Gerald Wallace had 24 points, 20 boards, 4 steals and a block on Monday Night against the defeated New Jersey Nets. It was a great game for Wallace. OK, these are not Jason Kidd’s Nets, I agree. Each game is an indicator of who the 2-2 Bobcats really are. With wins against the Knicks and the Nets and loses to the Celtics and Cavs. Our mission this season: Finding out who the Bobcats are.
To find out who they are collectively we are going to have to take a look at the parts. It starts with Team Captain Gerald Wallace. He is the only original Bobcat left on the team. The interesting thing is that after 5 seasons he is still the best player on the team in his 6th. Wait a minute; all of those draft picks and Wallace is still the best player on the team? After all of those trades Wallace is still the best player on the team? After MJ took over Basketball Operations Wallace is still the best player on the team? After Coach Bickerstaff? After Coach Vincent? The answer is yes.
Now that begs the question. Were the moves that bad or is Wallace that good? The 9 year veteran drafted in the expansion draft back in 2004 (seems so long ago) had his best season scoring in 2007-2008 with 19.4 ppg. His personal scoring best is 42 point against the Knicks back in January 2007. His career avg. is 12.3 ppg. Last season he averaged 13.0.
Defensively his career numbers are 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks per game. Last season was a huge improvement in the rebounding area with 12 rebounds per game, 1.7 blocks and 0.7 steals. That’s who he is on paper.
Some would argue that stats on paper don’t tell the whole story. You can’t put hustle on paper. Gerald Wallace sacrifices his body on way too many plays. I would agree with that. I was front and center when Wallace was knocked out cold with a concussion at the then called Time Warner Cable Arena (they paid for the name so that’s what I am going to call it). When motivated to win, Wallace is one of the hardest working players on the squad. I say one of because Felton works as hard or harder at this point. Undoubtedly his is one of the most talented players on the squad. I say one of because DJ Augustine is the most talented. Wallace without question is the most athletic player on the team, with all due respect to Tyson Chandler.
But can Gerald Wallace lead this team? Can he score 20 per night? Can he make key blocks, can he as Larry Brown says recently about the team, execute better, set better screens, make harder cuts, run better on the break? If Gerald is going to be the Captain then he needs to both lead by example consistently and needs to make his teammates understand that is all of their responsibilities to do those things necessary to win. We would love to to see him leading the team by player-coaching on the floor like Kobe does or LeBron does or Wade does, or Steve Nash does. We would love to see him giving high fives, pats on the back, showing some leadership through emotion.
Wallace has what it takes to be a leader; he just needs to own it. If he does, I can’t tell. Maybe he’s not an extrovert and is doing it in his own way. Maybe. He is the leader on a team that needs leadership. Bring it. Wallace is not an All-Star but he can be. He is not all-defensive first team, but he can be. He has been to the Playoffs with the Kings but needs to be the King that takes the Bobcats to the playoffs. He better lead this team, or somebody else will.
