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The Charlotte Bobcats haven’t really struck gold in the NBA lottery these past few years. It hasn’t worked out with any of their young guys just yet, but Michael Kidd-Gilchrist may have the most potential out of any of them.
Kidd-Gilchrist averaged 9.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists a game his rookie season last year. There was a lot of good and lot of bad throughout the year for the young small forward.
First of all, Kidd-Gilchrist already is a pretty good defensive wing. He is very athletic and is incredibly hard working. He uses this to his advantage by staying in front of his man on defense and is able to respond quickly enough to help his teammates when they get beat.
On offense it is a different story. Kidd-Gilchrist just has an awful shot. His field goal percentage was well over 45 percent last year, but his three point percentage was less than 23 percent. Though when he drove to the basket it usually had good results. He shot a very responsible 60.4 percent at the rim.
His offensive production isn’t entirely Kidd-Gilchrist’s fault, though. Its not like the Bobcats have a ton of play makers on the floor. For the most part Kidd-Gilchrist had to create his own shot last season, meaning he took a lot of bad shots.
This offseason coaches have been working with him to change the mechanics of his jump shot. This could go one of two ways: Either his jumper gets fixed and all goes well or it doesn’t work and he losses any confidence he had left.
There are some successful players like Tony Allen that are able to totally rely on their defensive ability alone. Kidd-Gilchrist could end up being one of these types of players, but he could be so much more.
This season the Bobcats are looking to be better then they have been in the last few years. They signed big man Al Jefferson to a lucrative deal and hope that will push them in the right direction.
Now along with Kemba Walker and Gerald Henderson, Kidd-Gilchrist will have to be the best defender on the team if Charlotte is to make any kind of jump this season. Plus they need him to be able to be a consistent threat on the perimeter for their offense to be productive.
It will be very interesting to see if he can turn his jump shooting around. If he does he really has the potential to be an All-Star someday because of his size, hard work, and defensive ability.
Kyle Lopez is a Golden State Warriors writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @_KL9_, or follow him on Google.
