Chapter 2 A Difficult Start
In the 2004-2005 season, the Bobcats won the Magic and won the first victory in team history, because of lack of strength, lost seven games in a row, and is still essentially a fish belly team, but this team is not a bullied team, on November 21, 2004, the Bobcats challenged last year's champion Detroit Pistons, at that time the Pistons lineup was very strong, and the weak Bobcats were not at the same level at all, but the Bobcats were three military life, and the Pistons fought to the last moment, It wasn't until 16.5 seconds before the game that the Pistons relied on Prince's quasi-shut-out to get through the game, and you thought that was the end of it? NO! Two days later, the Bobcats returned to the home court against the visiting Pistons, to everyone's surprise, the weak Bobcats had been pressing the Pistons in normal games, beating the Pistons fat, and the game fought until the last 40 seconds, Okafor received a wonderful pass from Brevin Knight and scored two points to set the tone of the game, and then the Bobcats made eight free throws and scored seven to ensure the victory of the game, a victory that impressed the whole league with the NBA newcomer Charlotte Bobcats.
After 14 games, the Bobcats added reinforcements, and the Lakers exchanged Karim Rush, who had a tense relationship with Kobe, to the Bobcats, and exchanged two second-round picks, Rush was nicknamed "The Sharpshooter", and the killer was the accuracy of the three-point shot, that year the Lakers' "OK" combination was divided into O'Neal and Kobe because of the team's status problem, the team was divided into O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, Rush was in the middle, no one helped, but it was too much for the factional battle, and finally Rush reported the matter to reporters, The Lakers' locker room problems were made public, and the Lakers sent Rush to the Bobcats in a fit of rage, and Rush took the starting position after coming to the Bobcats, but unfortunately, on March 2, 2005, Karim Rush tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee against the New Orleans Hornets, and he averaged 8.4 points per game for the season.
The Bobcats' debut season record is 18-64, tied with the New Orleans Hornets for the second-to-last in the league, it is worth mentioning that the current Lakers head coach Byron Scott who coached the Hornets at that time, under the leadership of Stanley, the Hornets who could still win 41 games the year before last have only won 18 games this season, and the Bobcats Okafor played 73 games, averaging 15.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, shooting 44.7% from the field Dwight Howard, who averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds per game, was successfully crowned the rookie king, thinking that Okafor would build on this and tap greater potential, but he didn't expect that this was the peak of Okafor's career, and he will play more and more frustrations in the future, averaging 15.1 points per game is the highest score in the career season, and 10.9 rebounds is also the second highest in his career......
Newcomers are required to pay tuition, and this is the first year of the Bobcats, and it is already very good to play like this.
The 2005 NBA draft is called the year of point guards, Deron Williams, Chris Paul is the representative of the point guard of the year, but unfortunately, the Bobcats, who hold the top five picks, actually drew a fifth pick, which made the Bobcats miss out on the top two dominant point guards, and the Bobcats had to settle for the next best and selected Raymond Felton, a stout point guard from North Carolina.
Felton is 185 cm tall, but his weight has reached 93 kg, relying on his strong body Filton can squeeze away from the defender and run into the inside, but his short height makes him suffer very much on the defensive end, he does not have Paul's very talented organizational ability, the outside shooting rate is relatively low, he is not good at playing positional battles, and the fast advance in the fast break is Felton's strength.
Filton is not the only gain of the Bobcats in the 2005 draft, in the thirteenth pick in the first round, the Bobcats picked the same from North Carolina, the same fat Sean May, in the 2005 NCAA League, May led North Carolina to win the championship, and he also won the MOP, May is 206 cm tall, weighs 121 kg, serves as a power forward, and the style of play is close to the small shark O'Neal's style of play, crushing the opponent with his strong weight, this trick is unpleasant, It's a pity that Mei fell down due to injury in only 23 games, averaging 8.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
His career was over before it even began.
On the lineup, the Bobcats traded a second-round pick from the Lakers for defensive stalwart Jhomeine Jones, who played a huge role for the Bobcats, while the Bobcats signed a good outside bench, Matt Carroll, on a $1.1 million one-year contract, who scored 7.6 points in 16.3 minutes for Chang.
This season, the Bobcats have won 26 games, their performance has been steadily improving, and their record is no longer the second-to-last in the league, but the third-to-last, and the best player on the team is Gerald Wallace, who has played in 55 games this season, averaging 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.1 blocks per game, shooting 53.8% from the field, and is the only player in the league who averages 2 blocks and 2 steals per game, so he has become the representative of the league's all-round small forward. Felton averaged 11.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 39.1% from the field and 35.8% from three-point range.
In 2006, the Bobcats announced that NBA legend superstar, North Carolina native star Michael Jordan, became the team's second largest shareholder, and served as the Bobcats' basketball spokesman.
On June 28, 2006, the NBA Draft was held as scheduled, and the Bobcats, who held the No. 3 pick, selected Adam Morrison of Gonzag University.
First of all, in terms of appearance, Morrison is very star-like, the fluffy brown and yellow hair, the unchanged mustache, and the pair of super-long ancient stockings on his feet, all like star players in the 70s who came out of the NBA video, in terms of playing style, Morrison will be reminiscent of Larry Bird at first sight, although Morrison has average physical fitness, but he has kaleidoscopic offensive skills, in the NCAA, where there are many masters, he can average nearly 30 points per game, One-on-one no one can guard against Morrison, his shooting has almost no dead ends, and his mid- and long-range shooting is very certain, it seems that Morrison is a rising star, but everyone ignores one point, Morrison is a diabetic, and he has to inject insulin every game to be able to play physically, this shortcoming is not obvious in the NCAA, but in the more competitive NBA, Morrison's body and bones simply can't withstand such a toss, limited by mediocre physical fitness, In a game, if Morrison can't play well on the offensive end, then he is basically dragging the team back, and the more he plays, the less confident he becomes, and in the end, the talented Morrison in the NCAA is also unknown.
Morrison's first season with the Bobcats, played 78 games, started 23 of them, and averaged 11.8 points per game, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists, but the shooting rate was only 37.6%, as I have said before, if Morrison does not play well on the offensive end, then he is basically the first choice of the opposing team's offense on the court, although Morrison proved to be a complete parallel import, but his spirit is very commendable, Being able to endure the torture of diabetes and survive in the muscular NBA, even if it is only for a few short seasons, is worthy of the respect of all those who love basketball.
In the 2006 NBA Draft, the Bobcats also won the 50th pick of the overall thin center Ryan Hollins, Hollins is an all-round athlete, not only played basketball well, but also the ninth place in the NCAA high jump, but the excellent bounce did not allow Hollins to convert into an effective rebounding guarantee, and Hollins basically did not get much opportunity to perform in his rookie season. To add, where there is Hollins, there is never a lack of conflict, he always uses a variety of small actions to provoke opponents, thus successfully triggering conflicts, playing the role of a "-stirring stick", and if you are interested, you can Baidu the following content by yourself, every time Hollins fights and pushes with others, his face is never angry and the same expression as Perkins's dead relatives, but with a smile, that smile with Hollins's extremely thin, high-cheekbones face, which is creepy, according to incomplete statistics, Players who have clashed with Hollins include Goran Dragic, Michael Beasley, Charlie Villanueva, Vince Carter, Tim Duncan, Jeremy Lin, and before Steve Adams, the hat was on the head of Ryan Hollins.
In the third season of the Bobcats in the NBA, they won 33 games, which is a very good result for the Bobcats, who have not had any big names to join the team for only three years, Gerald Wallace continued to perform highly, averaging 18.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, shooting more than 50%, it was in this season that Wallace really transformed into Elvis, the leader of the Bobcats, Emeka Okafor, another core of the Bobcats, averaged 14.4 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, and her 53.2% shooting percentage is decent, but it has lost its potential. The Bobcats' biggest surprise this season was Matt Carroll, who started last season's bench this season, averaging 12.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, and Raymond Felton averaging 14.0 points and 7.0 assists per game while shooting a miserable 38.4 percent from the field.
At the end of the season, Big Bigstaff stepped down, and Sam Vincent, an assistant coach from the Mavericks, stepped in as the team's second head coach, and in the 2007 NBA Draft, the Bobcats made their biggest move in three years, sending Brandon Wright, the eighth selected physically gifted interior player, to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for a super-scorer, Jason Richardson.
Richardson's physical talent is also amazing, he won the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest in 2002 and 2003, see this, please don't think he is a dunk, Richardson has a career 37% three-point shooting rate, and in the Bobcats' first season three-point shooting rate exceeded 40%, Richardson spent five years in Golden State, where he grew into a super scorer who averaged almost 20+ per game, Bobcats traded Wright for Richardson, Obviously, I want to get a score this year. Richardson also lived up to expectations, averaging 21.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game in his first season with the Bobcats, shooting 44.1 percent from the field. He shot 40.6 percent from three-point range and averaged 3.0 of his 7.3 attempts per game.
Jarred Dudley, who was drafted by the Bobcats as the No. 22 pick in the first round of the draft, didn't shine in his rookie season, but as a substitute, although he couldn't do it offensively, he was quite conscientious on the defensive end. On the lineup, Gerard Wallace, who has become a first-line small forward, continued his brilliant performance, averaging 19.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game, shooting 44.9% from the field, which was enough to be selected as an All-Star, but because Wallace only played 62 games due to injury, he did not give up because he did not play enough games.
On December 14, 2007, the Bobcats sent the aging Blazek to the Pistons, in exchange, Nazr Mohammed, the time went back to May 11, 2013, the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs Bulls home against the Heat, I believe everyone has a deep impression of the conflict in that game, a Bulls player pressed James's dribble, James shook his hand and smashed him in the face, the player got up and directly pushed James to the ground, almost causing a big conflict, the Bulls player, It's Nazel Mohammed, who signed a five-year, $32 million contract with the Pistons last year and became Okafor's No. 1 backup after coming to the Bobcats, averaging 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.