NBA At 2: Credit Where It’s Due
When Larry Brown resigned as head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats last month he left the team in a state of disarray. Not that it was entirely his fault, of course. The roster moves made (or not made) over the summer didn’t exactly inspire confidence from either the fan base or NBA pundits across the country. Still, a new voice and a new direction can sometimes change the fortunes of a team, and in the case of the Bobcats new head coach Paul Silas has been a real godsend.
Silas seemed to come out of the blue when his name was announced as Brown’s replacement. Health issues had taken him out of the coaching ranks, many thought permanently. Yet here he came, and just in time to change the fortunes of the struggling Bobcats.
First and foremost, point guard DJ Augustin has benefited from the coaching change more than any other player on the team. Instead of hearing Brown’s voice limiting him and barking at him, he has been given basically complete freedom from Silas to go out and play freely, scoring at will and calling the shots he sees in the heat of the moment. As a result, Augustin is averaging 19.9 points and 7.1 assists per game in eight contests under Silas, with the team winning six of those games. The Bobcats had won just two of their previous eight games (against some of the same opponents, it’s worth noting), with Augustin averaging 10.8 points and 4.5 assists over that stretch. The point guard, it’s often said, is an extension of the coach on the floor, and Augustin is clearly a better extension of Silas than he ever was of Brown.
When Bobcats president Michael Jordan signed Kwame Brown this season many thought he was just making good for a player he drafted a little too high when he was running the show in Washington. Larry Brown didn’t seem too interested in playing him, and when he did play he didn’t play particularly well. The injury to Gana Diop, whom Silas used extensively right off the bat, meant an opening for Kwame, and he’s making the most of it. Silas has him starting, and over the six starts Brown is averaging 8.2 points and 6.8 rebounds. Not All-Star numbers, by any means, but those numbers are well above his career averages and he’s helping the Bobcats hold down the middle. It no doubt helps that he now has assistant coach Charles Oakley breathing down his back.
Larry Brown is also infamous for not playing rookies, and that was certainly the case with Duke alum Gerald Henderson. After seeing mostly garbage time minutes as a rookie last season, Henderson wasn’t seeing much more than that this season until Gerald Wallace went down with an ankle injury. Even then, it was spot duty, at best. Another significant change Silas implemented was to make Henderson a consistent part of the rotation, and over the eight-game stretch he’s averaging 7.3 points, including a 19-point, 9-rebound effort against the Wizards last weekend. The Bobcats are balling on a budget, and that means making the most of everyone on the roster. That’s just what Silas is doing with Henderson, who clearly has a lot to offer.
Last night Wallace returned from his ankle injury, finding his team on the rise with five wins in seven tries. With Wallace back in the mix the Bobcats rang up their most impressive win yet, handing the Chicago Bulls a 96-91 loss.
When Larry Brown stepped away from the Bobcats they seemed destined for the lottery. They had lost eight of their last ten games and seemed doomed to another year without a postseason run. Now, with Silas at the helm, the team is quickly turning things around. They’ve won six of their last eight games, and with Wallace back in the mix they have taken ownership of the East’s eighth seed and are just one game behind the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers. Things are looking up in Charlotte . . .and all because a blast-from-the-past coach stepped in with a belief in his players and a determination to win.
Richardson "Excited!"
When the Phoenix Suns traded Jason Richardson to the Orlando Magic a couple of weeks ago a rumor circulated that he was so upset he was considering retirement. The plethora of guards in the Magic backcourt discouraged him, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to report. As it turns out, that was completely false, and Richardson couldn’t wait to jump into a new uniform and take the court with Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, and the rest of the Magic squad. HOOPSWORLD sat down with Richardson to talk about his new opportunity, what he left behind in Phoenix, the remarkable change in Hedo Turkoglu, and more in this exclusive interview:
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{AUTHOR_BOX}The Wrong Apology
The Phoenix Suns’ 34-point blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night was a real eye-opener, for fans and management alike. It was the ninth-worst loss in franchise history for Phoenix, and dropped them below the Houston Rockets for the fifth-worst record in the Western Conference. There are definitely two forces at work, with one being majority owner Robert Sarver’s need to save money, and the other being President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby’s desire to make the team better. So far Sarver’s agenda is winning out, but that didn’t keep Babby from apologizing to fans after his team’s latest setback.
"If you’re a fan that’s a season-ticket holder or someone who comes and invests in our franchise or if you’re vested emotionally, you have to be feeling what I’m feeling when I watched that game," Babby said to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. "You have to be feeling what I’m feeling when I watched that game. You’re disappointed that we’re not competing. It would be wrong of me to sugarcoat that so I felt owed it to people to be candid. It’s not acceptable to us any more than it is to any of you.
"I don’t think we’re playing up to the level of our talent," Babby continued, saying the difference in team chemistry is "stark because you’re comparing to what was last year, which was magical."
Most around the league feel that the next piece to fall with be Steve Nash, who is by far the most expensive player remaining on the team after their recent trade with the Orlando Magic. That deal was made to save money, as Vince Carter’s non-guaranteed deal will likely chop over $17.5 million off of Sarver’s payroll this summer. They also moved Hedo Turkoglu, who makes over $30 million over the next three seasons. The writing certainly seems to be on the wall for Nash, who is guaranteed nearly $12 million next season. Still, Babby denies having interest in trading his team captain.
"We’re partners trying to figure out how to make this better," Babby said. "He’s the solution, not the problem."
It was certainly gracious of Babby to offer his fans an apology, but he’s not the one tearing apart last season’s Western Conference Finalists as quickly as they can be torn apart. The one really responsible is Sarver, and an apology from him wouldn’t begin to heal the wounds he’s inflicted on his team or its fan base.
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