Yes, the Charlotte Bobcats did just finish the worst season in the history of the NBA.

Yes, the Charlotte Bobcats haven’t been very good (except for one year) since the team’s inception.

Yes, the Charlotte Bobcats will have a relatively inexperienced team and a roster filled out with many of the same players that made last year’s debacle possible

But, that doesn’t mean Charlotte can’t have high expectations for Mike Dunlap in his first year at the helm of the Bobcats.

Keep in mind that “high expectations” for the Bobcats don’t necessarily meet the standard for “high expectations” most every other team in the league.

The first thing Bobcats fans should expect from Mike Dunlap is for him to change the culture that pervaded Time Warner Cable Arena a year ago.

Lethargy, lack of hustle and boredom were the themes of the day almost every time the team took to the court last season.

This year, the themes will be hard work, determination, and excitement.

Which brings us to the next thing Bobcats fans should expect; Fun basketball.

Dunlap will install a fast paced offense tailored to Kemba Walker’s game, and the team will run that offense, and run next year. A lot. Expect more highlights in transition, more diving around and more points to be scored for the home team this season.

Finally, Bobcats fans can expect Dunlap to make Bismack Biyombo, Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Jeffrey Taylor better. He’s renowned in the basketball world for his ability to develop young players, and I expect those four guys to have good years. Gilchrist and Walker could have special rookie and sophomore seasons.

The season is months away, but there is already a different feeling in the collective thread that binds Bobcats fans together.

Which brings me to a completely unrelated thing to expect at TWC Arena next season… Energy in the stands.

March 23, 2012; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Charlotte Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker (1) during the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

The other day, RobertoGato took a look at the on little thing Bismack Biyombo could do to up his game and help the Charlotte Bobcats. Today, we’re looking at Kemba Walker.

Walker is the presumed starter next season, even though the ‘Cats brought in Ramon Sessions this off season.

The former college national champion had a good rookie year in 2011, but if he could just work on one thing this off season, his offensive production would see a solid increase.

That thing is the mid-range jump shot. According to basketball-reference.com, Walker took 87 shots between 10 and 15 feet from the basket last year and made just 33 of them. That’s 66 points on 87 shots… Not good. If he shot 50 percent on those mid-range jumpers last year, he would’ve scored exactly one point per shot

He also made just 22 of his 70 shots from three to nine feet away from the basket. If he would’ve shot 50 percent from that distance, he would scored 26 more points.

Those extra points might not seem like too much, but he would’ve scored almost a point more per game last season had those shots fallen at a higher clip. If he shot 60 percent from those two areas and all of his other shots (16 feet to three point line and layups) stayed the same, he would’ve scored well over a point more per game.

The most important aspect of this stat and the need for him to shoot more efficiently from those spots is the fact that he will see more playing time next season.

If he takes more shots and hits more of them, he could see his points per game total jump three or four points.

If he hits those added shots at around the same rate he did next season, that total will barely rise.

For the Bobcats to get better, their young guys have to increase their production. The easiest way for Kemba Walker to do that is by hitting more of his two-point shots, especially on mid-range jumpers.

Apr 23, 2012; Washington, DC, USA; Charlotte Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker (1) dribbles the ball against the Washington Wizards during the second half at the Verizon Center. The Wizards defeated the Bobcats 101 - 73. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE

It seems like a no-brainer headline. Kemba Walker must develop for the Bobcats to be successful in the future.

Sometimes a simple truth is the most profound.

I’ll dig into some stats later, but speaking strictly from a visual standpoint, it’s clear that today’s NBA is a guard’s league.

Last year, the Bobcats didn’t have a single guard, at point or the two-spot, that would start on another team. With all due respect to D.J. Augustin (who I thought would finish top ten amongst point guards in many statistics before the season started last year), he, Kemba and Gerald Henderson (who’s no slouch) would have probably been backups on every team in the league last year except for Charlotte.  

Last year, every team in the Eastern Conference playoffs had one guard with at the very least a 15.1 PER (player efficiency rating). If it weren’t for the Magic, who made the playoffs basically on the shoulders of Dwight Howard, that “lowest” PER number would’ve been 16.6. Six of those teams had at least two guards with PERs above 14.

Just for a reference point, a 14 PER is below average. And there were teams that didn’t make the playoffs that had two guards with PERs on par with the numbers above.

BUT, Kemba Walker, with a 15 PER had the highest number on the entire Bobcats team. D.J. Augustin and Gerald Henderson were right around 14. Without the special circumstances surrounding the Pacers (very good scorer in Granger and All Star Center in Hibbert) and the Magic (All World center, Dwight Howard) there was no way the Bobcats were going to compete with many teams last year.

Walker is entering his sophomore season and Henderson is still very young. With a supporting cast that looks like it’s getting better, the two should continue to grow.

But, if the Bobcats want to be relevant within the next five years, one of them is going to have to up their PER to at least 17.5, a number which at least one guard on six of the eight E.C. playoff teams reached last season.

Apr 26, 2012; Charlotte, NC, USA Charlotte Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson (15) drives to the basket during the second half against the New York Knicks at Time Warner Cable Arena. The New York Knicks defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 104-84. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE

There is no simple answer to the question posed in the headline of this article. The Charlotte Bobcats were awful last year, and there’s no way they won’t be better next year.

They added established veteran players to a young roster this off season, with Ramon Sessions, and Ben Gordon likely coming off the bench for good stretches of the game, and Brendan Haywood basically the undisputed starting center.

The Bobcats also added two great rookies via the draft. The youngest player drafted, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, was brought in to change the culture inside Time Warner Cable Arena, and Jeffrey Taylor was added to be a serviceable backup at the shooting guard and small forward positions, as well as a knock down shooter and lock down defender.

Statistically, those five players should put the Bobcats well ahead of their pathetic win percentage of a year ago.

Basketball-Reference.com has a stat which tries to estimate the number of wins contributed by a player throughout the season. It’s called win-share.

Using that stat, it’s impossible to argue that Charlotte didn’t upgrade at every single position (except power forward) this off season.

Brendan Haywood blows all of Charlotte’s bigs out of the water on win-share. His 2.7 win-share is 1.1 points higher than the Bobcats starting center most of last season, Bismack Biyombo.

Ramon Sessions had a much higher win-share than D.J. Augustin and Kemba Wakler put together. The comparison is 1.9 to 0.8.  

Ben Gordon and Gerald Henderson were pretty close in that category, with Gordon tallying a 1.7 and Hendo a 1.0.

Kidd-Gilchrist had a 6.3 win-share in his only year at Kentucky, and Taylor a 5.2 in his last year at Vanderbilt.

As rookies, their combined production at the small forward spot should easily surpass Corey Maggette’s 0.7 from last season.

Those rookies really hold the answer to that question: How much better can the Charlotte Bobcats be next year?

If the two could even combine to put together a win-share equal to MKG’s from college, the Bobcats might be far better than people think they can be next season. Not playoff better, but not 20 loss bad either.

July 17, 2012; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Memphis Grizzlies player Josh Selby (2) guards Washington Wizards player Chris Singleton (31) during the second half of the game at Cox Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

They kept chugging along in the summer league without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but when Jeffrey Taylor was held out of last nights game with a groin issue and Mike Dunlap turned the reigns over to the younger Silas, things fell apart. The Charlotte Bobcats lost their last summer league game 97-79.

No one looked very good. Kemba Walker led all Bobcats with 16 points… on 17 shots. Byron Mullens eight points on nine shots with just one rebound.

Bismack Biyombo didn’t look too bad. In fact, he didn’t really look bad at all. He scored 10 points on six shots, had three blocks and grabbed four rebounds.

Josh Selby was the story of the night after he made short work of the Bobcats trapping defense.

Selby scored 32 points on 14 shots and went 7-of-11 from behind the three point line.

Overall the summer league was a success for Charlotte. The Bobcats figured showed a little bit of the kind of team they’ll be next season, and we got to see how their rookies will try to play as well.

More than any team in the league, perhaps, the Bobcats need this full off season the most. Biyombo and Kidd-Gilchrist, two of the NBA’s youngest players are sure to benefit from an extended training camp, and Mike Dunlap needs as much time with his new team as possible.