The Charlotte Bobcats are, on occasion, a team that's going to struggle. But perhaps this year more than any other year in the franchise's history, they're also a team that's going to be competitive with most of the teams in the league. They proved this recently in a big victory over the Atlanta Hawks and in a close game on the road with the Chicago Bulls.
It might not have been that way, however, without the recent returns of guards Flip Murray and Raja Bell, both of whom missed the first week of the season with injuries. Clearly, this is a different team with those two guys in the fold.
"We're not as deep as a lot of teams, so we need everybody," said Charlotte head coach Larry Brown. "Tyson (Chandler) and Boris (Diaw) missed a lot of training camp, and now getting Raja and Flip back, hopefully we'll get better."
Chandler, the team's new starting center, already knows exactly how important both guys are. "It makes a huge difference because it spreads the floor," he explained. "Those are two of the best shooters on our team, so when they were missing it was tough. We couldn't make shots because we couldn't spread the floor. The paint was packed, and it was hard to penetrate… But with them on the floor we can spread the defense a little better."
Bell, in just his second game back, scored 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting. It was Murray's first game of the season, and he put up 15 points in under 18 minutes.
"We have a hard time scoring, but he can score," Brown said about Murray, a known scoring commodity off the bench. After all, that was his role with the Hawks last season, and it was the very reason Rod Higgins brought him to Charlotte this season.
Murray knows all of this, and he's just excited to have the opportunity to earn his due.
"I'm able to score the basketball, get into the paint, and score at the line," he said. "That's going to allow a lot of people to get open shots. Hopefully I can keep the pressure on the defense and I can keep getting to the hoop. If I can do that I think it's going to make us a better team."
Bell, the teams starting shooting guard, added, "We're both twos, so we've both got to spread the floor and knock down open shots. To have us both back in there is big for floor spacing and having a second ball-handler out there with Raymond sometimes."
But the team doesn't just look for offensive help from Bell, a proven defensive specialist, as Ray Felton explained.
"That helps us out, no question. Raja's a great defender, and that just makes our defense that much better."
Ask anybody in the locker room and the consensus is that this is a much better team with those two guys back in the fold. While Bell and Murray might not be among the league's biggest stars, they certainly both have huge roles for a Charlotte team looking to make the postseason for the first time in franchise history. To do that, they'll need everyone healthy, and for the first time all season it looks like they've finally got that under control.
