Charlotte Bobcats
Overall Win/Loss Record (as of December 31st): 8-23, fourth place Southeast Division |
14
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This Month:
28
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Team
Statistics and League Rank (as of December 31st)
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Individual
Statistical Leaders (as of December 31st)
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Worst Player
of the Month: Ben Gordon
This was
supposed to be the year that Ben Gordon was going to prove his detractors
wrong that he was an overrated and overpaid free agent bust while he was at
Detroit. Charlotte was supposed to
resurrect his career that once showed so much promise only to fall rather
flat. Many hoped to see the Ben Gordon
that once played for the Chicago Bulls where he averaged 20 odd points per
game which will lead to Charlotte improving as well. Unfortunately, neither has happened as the
Charlotte Bobcats remain at the bottom of the standings and Gordon’s play has
remained rather underwhelming as he still rides the bench posting
unimpressive numbers while cashing in another fat check of 12$ million for
the season. So far in December, Gordon
has continued to disappoint only scoring just 11.2 points per game while his
minutes have dropped significantly as well, leading many to place Gordon’s
acquisition amongst the numerous missteps that Charlotte has done over the
course of its history.
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First Player
of the Month: Kemba Walker
The Charlotte
Bobcats have officially become Kemba Walker’s team as he has risen up to the
team’s leader in every facet as he leads the team in almost every statistical
category. He has certainly been the
sold bright spot for a struggling Bobcats team that has yet to win a game
since the 24th of November.
Throughout December, Walker literally carried the team on his back
offensively scoring in double figures in all except two games while
increasing his scoring average from 16.5 points per game in November to 19.5
in December. And despite his team’s
troubles in getting the ball in the basket, Walker was quite efficient
shooting the ball in December with a .455 field goal percentage while
shooting .381 from beyond the arc.
Along with providing his team much needed scoring, Kemba should also
be given credit for being an efficient handler at such a young age (22 years
old) as he sports a rather impressive 3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio making
him not only the team’s leader, but also ranking him amongst the best point
men in the league.
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Analysis:
Talk about a "crash and burn:" the Charlotte Bobcats, after winning last season's win total and finishing at .500 record at the end of November suddenly took a nose dive in December losing every single game except one. After losing 15 in a row, the Cats finally clawed their way to victory as they finished 2012 by beating the Chicago Bulls by 10 points (12/31/2012). Otherwise, the rest of December did not look so pretty for Charlotte fans as their Bobcats allowed their opponent to outscore them 107 to 89 and out-shoot them .470 to .434. In all but six games in December, opponents shot better than .450 from the field against the Bobcats with six of the other ten games over .500 and three over .550. It was as if the Bobcats completely shut down right after they matched last season's win total in November of seven games
The first two games in December were not so bad as the Bobcats lost by a total of eight points against the Portland Trailblazers in overtime (12/3/2012) followed by a two point heart breaker against the New York Knicks (12/5/2012). Unfortunately, the Bobcats were simply spanked in the next couple of games as they lost on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks by 15 points (12/7/2012) and allowed the visiting San Antonio Spurs to score 132 points on their home floor beating them by 30 the following day(12/8/2012). Following allowing itself to be violated in front of their home court fans, Charlotte did put up respectable, yet losing performances at home against the Golden State Warriors (12/10/2012) and the Los Angeles Clippers (12/12/2012), but were then were defecated upon once they headed to Atlanta to face the Hawks losing 113 to 90 the following night (12/13/2012). The Cats could not even catch a break when they led the Los Angeles Lakers by as much as 18 points and held them to .398 shooting (12/18/2012)--Kobe Bryant simply torched the Cats scoring 30 points completely obliterating the lead to earn a one point win for the struggling Lakers. After that humiliating loss, the Cats suffered blowout after blowout losing five straight games by an average margin of 17 points per game. After that five game onslaught, the Bobcats still managed to lose to the New Orleans Hornets despite outshooting the Hornets .494 to .427 (12/29/2012) and if it was not for that miraculous win over a sleepwalking Chicago Bulls team, Charlotte would have gone winless for the entire month of December. Despite the rather absentee performance of Charlotte, Bobcats fans (the few that are out there) can hold solace to the fact that not only did they surpass their seven win total last season but also, unlike last season, do not have the worst record in the league. So despite being terrible, the team can hold their collective heads high and say with pride: "yes, way may be awful this season, but at least we are not dead last in the league." That title now belongs to the Bobcats' Southeast Division rival in futility, the Washington Wizards, followed by the equally hapless Cleveland Cavaliers; however let us not pop the corks of our champagne bottles yet. The season is still young so the Bobcats have plenty of time to continue their "free fall" to the bottom of the league standings. If the Bobcats manage to maintain their winning pace over the past two months of four games per month, they could finish the season quite respectively with a grand total of 24 games--more that tripling the win total of last season. Unfortunately, that is very unlikely to happen, but either way it is still a victory for Charlotte if they end up losing every game this season because the team can still consider it to be an improvement from last season. That is the beauty of have the onerous title of the worst team ever in NBA History--every season following that last season will look like an improvement in comparison. Add the fact that will will be within the top five picks of the NBA Draft over the next few years will give the Bobcats the talent to one day return to respectability and hopefully, the playoffs; however that is a longs ways away from happening. So hang in there, Bobcats--you have already passed the mark on wins and there is nowhere else to go up. (Editor's note: I wish to apologize for not writing my usual five paragraph analysis. There is only so much material that I can squeeze out just to make these four paragraphs. After all, I am speaking about the Bobcats; however I guess that I can count this one that I am currently writing to the four others to finally complete this piece. Thank you for you understanding to this matter considering the fact that I am finding it hard to make the four sentences necessary to make this a proper paragraph. I am literally been grasping at straws to find ways of finishing . . . well, what do you know? I just finish it.) |
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Friday, January 18, 2013
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for December: 28. Charlotte Bobcats
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