Writing the Pine

Chris Keane/Reuters

Speed up the offense.  Please.  It’s painful to watch the Charlotte Bobcats execute on offense.  Really.  I’d rather watch the WNBA Draft.  The halfcourt offense is anemic.  I don’t understand why Larry Brown can’t speed it up a bit.  They have a bunch of players who have been successful in more up-tempo systems.  Stephen Jackson enjoyed the best years of his career playing in Don Nelson’s frantic offense.  (Though to be fair, he’s averaged a career-high in points during his time in Charlotte showing that he can be effective in any kind of offense.)  I don’t care what kind of numbers Boris Diaw has put up these last two years, but he’s terrible.  While it’d be best to just get rid of him, he was pretty good in Mike D’Antoni’s seven seconds or less offense.  Most importantly, the Bobcats’ point guard Raymond Felton is at his best in a faster system as he showed during his days at North Carolina.  He won the Bob Cousy Award for best collegiate point guard his junior year over the likes of Deron Williams and Chris Paul.  As a Felton fan, I’ve always been bitter that he’s always been bottled up in such structured offenses.  I still stand by my assertion that he can be an elite point guard in this league as long as he plays at a more breakneck pace.  Then you have Gerald Wallace who never has proved he can play at a faster pace, but with his athleticism, there’s no doubt in my mind that he can.

I suppose it’d be tough for the bigger guys, with the exception of Tyrus Thomas, to keep up in a faster system, but I think it’s the only shot the Bobcats have at succeeding in the coming seasons.  Even with His Airness now firmly at the helm, the future of the Bobcats is still quite uncertain.  They need a quality big man in the worst way but it’s going to be tough for them to convince any of the top flight free agents to sign long-term in Charlotte.  I just can’t envision a Chris Bosh or an Amare Stoudemire shacking up in the Queen City for five years.  On top of that, Felton is an unrestricted free agent and who knows what Larry Brown will do at the end of the season.  But assuming the same team comes back next year, I hope and pray that the Charlotte Bobcats will just speed it up.