Merry Christmas Hornets fans! How about a poem?
T’was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, everyone was on electronics, even a mouse. Both boys glued to TVs, Xboxes aglow; wife at the laptop, my PC running slow…
I’m cruising through Twitter, thanking my fans, reading the Tweets and wringing my hands…
Yeah, I’m going to stop there. A poet I am not, and even more so, no one wants yet another adaptation of “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. Reality is that it IS the night before Christmas, and I have, in fact, been on Twitter a bunch. I haven’t been writing recaps for a few different reasons.
The holidays are so busy, so though I am watching the games, I am spending way too much time talking to everyone on Twitter, basically putting out, line by line, articles that I planned on writing.
I decided today that I would stop with the endless Tweets, and I would actually share all of my thoughts, combined, in one article. If you have been active on Twitter with me, you have seen me discuss getting rid of Al Jefferson. You’ve seen me throw out that I didn’t think that Kemba should be our starting point guard. I’ve participated in more than a few NBA Trade Machine trade ideas. I’ve done a lot of thinking about our beloved Charlotte Hornets, and I’ve drawn more than a few conclusions that I want to share with everyone.
First, we have picked up a ton of Jeremy Lin fans. They follow Jeremy Lin to whatever team he’s on. Now, I researched Jeremy Lin as early as June of this year, and by the week of the 4th, I was asking why we were not going after him in free agency. Imagine my thrill when we actually were able to get him. After Mo Williams left for Cleveland, I knew we needed another point guard to back up Kemba Walker, that could actually start, should Kemba get hurt and miss games (like he did last year). After we got him, I researched him beyond the “player” perspective. I learned about his Christianity as well as his fans, and about his game style as well. The discoveries were wonderful, and made me want him to be a role model for my children. Over the last 20+ games, I have noticed being drawn into the Lin bandwagon. It’s hard not to do. He has efficient numbers. I’ve fussed about Kemba and dribbling the clock out as much as I’ve fussed about Al posting up for 20+ seconds. With the team we have now, and the players and their offensive skill level, those things can’t keep happening. Now, the fan in me screams that Lin should start at PG. The journalist that loves this team wants me to say that Kemba has some incredible nights, but so does Lin. I used to defend our point guards because, truth of the matter is that there were no offensive weapons around them to score the ball, so their assist numbers would be low, and they weren’t efficient scorers, but they could score the ball on some nights. I felt bad for Felton (briefly), I felt bad for DJ Augustin, and I felt bad for Kemba. Now, I get mad at Kemba. The way the Bobcats/Hornets had to play was necessary due to lack of firepower. This season, times have changed. Kemba can’t dribble around for 20 seconds. Crisp passing gets the ball all over the floor and gets the defense chasing the ball. Someone eventually gets open with good passing. With dribbling around, the defender sticks the man with the ball and everyone else just keeps up with his guy. I make it sound too simple, but basically, that’s what happens. With Lin, he could dribble, penetrate and either score, pass to someone in the paint, find a teammate slashing to the basket, or find someone on the perimeter for a 3. Again, I’m not trying to sell Lin over Kemba. I’m basically trying to sell Kemba to change his game. Last season, I wanted Kemba to study Mo Williams and his game. Go back through the site and dig it up. It wasn’t an article where I wanted Mo to start over Kemba. It was an article wanting Kemba to learn and expand his game. I need to stop with this, or else this article will ramble on forever. Bottom line is that habits are hard to break, but this is the perfect season to focus on team basketball, and for Kemba to expand his game to be like Mo was last year and how J-Lin is this year. You have to think in terms of finding the most open guy for points every play. If he does that, his shots are an afterthought, and the ones he can take, should be ones where he’s open. That’s why Lin’s scoring is usually so efficient (he’s have more than a few 50% shooting nights where Kemba takes many more shots to surpass Lin’s point total).
I’m moving on…I thought I heard Santa
Al Jefferson has come up for me so many times since the season started. He slows our game to a crawl, and he’s not a rim protector. I always felt that if we had more shooters last season, that team’s best fit at center was Bismack Biyombo. He blocked shots and grabbed rebounds. Everyone hated that he couldn’t average double-figure scoring because he struggled to catch passes. His job was to rebound and block, and that’s just what he did. Need I remind everyone of his game this year where he had 7 points, 18 rebounds, and 7 blocks? We let him leave because we didn’t want to pay him 4.something mil for this season. As soon as he was gone, the Internet began to chatter how we needed a rebounding rim protector, so we got Tyler Hansbrough. He’s tough, but he never sees playing time. He’s in line behind Al, Cody, Frank, and Hawes. My personal opinion was that we could have just renegotiated a 3-year deal with him. It would have been basically what Toronto gave him. He knew the players, the team, and the offense/defense. The best part is that he brought EXACTLY what we needed. The team we have now would have allowed him to do what he does best, and scoring would have been accomplished by bringing in Al, Frank, Cody or Hawes. Am I bitter? Nah…though I’m a little upset that I didn’t get to CLT to buy a clearance Biyombo jersey. I loved that guy. He was another “good guy” like Lin is. At any rate, let’s get back to my Al discussion. Initially, I wanted to trade him because he doesn’t fit here anymore. He isn’t a rim protector, but he does a decent job of stripping players before they get the ball over their heads. If they get past him, they’re scoring though. He can score in the post with a whole catalog of moves. My complaint was that him getting into that post-move scoring position was like waiting for a cake to bake. Each move ate up so much time on the shot clock, it just killed any running momentum we had. It slowed us to a point that even crisp passes wouldn’t revive our offense. I bought into the Cody for center lineup as soon as Al went out. Cody has a decent jump shot, is crazy-fast for a 7-footer, and can dunk with the best of them. The absolute best part of Cody’s game is that he can adapt on the fly, and he does it pretty well. He also has endless hustle, which without MKG, it’s something that our defense desperately needs. Well, the one thing that Cody lacks is size to post up. He’s giving up 50+ pounds against some centers in the league, and there’s just not much he can do about that. At 250, he’s a great size to bring what he brings every game. So, now is where I explain why we need Al. I came to the revelation as to how Al works in this offense perfectly. When the 3-point shots aren’t falling, his post –up moves can draw defenders away from our wings, allowing for open mid-range shots, or even slashes to the basket for dunks. We haven’t had that since he’s been out. The other way to look at Al’s game is to look to the NFL. If an NFL team gets a lead and doesn’t want to turn the ball over, but wants to burn the clock, they run the ball. They aren’t fancy runs either. The ball is protected, it’s snapped late in the play clock, and as many minutes are taken off that clock as can be taken off. The result is a protected lead. Al’s post play is an NFL run play. He can burn seconds off the clock and work his way in to the basket. Now, there’s a chance that he may not score, but there’s definitely going to be a sway in the game tempo, and that will eat up the clock, and even slow down the other team. There have been more than a few games since his injury and suspension where we could have really used the “run play”. If Coach Clifford can utilize Al in this manner, I welcome Al back with open arms. If he can’t, we’re going to have to find another center that has a post-up/back-to-the-basket game, as well as being a rim-protector and rebounder. For now, let’s just have faith in Coach Clifford. Maybe tomorrow he reads this article and talks to Al and Kemba before the game on the 26th.
It wasn’t Santa that I heard, it’s thunder. That means we’ll be having some snow…if you believe that sort of stuff.
Al returns Saturday, and while I don’t expect him to get monster minutes, I do expect him to get some. Keep in mind that we blew out the Grizzlies in Memphis the last time we played them. That was with Cody starting at center. Would I start Cody at center Saturday? You bet your beehive I would. Let’s just hope we can snap this 3-game losing streak. All of the wins we’ve had early on have given Bobcats/Hornets fans of years past a bit of an invincibility complex. These losses were needed to bring us down to earth. They were needed to bring the team and the organization back down to earth. It’s time to buckle down and work hard to bounce back, re-focus, and get back to our winning ways. We’re the same team we were when we were 2nd in the Eastern Conference; we just lost some focus and slipped into some bad habits. Clifford will right this ship. It’s his job. Al and Kemba? Well, they’ll start a 12-step program to trust their teammates and play TEAM basketball. Old habits are hard to break, but if they look at the great wins we’ve had, they won’t see one player rising above the rest. They’ll see a balanced scoring team with tons of assists and few turnovers.
Let’s Go Hornets!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
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