Sunday, November 30

The First Month of the Larry Brown Era

The Larry Brown era is now a month old. As predicted, the Cats are off to a slow start at 5-11. The good news for the team, December's schedule should be more favorable. They open with two winnable games against Minnesota and OKC at home and have games against Washington, Golden State, and Memphis. The schedule sets up so that going .500 for the month should be attainable.

With a month in the books, let's take a look back at the team's progress.

Game High Scorers (record in those games)
Gerald Wallace: 5 (1-4)
Jason Richardson: 3 (1-2) (Shared lead with Felton in a win)
Raymond Felton: 4 (3-1)
DJ Augustin: 4 (1-3)
Shannon Brown: 1 (0-1)

Scoring
The most mercurial of the scorers on the team has been Raymond Felton. In the team's five wins, he's shooting a whopping 60 percent from the field (35-58). In the team's eleven losses, he's shot only 31 percent.

Emeka Okafor and Jared Dudley are the only two shooting over 50 percent from the field. Despite leading the team in FG%, the problems getting the ball to EO50 show up in his field goal attempts. He is fifth on the team in attempts, and has only 12 more than Adam Morrison who has played 250 fewer minutes.

DJ Augustin leads the team in 3-point attempts, After starting the season connecting on only five of his first 29 attempts, he's hit 17 of his 30 3-point shots in the last six games. Gerald Wallace has made only 8 of his 34 3-pointers (23.5%). Matt Carroll has shot just two for sixteen behind the arc (12.5%).

Gerald Wallace has shot 113 free throws, Emeka is a distant second at 61. Okafor's struggles at the line continue. He's hit on just 54% of his attempts. The only player shooting over 80% from the line (with more than 18 attempts): DJ Augustin (90.2%).

Individual Stats
Only once has someone other than Raymond or DJ led the team in assists (J. Richardson 5 v. Detroit)

Gerald Wallace (34) and Raymond Felton (28) lead the team in steals. Jared Dudley is third with ten steals.

Emeka Okafor (26) and Gerald Wallace (12) are the only Cats with double digit blocks. Collectively, the team has been blocked 34 more times than they have blocked their opponents.

The team has four players with more than 30 turnovers. The two pointguards, Gerald Wallace and Emeka Okafor. Sean May has as many turnovers (11) as he does made field goals.

According to John Hollinger's Player Efficiency Rating, Gerald Wallace has been the most effective Bobcat (18.04). His ranking is 52nd in league. Second: Shannon Brown (17.67). Third: Jason Richardson (16.2)

Team Record
Three of the teams first four losses were by double digits. Since then, they've only lost once by ten or more.

Four of the team's losses have been to first place teams.

The team has only lost once to a team that is currently sub .500 (Milwaukee)

No comments: