5	114.7	48.2

There isn't much to say about Charlotte’s last season that doesn’t include a negative adjective.

Offseason moves 2012-13:

The Bobcats used the draft once again to improve their roster for this season. Last season, the Bobcats drafted Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo and this season by having the second pick in the draft, the Bobcats chose Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who was consensually the second most talented player on the draft. Meanwhile, Charlotte chose Jeffery Taylor on the second round.

To improve their shooting skills, the Bobcats didn't bother in paying Ben Gordon’s contract in exchange for Corey Maggette. Already on free agency, the Bobcats didn't trust in D.J. Augustin, while the same didn't happen with Ramon Sessions, as they offered him two years of contract that he gladly accepted.

Charlotte also won the auction for Brendan Haywood, who had been amnestied for Dallas, in order to improve their frontcourt.

A young roster with talent?

The Bobcats’ decision in making Mike Dunlap their new head coach was indeed surprising. Dunlap is a former assistant coach in Denver and he had been an interim coach in St. John’s in college basketball last season. What apparently motivated the decision of hiring Dunlap was his energetic character and his tactical approach onto an uptempo system that indeed seems adequate to the Bobcats roster, who is mostly formed by young players with a lot of energy.

George Karl’s comments about Dunlap:

“Mike Dunlap absolutely elevates every player and team he comes in contact with,’’ Karl said. “He takes you from good to great. Name every top-level, elite coach in the game – the only difference between Mike and them is their addresses…There is absolutely no one better.’’

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist won’t be the savior of this franchise, but he will make it more competent and aggressive, having in account his style and especially the attitude he showed on college. MKG has still a lot to improve offensively, but he is an excellent all-around player who looks to have some rare leadership skills that may help in changing the franchise.

Kemba Walker was also billed to have this kind of skills, but he had a tough season. However, it’s normal for a rookie to have struggled last season given the brutal schedule they had to face on their first season on the league. From all the qualified players, Walker was the worst shooter in the league by shooting just 36.6% FG! According to a lot of reports from this preseason, Coach Dunlap believes a lot in him and he has been helping him in correcting some posture problems that apparently caused the bad numbers to Walker last season:

 “Last year he would get up in the air a lot, and it was difficult for him up there. So we’re working on teaching him to play on the ground and service other people within the spacing of our (fast) break,"

Walker will have the competition of Ramon Sessions, who has been having an interesting career but also, full of inconsistencies. Dunlap has been leaving some clues in the preseason that it will be Walker the starter at the PG position.

Ben Gordon and Gerald Henderson will be competing for minutes on the SG position and this will be the position where Charlotte will have more offensive talent, but unfortunately the same won’t happen defensively. Gordon is coming from a very disappointing run in Detroit, so let’s see what he’s capable of doing on a new team.

The team’s frontcourt will have a lot of problems in giving the team a solid offensive production. Brendan Haywood is far from being able to give the team any kind of offensive production, Tyrus Thomas has been a Ben Gordon v2.0 when it comes to his production since leaving Chicago and signed a long term contract, while Bismack Biyombo will be the player with more upside on this unit.

Biyombo still needs to learn a lot from both sides of the court, but the fact that he will have a coach with college basketball experience is exactly what Biyombo needs to improve his fundamentals. We are in front of a kid who is 20 years old, so Charlotte needs to be patient with him, as realistically, this team will never be competitive enough to fight for the playoffs this season.

Final Thoughts

It’s impossible to ask a team that has been historically bad to become competitive on the following season unless that happens with the arrival of free agents with a lot of quality, something that didn't happen with Charlotte on this offseason.

Since they reached the playoffs with Larry Brown, the Bobcats are on a rebuilding process via draft, but the problem is that the Bobcats haven’t been choosing the right players, unlike other competitive franchises that took much better decisions.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s arrival may result in the beginning of something positive for Charlotte, but the team will need more good decisions on the following draft to keep getting better, as the Bobcats will definitely have another top draft pick next season. 
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Boston Celtics                                                         Denver Nuggets
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Atlanta Hawks                                                        Dallas Mavericks
Charlotte Bobcats                                                  Houston Rockets
Miami Heat                                                            Memphis Grizzlies
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