Charlotte Bobcats: Kemba is the Key

Oct 21, 2013

On Saturday, the Charlotte Bobcats and Dallas Mavericks visited Greensboro, NC. Being that the Greensboro Coliseum is a 5 minute walk from me, I had to go to the game.

Even though, it was only a preseason game, I still saw a lot of interesting things on the court. Of course the Cats lost but there were some positives that has me believe the team will be decent this year. I have to note the activeness and versatility of Josh McRoberts for this team, everything good that happened it seemed like he was right there in the middle. Jeffery Taylor threw down some impressive jams and Bismack Biyombo was active on the glass and even dribbled the ball up the court once. That’s the role players, they’ll be key but the main players for the Cats is where we’re headed.

There’s a common misconception that the Bobcats are Gerald Henderson’s team. It’s a fair assessment when you looked at the team during their historically bad 7-59 record season. During that time everyone on the team was bad but Henderson. That’s changed now.

During that 7-59 season point guard Kemba Walker was just a rookie and played as a backup. Last season when Walker took over the starting role, he took off. This isn’t Henderson’s team despite what some people may tell you, this is Kemba Walkers team now.

Throughout the game I saw who the go to scorer is and that’s Kemba. The only two players who actually worked on isolation sets were Walker and Henderson. Let’s be straight up honest here, the Henderson isos didn’t go to well. Now the Walker isos were another story. Kemba’s crossovers were so nice and quick that even if he missed the shot the crowd was still in aw over the move he pulled off to shake his defender. Kemba was a crowd pleaser and seemed to be the player that got things exciting even when the team was losing.

One of the problems that I saw with the team was that they were way to passive on offense. Every play seemed like they were playing hot potato with the ball until someone had to shoot. If it had to be someone to step up and run the offense threw, it should be Walker. Especially when Al Jefferson is back, it’ll make Walker even more lethal. Walker can simply dump it off to Big Al in the post, he’ll either score or kick it back out. The one problem the Cats have had is that their good players have all been on the wing, but having someone in the post (Al Jefferson, eventually Cody Zeller) will give them more of a diverse offense. It’ll also give Kemba the ability to not have to work his ass off just for a simple two points. Let’s think about it, Kemba Walker was the one who recruited Al Jefferson to come to Charlotte anyway, so he has to be a big piece to the puzzle.

After watching the new look Bobcats, I’m convinced that the offense should be worked around Kemba Walker first, Al Jefferson second, and then Gerald Henderson third. The point guard position is very important in the NBA, as almost every team has a high profile point man. The Cats should realize that they are just like most teams, as their point man is a baller. The team can go somewhere this year but they have to realize who’s team this is now. Come on Bobcat’s get with the trend the point guards are running this league now.