Could Bobcats surprise?

They just beat the Wolves.

My second home team trying to win games.

 

Bismack Biyombo, Tyrus Thomas, Brenden Haywood, Gilchrist, Mullens, Diop still exists, they got a lot of shot blockers lol.

They might not score or defend well, but they'll SEND YOUR stuff back to you.

 

I really hope they make it to the playoffs this year.

Then i can stick it to the face of my bandwagoning friends and say -

"So your'e a Bobcats fan now? Where were you when Okafor was the face of the franchise?" :grin:

 

Way too soon to be calling them the next OKC?

Who is their Kevin Durant?

 

If the Bobcats are the next OKC then the Rockets are the next Showtime Lakers

 

Don't think I was ever treated with malice (that I was aware of ) due to my raison d'être. Actually thought some folks thanked me for my insight of the Cats' state of mind when some of you thought you were in the grocery store for Gerald Wallace.

Either way, never sold myself as a clutchFAN, just a poster here and solely brought here because of Ishmael Smith, stuck around for the lively conversation.

As for the Cats being the next OKC, I think they are the next Charlotte [no clue if Benson sells the Hornets name and we re-adopt it or if we stay Bob/cats - I now prefer the Bobcats personally]. What we seem to want to do is establish for the first time a really strong bond with the city and fanbase (the efforts are def. not missed on me) and Dunlap clearly wants us to be one tough place to play and one gritty a$$ed team to have to beat. He's getting us there (moreso than Brown who seemingly wanted the same).

I don't know if there's a good template to look at to what the Cats are trying to be. Maybe a little bit of the old Pistons without the gratuitous hits. Look at how much Tyrus and Mullens have transformed since Paul Silas was coaching (even before the wheels came off that bus) a year ago. Look at how many steals/blocks/boards we are getting (read this AM we have 5 guys in the top 50 in the league in blocked shots). These players absolutely know they will NOT see the floor if they aren't defending and hauling in rebounds. It's refreshing as a fan. They are scrappy as hell right now and Kemba is the defacto leader of it.

Where the Cats go from here... don't know. I'd love to think we could win 4 out of the next 5 (Wash, Atl, Mil, Tor aren't that great) but I could also see this young a team go on a streak and lose them all. I think everyone in the league still has us (the Cats) circled as "should-wins" and it's our job to defy that.

I have realistic expectations (20-25 wins was my preseason hope) but it doesn't mean I don't think that they really could surprise a lot of folks.

 

It depends on what you mean by "suprise."

 

I'm impressed by the bobcats defense thus far. This team IS PLAYING some strong d. What's more impressive is, this is such a young team.

 

That's what you get when you have two of college basketballs best defenders from last season in the starting line up.

 

What the hells going on here? They dont have anyone. They got a better record then ours.

 

LOL, the Cats have been down their heretofore best player (Gerald Henderson) and have lost a surging Tyrus Thomas for two months with a calf strain and muscle tear (during the Memphis Game).

Also midway through the 4th, we lost arguably our best off the bench threat in Ben Gordon to a knee contusion and we start two rookies.

Success has come from defense-first mentality, a very gritty team and seemingly an absolute buy-in to Coach Dunlap.

 

MKG looks like one of those rare #2 overall picks that pan out. Love him.
They have a bunch of other guys who look improved so far. But MKG has been everything they could've hoped so far.

 

i'm not sure that's a bad thing, tbh

 

Proof that coaching makes a huge difference.

If we had Coach Dunlap instead of McFail and Co., we'd probably be 6-2 right now

 

I get why you'd say that and I might be saying it by season's end but he's been the guy we signed that balloon contract with. The guy in Larry Brown's second year that you thought was totally worth a big signing .... not the guy that Coach Silas choked in the locker room near the end of last year or the headcase in Chicago.

As for the comment about MKG, I think I said on a previous page but maybe I didn't; Taylor has been performing at a level I think most of us realistically thought MKG would be at now. That says a lot about both of those guys - they were incredible gets for the franchise.

So we have Mullens posting up and seemingly averaging a double-double. Kemba doing a much much improved job of staying on the ground this year and protecting the ball far better (and dishing out a fair number of dimes a game) while still getting to the rack and the free throw line in bunches. All of our bigger guys are statistically relevant in boards and blocks. MKG putting in some really special nights (most things of which won't show up on the stat sheet) and Taylor already being thrust into service as a decent lock-down defender in Gerald Henderson's absence. All of this seems to me to point to both a great coach & staff and the players really buying into what they are teaching.

And to me, guys like Sessions, Gordon, Haywood and now Warrick really add to the stew in a good way. Add in a rejuvenated TT and that's a team that's going to give folks headaches. We'll still lose more games than we'll win but we're playing teams real tough (take the last two games for instance). If Bizmack can put it all together and Reggie Williams can find his 3pt shot he left in GS, we can be pretty good.

 

This is exactly why i was campaigning for Jeffrey Taylor all summer. To put him next to another plus defender. He and MKG are going to carry this team to the playoffs with their defense. The Bobcats have the perfect mix of offense and defense in their starting line up that i was talking about this whole time. All they really need now is to upgrade their bench over the next season or so.

 

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Kemba is pretty good, showing some promise.