1. Ben Gordon Trade
The bad news is that Gordon hasn't been an above average NBA player since '07-'08. He's averaged less than a 15 PER ever since then, and his lack of effort last year with Coach Dunlap shows he isn't one of the character veterans teams try to fill rosters with. When Gordon's career winds down in the next 2-4 years, he's going to fall off a cliff productivity-wise. This won't be a gentle decline.
At this point, the Bobcats' best option is to unload the overpriced contract as quickly as possible for a future pick.
2. Jefferson's Shadow
The Bobcats' big new signing is confusing, to say the least. This team has been tanking and trying to improve through the draft for the past several seasons. It's been a painful process that has cost more than one coach their job. Then, the year before the light at the end of the tunnel comes out through the draft (see: Andrew Wiggins), the team overpays for Jefferson.
This isn't all bad. At the end of the day, Charlotte is not a free agent destination. It's a small media market, and doesn't have the night life of cities like Atlanta. The team will have to overpay, and Jefferson at least has one of the best low-post games in the NBA. He's been posting around a 20-22 PER for the past six seasons and seems like he'll keep that up for the length of the contract.
So, the problem here isn't Jefferson. It's that Jefferson is going to hurt the players around him. Jefferson's best skill, his low-post scoring, requires other players to space out of the low block and tailor their play to him. MKG's inability to post anything close to a respectable shooting percentage from anything outside of a layup or a dunk is going to be on full display in 2013. Also, Cody Zeller is going to have to figure out some way to develop while having to play alongside a big who can't play defense and needs the ball in his hands on offense. This is a problem.
3. Can Kemba keep it up?
One of the biggest bright spots of last season was Kemba's improved play. He became a true slashing threat and improved his shooting from the elbows significantly. His PER jumped from 14.98 in year one, the definition of league average, to a promising 18.86. If Kemba can get up to a 20+ PER in year three, he will start to turn some heads as one of the better PGs in the league.
The good news here is that Gordon is definitely, per the Charlotte Observer, going to be ready to play the season opener. The even better news is that Gordon has one year left on his contract and is due $13.2 million. This makes for one heck of an expiring contract and there are some major free agents coming up next year (see: Bron Bron and Melo) that teams might need to shuffle around cap space to swing at.
The bad news is that Gordon hasn't been an above average NBA player since '07-'08. He's averaged less than a 15 PER ever since then, and his lack of effort last year with Coach Dunlap shows he isn't one of the character veterans teams try to fill rosters with. When Gordon's career winds down in the next 2-4 years, he's going to fall off a cliff productivity-wise. This won't be a gentle decline.
At this point, the Bobcats' best option is to unload the overpriced contract as quickly as possible for a future pick.
2. Jefferson's Shadow
The Bobcats' big new signing is confusing, to say the least. This team has been tanking and trying to improve through the draft for the past several seasons. It's been a painful process that has cost more than one coach their job. Then, the year before the light at the end of the tunnel comes out through the draft (see: Andrew Wiggins), the team overpays for Jefferson.
This isn't all bad. At the end of the day, Charlotte is not a free agent destination. It's a small media market, and doesn't have the night life of cities like Atlanta. The team will have to overpay, and Jefferson at least has one of the best low-post games in the NBA. He's been posting around a 20-22 PER for the past six seasons and seems like he'll keep that up for the length of the contract.
So, the problem here isn't Jefferson. It's that Jefferson is going to hurt the players around him. Jefferson's best skill, his low-post scoring, requires other players to space out of the low block and tailor their play to him. MKG's inability to post anything close to a respectable shooting percentage from anything outside of a layup or a dunk is going to be on full display in 2013. Also, Cody Zeller is going to have to figure out some way to develop while having to play alongside a big who can't play defense and needs the ball in his hands on offense. This is a problem.
3. Can Kemba keep it up?
One of the biggest bright spots of last season was Kemba's improved play. He became a true slashing threat and improved his shooting from the elbows significantly. His PER jumped from 14.98 in year one, the definition of league average, to a promising 18.86. If Kemba can get up to a 20+ PER in year three, he will start to turn some heads as one of the better PGs in the league.
The room for improvement comes mostly from his shooting percentages. Kemba improved his true shooting percentages from 46.4% in year one to 51.7% in year two. The growth is promising, but could certainly keep improving with Mark Price's coaching and has to keep improving to make up for MKG's feeble percentages. If Kemba can keep improving his shooting, the team will space more effectively and create lanes for MKG to slash through along with room for Jefferson to maneuver around on the block.
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