just what, exactly, is going on with the bobcats?

there is a certain segment of the NBA landscape that is very challenging for me to wrap my mind around. i would include in this list:

1. bobcats
2. hawks
3. warriors
4. lakers
5. knicks

these are all teams with no shortage in the talent dept. all of them have probably better than NBA-average talent, especially the knicks, who are creatures of nothing but talent. all of those teams have a habit of smacking down (or at least contending with) the top squads in the NBA, but severe trouble hanging with teams on their level/inferior.

i guess it's a young team's disease: to play to the level of talent that you are facing. partly it may have to do with discipline. none of those teams have coaches with reps as stern-faced giants who give little quarter to screwing around. isiah thomas replaced a notorious disciplinarian with himself, and his hands-off style has led to somewhat more success. phil jackson is the greatest coach ever, bar none, and the fact that the lakes are on or near a 50-win pace is astonishing to say the least, but he doesn't drill spacing, etc. into the heads of his charges. don nelson is a terrific offensive mind obsessed with a helter-skelter running attack and often lackluster defense. bernie bickerstaff and mike woodson are by most accounts non-descript, with maybe a slight bent towards running.

their lack of discipline means that they lose focus against weaker teams, focusing instead on the girls lining the court or whatever else holds their fancy. but discipline doesn't come and go ephemerally, it's either there or it isn't. that's what makes their success against elite teams so baffling.

the answer lies in NBA 2k7, or madden, or halo, or whatever. when you play video games with your friends, blowing them out of the water is highly unsportsmanlike. if you consistently blow your friends out, they will no longer want to play with you. but, if you keep games close and let 'em win a few, it keeps the games competitive and fun.

that is what affects those teams today. they're all something of video game creations; the knicks and lakers most especially. all of those teams are fun to play with in video games, and all of them have the level-of-competition mentality required to be any fun at all to play with. it's no coincidence that as the squads tend towards the older, they start maturing more and blowing the weaker teams out of the water.

consider the 40-year-old man. his friendgroup is set, unlikely to be undone by such trivial passtimes as ps3 or xbox360. he has little concern for complete destruction in a virtual world. contrasted with the teen, already probably socially self-concious. the last thing he needs is to lose a homey over a blowout in madden. there you go.