11/06/2009 - 16:15
TC, Cats Face Hawks
by Devon Jeffreys

If Tyson Chandler and the Charlotte Bobcats hope to compete for a playoff spot in the loaded Eastern Conference this season, they can make a statement tonight against their southeast division rivals, the Atlanta Hawks.

The Bobcats (2-2) trail the Hawks (4-1) by a game and a half for first place in the Southeast Division standings. Atlanta is tied with defending Eastern Conference Champion Orlando and the Miami Heat for first. Though it’s early, the Hawks are sure to be one of the teams Charlotte must compete with to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

The Bobcats dropped three of their four games against Atlanta last season and the Hawks represent one of the humps Charlotte needs to get over in order to contend. Tyson scored 11 points and grabbed 12 boards for the Hornets against Atlanta last season.

Tyson has been improving with each outing (Getty Images)

INFORMATION OVERLOAD
As he works himself back into the lineup from surgery this offseason, No. 6 has also had a lot to learn.

As the Charlotte Observer reports, there are very few similarities between the schemes run by Tyson’s former team, the Hornets and his current team, the Bobcats. That has put No. 6 way behind his teammates in implementation:

“Every day I get a little better at it,” Chandler said. “A lot of this has to do with getting in better shape… (Offense) is about getting to spots and sometimes I’ve been a little slow to get there.’‘

The Bobcats installed as many as 50 new plays that TC is unfamiliar with this offseason and as the rest of team learned and used them during camp, Tyson was but a helpless spectator on the sidelines, as he told the Observer:

“There were days in the preseason when coach was teaching five sets a day,” Chandler recalled. “I remember telling the trainers, ‘I’m gonna be way behind.’”

Even the pick-and-roll, the signature play of Ty and teammate Chris Paul in New Orleans, is run differently in Charlotte, as the Observer’s Rick Bonnell notes:

“For instance, Chandler was taught in New Orleans to set a pick, then roll away from the action, clearing the floor for point guard Chris Paul and forward David West.

He was an afterthought whose only function was to leap to the rim, either for a lob pass or an offensive rebound.

Here, as Chandler described it, he’s asked to roll to the basket, then dive back toward the ball if nothing is there. “That’s still not natural for me to chase the ball,” Chandler said.”

But both Tyson and his coach Larry Brown are confident that once this transition period is over, No. 6 will be a more well-rounded player and a potential scoring threat at any moment, as Bonnell surmises:

“Fortunately, Chandler is bright and articulate, the sort of communicator and learner who should find his way. This is as much about philosophy as strategy; Brown says his hope is for Chandler to expand his self-definition, to stop thinking of himself as just a goalie and a dunker.

“He wants me to stop being that robot, and start exploring more opportunities,” Chandler said. “Right now that’s a second thought instead of an instinct. And I’ve got to turn it into an instinct.”

To read more about Tyson’s transition, courtesy of the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell, click here.

IT’S GAME TIME
The Hawks and the Bobcats tip-off tonight from Time-Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte at 7 p.m. The game will not be televised locally.

RELATED STORIES
Chandler’s lost on Bobcats’ vast information highway (Charlotte Observer, November 6, 2009)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/story/1040327.html
Hawks vs. Bobcats Preview (CBS Sports, November 5, 2009)
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gamecenter/preview/NBA_20091106_ATL@CHA/haw...