Charlotte Hornets

[karloboy]

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Kung maayo ang ipakita ni Big AL patay ang Bulls kay di sila kakuha ug dekalidad nga player for '14 Draft...

ana jd diay ka importante ang trading a player for draft picks..di pd diay basta2..

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Bobcats re-sign F McRoberts




The Charlotte Bobcats re-signed forward Josh McRoberts on Thursday.

The Charlotte Observer reported last Friday that the two-year deal has a total net worth of $5.5 million.

McRoberts won the starting position over Byron Mullens down the stretch of the Bobcats' 21-61 campaign last season.

"Josh is a quality big man who can both score and distribute the ball, and he was integral in our improvement late last season," Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said. "In addition to his play on the floor, he provided a strong presence and example for our younger players. We are happy to have him back on our team."

The seven-year veteran averaged 9.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 26 games with the Bobcats last season after being acquired in a midseason trade with the Orlando Magic.

McRoberts was drafted in the second round by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2007 and has also played for the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers over the course of his professional career.

[karloboy]

ok rpd ni si mcroberts..dpat improve lang nya iyang shooting ug defense..

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Power Ranking Every Current Charlotte Bobcat



The Charlotte Bobcats have struggled as a franchise in recent years.

When your 21-61 record is not nearly as bad as the seven wins you posted two years ago, things have been difficult for your team.

There were issues on both sides of the floor for Charlotte. While they trailed only the Sacramento Kings in 2012-13 with 102.66 points allowed per contest, the Bobcats were not much better on offense. They finished with the fifth-worst scoring total and, in turn, the highest negative point differential in the NBA.

Yet things seem to be turning around.

GM Rich Cho has done an admirable job rebuilding the team in a short time, and his most recent offseason moves deserve praise.

Cho and the organization have focused on improving in the painted area to turn around this differential, a strategy that should pay dividends in 2013-14.

It has even led to a deeper bench that should help Charlotte pick up more wins going forward. To come in this slideshow are those players who will occupy that bench, as well as those who may not have the luxury of sitting down very often once the regular season starts in October.

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Charlotte Bobcats coach happy with players’ synergy


LAS VEGAS Agenda One for new Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford was creating some synergy between the four players he knows are in this team’s future.

So Jeff Taylor, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bismack Biyombo and rookie Cody Zeller each averaged over 25 minutes in the Bobcats’ first three summer-league games.

Expect that to change in the remaining games the team will play in Las Vegas.

“The point of summer league was for our staff (to work with) our guys, and I think we’ve accomplished that,” Clifford said after an 84-71 victory over the New York Knicks. “Those lines of communications have started. So I don’t think it’s as necessary that they play all the minutes going forward.”

The Bobcats have 10 other players in Las Vegas and Clifford has sat out at least three of those each game. Forward Jamie Skeen, who played at North Mecklenburg High, and forward Deron Washington have yet to play.

“These guys have been great,” Clifford said of the players trying out. “Sometimes in summer league you can get a mixed bag (of attitudes), but every one of them has been great, so I want them to get a chance to play.”

Shift in defense: Clifford has instructed his players he’s more concerned with them containing drives and post-ups with help defense than trying to get flashy steals. That’s a bit of an adjustment for guard-forward Taylor.

“Coach has been pretty adamant about how he wants us to play defense,” Taylor said. “Our defense is now more about helping teammates than stealing the ball. It’s more about getting the ball out of the paint.”

Wait-and-see: The Bobcats are guaranteed to play at least two more games in the Las Vegas summer league, but they have little clue when and against whom. The league switched this year to an elimination tournament this year after each team plays three games.

Tuesday is the last day before elimination games begin. At 2-1, the Bobcats could get a bye and not play again until Thursday.

If they lose their next game, they’d go into an elimination pool for another game. Or they could keep advancing through the field.

Here and there: N.C. State’s C.J. Leslie, an undrafted rookie on the Knicks’ squad, finished with 15 points, five rebounds and five turnovers against the Bobcats…Bobcats center Biyombo totaled 11 rebounds Monday against the Knicks, but he took just one shot from the field in 25 1/2 minutes. It was a dunk, which he made.

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Charlotte Bobcats’ Jefferson possesses rare skills

LAS VEGAS — Blame it on Dirk Nowitzki. Blame it on Magic Johnson. Blame it on college officiating or youth-basketball culture or whatever.

Bottom line, the skill that the Charlotte Bobcats have acquired in free agent center Al Jefferson – reliable low-post, back-to-the-basket scoring – is growing extinct.

“That is the question of the day, the year, the last five years,” said Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

“We’re going through a stretch where there are no low-post bigs. The way the game is being played has a lot to do with it. All the bigs are shooting, all the bigs are trying to be more skilled.

“They’re working on their skills, but they’re often working on the wrong skills.”

A low-post scorer like Jefferson or the Memphis Grizzlies’ Zach Randolph is the best way to force an opposing defense to double-team and expose shooting advantages for others. These guys get paid incredibly even by pro-sports standards: Jefferson will make $41 million over the next three years.

They’re paid that much not just because of what they do, but because so few others have the interest or experience to do it.

“It made me stand out as Old School became New School,” said Jefferson, who has averaged 16.4 points and nine rebounds over a nine-season NBA career. “The game is not like that no more.”

But why? Ask most anyone around the NBA at the current Las Vegas summer league, and you’re likely to hear a dozen theories.

Imitation leads to outside migration

Jefferson, who is a burly 6-foot-10 and 289 pounds, pinpointed when it stopped being cool for big men to hunker down next to the rim.

“I hate to blame it on him, but it started with Dirk,” Jefferson said. “That’s when the (power forwards) became shooters. But Dirk is in a class by himself.”

That’s Nowitzki, the 7-footer from Germany who became one of the NBA’s best jump-shooters. He entered t he league in 1998 and has been a perennial All-Star, averaging 22.6 points for the Dallas Mavericks.

As Jefferson said, Nowitzki is in a class by himself, but that doesn’t stop other tall guys from trying to emulate him. That moves big men further and further from the basket.

Rivers uses a different name to illustrate a parallel point.

“I jokingly blame Magic Johnson for trying to ruin the game,” Rivers said of the iconic 6-9 point guard. “Every big, when he was a kid, saw Magic bringing the ball up the floor, so that’s what they want to be.

“Playing ‘big’ is a lost art.”

Rivers also cites underlying reasons. College rules allow defenses to converge in the lane in way that doesn’t let scoring big men operate, so everyone scatters offensively to the perimeter. And college referees are so quick to call fouls when two big men jockey for position that it stifles their development.

Rivers mentioned the center matchup of Ohio State’s Greg Oden and Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert during the 2007 NCAA tournament. Rivers was at the game because his older son, Jeremiah, played for the Hoyas, before transferring to Indiana.

“You can’t touch anybody,” Rivers said of college refereeing in the lane. “I was so looking forward to that game, and within three minutes they both were on the bench in foul trouble.”

Big Mo the muse

Rivers was Jefferson’s first NBA coach when the Boston Celtics drafted him 15th overall in 2004. Rivers asked Jefferson if he had ever heard of Moses Malone because their body types and offensive games were so similar.

Malone retired in 1995, so Rivers had the Celtics video department burn a DVD of Malone’s post moves. Jefferson immediately saw the connection, and started copying some of the style that allowed Malone to average 20.6 points over 19 NBA seasons.

Not that Jefferson had to appropriate everything from someone else.

“Al is the most instinctive scorer on the post in the NBA,” Rivers said.

“The second practice I had with him – he was 19 years old – he made a couple of moves where I turned around to someone and said, ‘No one taught him that!’

“He shoots from all different launch points. You’ll be amazed how good he is as a scorer.”

Jefferson’s model, Malone, agrees.

“This guy has some stuff on the block,” Malone said during a visit to Charlotte last week for Bobcats president Fred Whitfield’s charity golf tournament. “He’s not afraid to play on the block. He’s not afraid to take the bumps. He brings the center back into the game.”

Malone says Jefferson provides something the franchise has never had during its first nine seasons: an offensive force in the post.

“The hardest thing to do is guard someone in the low post,” Malone said. “He’s going to give the Charlotte Bobcats someone who changes the defense every night because he scores in that low block.”

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Myrtle Beach’s Sessions finds comfort in role with Charlotte Bobcats




MYRTLE BEACH — For possibly the first time in his career, Ramon Sessions is comfortable.

Comfortable with his team, his location and even his position as a backup point guard.

Signing last summer with the Charlotte Bobcats – the closest team to his hometown of Myrtle Beach – proved to be a blessing for the seven-year NBA veteran.

“It’s always good to, first of all, play for a team that is the home team for South Carolina because it is the closest you can get to South Carolina as a team,” Sessions said Tuesday while hosting his annual youth basketball camp at Myrtle Beach High School. “When I signed it was one of those things that I just cherished that moment. To be able to have my grandparents come out [to games] and to be close to home – coming home is always big.”

The Myrtle Beach High School graduate averaged a career-high 14.4 points per game last season before missing the final two months of the season with an MCL sprain. Although he could have returned at some point at the tail end of the season, the Bobcats took a precautionary approach and shut him down.

On Tuesday, Sessions said he took a big step in his rehabilitation.

“Today was actually the first day that I was actually able to run up and down the floor, actually the first day I was able to work out shooting the ball,” he said. “Everything else has been basically rehabbing and doing weights and stuff like that. But today I got on the court this morning and today it feels pretty good. It’s getting a lot stronger. They told me there shouldn’t be no worries.

“It’s one of those things that you’ve got to get your mind off it and go out there and play. But it’s feeling better.”

He’s getting help with that from his cousin and trainer of three years, Akeem Hemingway. Repairing Sessions’ psyche is the first line of business in offseason training.

“[We’re] mainly [focusing on] him mentally … you know, after the injury coming back strong and knowing he’s prepared,” Hemingway said. “Then we’re going to keep working on his jump shot. The thing I love about him most is he’s never content with just his points or assists going up. He wants it all. And he’s like a sponge. If you tell him one thing once, he grasps it. He’s very easy to train.”

Sessions will be entering the second and final year of his contract with a Charlotte team that has experienced an offseason of change. Longtime NBA assistant Steve Clifford was hired as the Bobcats’ sixth coach since the 2006-07 season and the squad selected Cody Zeller out of Indiana with the fourth pick in the NBA draft and signed Al Jefferson as a free agent.

Sessions is hopeful the Bobcats are in a position to move up the Eastern Conference with the additions. However, he also knows many other teams in the East have gotten better via the draft and offseason acquisitions.

“In the East those top five teams, those [playoff] spots are almost already locked up,” he said. “But you’ve got 6, 7 and 8 and I feel like it’s wide open. I’m not saying we’re going to make the playoffs, but it’s one of those things that when the season starts we’re definitely going to have our minds set on getting one of those spots.”

Jefferson – who averaged 17.8 points and 9.8 rebounds last year for Utah – will be a big key, said Sessions, who is plenty familiar with the 6-foot-10, 289-pound center from their days as teammates in Minnesota during the 2009-10 season.

“I knew they were interested in him after the season. They had told me they were going to go after him and wanted to know what I would think of him being on our team. I said go 100 percent,” Sessions said. “To be honest, he’s the most underrated back-to-the-basket guy in the NBA. I think he’s one of the best, if not the best. To have a guy like that is going to make my job and Kemba [Walker’s] job that much easier. He’s going to attract double teams and a lot of guys are going to get open shots.”

The Bobcats – owned by Michael Jordan – also bolstered their coaching staff by adding former NBA stars Patrick Ewing and Mark Price to Clifford’s staff.

“If you start from the top and go down, you’ve got guys that not only played the game, but were pretty much the best at their position,” Sessions said. “There’s a lot of history out there and like with the young kids, they soak it all up. You can ask questions, because you can never get enough knowledge from guys who played at the highest level in the NBA.”

As a veteran who earned his first playoff experience two seasons ago with the Los Angeles Lakers, Sessions said his advice for young teammates with postseason aspirations is simple.

“Just stress to them how each day is important. Work hard each day and try to become better, whether it’s watching film or going out there playing a game,” he said. “Just cherish the moment and I think we’ve really got a chance to get one of those spots. We’ve just got to take it day by day and work hard.”

With Walker coming off a promising second season, Sessions figures to be a backup, a role he’s filled most of his career. In recent years, he was in pursuit of a starting job, but now he is content filling whatever role works.

“It’s one of those things that in the NBA when you kind of get labeled and stuff, that’s kind of what you are. I’m seven years in and I’ve been a backup pretty much all those years unless somebody got hurt,” he said. “It’s a role that I’m fine with. I still played 27 minutes last year and averaged 14 points a game. So me starting is not a big deal.

“Backing up Kemba is fine with me and he’s a guy that’s going to be great and a guy that I hope I can be around and see how great he can become. There’s no macho man here trying to take his job or nothing like that. I feel like we work well together when we’re out there playing. If I have to back him up the next five years, that’s something I’ll be fine with.”

Sessions believes the fact Charlotte will change its mascot from the Bobcats to the vintage Hornets in 2014-15 will be a big boost.

“I think it will be great. You can tell from just people talking. I hear some of my family saying how they used to be Hornets fans and how they will be back,” he said. “It’s crazy how a name can do that to some people, but the Hornets do have great tradition. You know, in the ’90s with Alonzo [Mourning], Larry Johnson, those type of guys. I think overall in Charlotte it will bring more fans out. It’s a good move.”

However, it’s unclear if Sessions will ever wear a Hornets jersey with his contract ending after the coming season. His expiring deal could make him an attractable trade piece should Charlotte struggle early.

“It’s one of those things that it’s hard to tell. Knowing the history of the NBA, it’s one of those things that in the back of your mind you think that, you know, expiring contract, maybe there’s a possibility that I could be moved,” said Sessions, who wound up with the Lakers in a trade deadline deal during the 2011-12 season. “But I hope I stay in Charlotte, to be honest, and I hope long-term I’m in Charlotte.”

And he’s got plenty of reasons to want to stay.

“Now I can drive home and be home in two and a half, three hours from Charlotte. It’s one of those things that my turkey drive [during Thanksgiving], I was able to be here to pass out the turkeys. I left after practice one day,” Sessions said. “Doing little stuff, catching my nieces’ birthdays – stuff like that that I wouldn’t normally be able to do. For the holidays I can come home and be with the family. Depending on what our schedule is, it’s a lot easier getting back being in Charlotte.”

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Jeff Taylor spoke about what he's working on this offseason to become a more well-rounded player for the Bobcats.

Las Vegas Summer League means different things for each player. For some players, it's about furthering their dream to make their way onto an NBA team come fall. For others, like Bobcats second-year wing Jeff Taylor, it's about fine-tuning certain skills and building chemistry with fellow Summer League attendees.

After Taylor's 24 and 19-point performances on Friday and Sunday, respectively, it was clear that Taylor is a league above the rest in his skills.

Taylor knows what it's like to play in the NBA regular season and Summer League has helped his confidence and his game in general.

"You get one year under your belt and then you have a chance to go back and look at film and things you can improve on," Taylor said. "You have the whole summer to improve on your body and your game. It's a completely different world."

Again, one of the biggest reasons that Taylor is at Summer League is to polish his game. Taylor elaborated on certain aspects of the game he's focused on and gave insight as to how he's becoming a threat.

"Playing off ball screens and one-two dribble pull-ups have been a big focus this summer, especially since I'm able to shoot the three ball at a high percentage so people are going to want to run me off the line," Taylor said. "It's going to be good to have the one-two dribble pull-up."

Another thing that Taylor has been working on, according to Bobcats' assistant coach Bob Weiss, is doing more work on offense in the post.

"I feel pretty good about [isolation in the post]," Taylor said.

"It's not something that I've done in the past, but I've got some good mid-range touch, and being able to come out here and work on it is great, because that's what we're here for."

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NBA owners expected to give Bobcats OK to change name to Charlotte Hornets
Hornets’ return reaches final hurdle


LAS VEGAS The NBA’s rubber stamp will hit the Charlotte Bobcats’ request for a name change to the Hornets at a Board of Governor’s meeting Thursday at the Wynn resort in Las Vegas.

The Bobcats technically need approval from a majority of the league’s other 29 teams to take on the name of Charlotte’s original NBA team. But it’s clear there won’t be resistance, after the New Orleans franchise gave up that nickname to be called the Pelicans.

Incoming NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said twice during visits to Charlotte that he is for this name change if Bobcats owner Michael Jordan wants it. And outgoing Commissioner David Stern advocated a name change, according to a source familiar with Stern’s thinking.

The Bobcats will celebrate the anticipated name change at an uptown event coinciding with Alive after Five at the EpiCentre.

Ex-Hornets of Charlotte vintage Dell Curry, Muggsy Bogues, Rex Chapman, Kendall Gill and Kelly Tripucka have been invited to a rally, beginning about 6:30 p.m. at the EpiCentre. The Board of Governors meeting is scheduled to conclude sometime between 6:30 and 8 EDT.

The Bobcats did market research that showed strong support, both from season-ticket holders and the general public, to adopt the name of the Hornets franchise that played in Charlotte from 1988 through 2002.

The actual change in name, logo and uniforms won’t take effect until after the 2013-14 season because of all the changeover entails. For instance, adidas, the league’s uniform maker, needs time to design and fabricate new uniforms.

Beyond that, the Bobcats’ courts, both at the arena and the adjoining practice facility, will have to be resurfaced. Extensive signage inside and outside Time Warner Cable Arena will have to be replaced.

The Bobcats estimate the cost of all those changes will reach about $4 million.

[pikoooy]

MJ pangita na tawn ug players para at least maka playoffs pd imu team. hehe