The Re-Education of the Charlotte Bobcats

Somehow, the Charlotte Bobcats have turned it around in the early weeks of the NBA season, but can they keep it up?

By Kyle Basedow

“Hey Kyle, what did you say about the Charlotte Bobcats being a bad basketball team? Wasn’t it something along the lines of ‘They suck and they will continue to suck?’”

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of me eating my own words.”

All right, so I was wrong. It looks like the Bobcats won’t be the worst team in the NBA for the second straight year and instead that title looks like it will go to the Washington Wizards, who have yet to win a game so far this season.

AP Photo/ Jim Mone

The Bobcats (7-6) are in the middle of the pack in a bad Southeast division but nevertheless are in a position to make a wild card run at the eighth playoff spot in the NBA Eastern Conference.

Maybe it’s too soon to make these judgment calls, though. I mean, they got spanked by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday 114-69, a 45-point blowout that is rarely seen in the NBA.

On top of that, they have lost three out of 5 road games and have an out-of-conference record of 2-5. They have also beaten the Wizards twice, padding their record.

On the other end, however, they have a home record of 5-3, have won two overtime games already (one of them being double overtime), and have a 5-1 record in conference.

A key part in the success that the Bobcats are having has to do with second-year guard Kemba Walker finally deciding to put on his big boy shoes and dazzle NBA teams with his quickness and versatility.

Want proof? Well in the Bobcats’ seven wins, Walker has scored an average of 20.7 points. In their losses? Walker only averages a pedestrian 11.8 points. In winning efforts, Walker also averages five more shots per game and shoots three more free throws than in the Bobcats’ six losses.

Is Kemba Walker the only reason the Bobcats have kept their head over .500? No, but he certainly helps. The surprisingly good play from Ramon Sessions, Byron Mullens, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has all culminated under the leadership of Walker.

So, are the Bobcats a good team? No, they aren’t. Are they a bad team? No, they aren’t. Do I know what they are? No, I don’t, but the next six games, in which they play the Atlanta Hawks, the New York Knicks, and the San Antonio Spurs, will show us whether or not we need to pay closer attention to Kemba Walker and his band of Merry Men.