HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

In today’s edition of the NBA PM: Who will replace Larry Brown as head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats?…Brandon Roy talks more about his lay-off being extended…Upcoming milestones…Melo to miss game…NBA Chats.

Yannis Koutroupis is travelling and will be back tomorrow.

Who Replaces Larry Brown? In case you missed it, Charlotte Bobcats head coach Larry Brown is no longer the Cats’ top man after stepping down today. Here is the press release issued by the team and owner Michael Jordan’s comments.

"I met with Coach Brown two weeks ago about the team’s performance and what we could do to improve it. We met again this morning after practice. The team has clearly not lived up to either of our expectations and we both agreed that a change was necessary," Jordan said.

Doesn’t really sound like a stepping down, does it? Or, maybe it was, because the alternative was a firing. Coming on the heels of Jordan’s yelling at halftime in the locker room a couple weeks back, it probably shouldn’t be too much of a surprise this has all come to a head.

Brown wasn’t the only one let go – it was the entire coaching staff. The Bobcats have indicated a new staff will be in place for the next game, which isn’t until Monday, December 27th, giving them plenty of time to get things in place. Of course, the expectation will probably be this new coach should do better than a 9-19 rate the rest of the way, but as Bill Ingram noted in the link above there are plenty of reasons that’s not unrealistic.

Update: The Bobcats just named Paul Silas their interim head coach. You have to stay on your toes around here. The section of speculation has been removed and replaced with this press release from the Charlotte Bobcats:

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS NAME PAUL SILAS INTERIM HEAD COACH

December 22, 2010 – Charlotte Bobcats Chairman and CEO Michael Jordan today named Paul Silas interim head coach of the team, effective immediately.

In 10 seasons as an NBA head coach, Silas has a career record of 355-400 with the Clippers (1980-83), Hornets (1999-2003) and Cavaliers (2003-05) He has also spent 11 seasons as an assistant coach for the Hornets, Knicks, Nets and Suns.

During his four-plus seasons as head coach of the Hornets, Silas compiled a 208-155 (.573) record and led the team to the playoffs in each of his four full seasons.  He remains the team’s all-time leader in coaching wins and ranks second in winning percentage.  Silas was named interim head coach of the Hornets on March 7, 1999, and led the team to a 22-13 record over the final 35 games of the 1998-99 season after replacing Dave Cowens.

A 16-year NBA veteran, Silas averaged 9.4 points and 9.9 rebounds in 1,254 career games for the Hawks, Suns, Celtics, Nuggets and SuperSonics.  He was a two-time All-Star (1972 and 1975) and won three NBA Championships (1974 and 1976 with Boston and 1979 with Seattle). Silas currently ranks 19th on the NBA’s career lists for rebounds (12,357) and games played (1,254).

Some Thoughts From Roy: Yesterday in the NBA At 2 we discussed the new reality of the Portland Trail Blazers. Today guard Brandon Roy, he of the knees without meniscus, talked a little bit with the media following Portland’s announcement his three-game lay-off would be extended.

"I’m trying to make sure I get as much rest as possible, making sure I feel good for the rest of the year," Roy told Matt Calkins of The Columbian. "I’m trying to get back to where I’m confident for the rest of the year and not just a few games."

{AUTHOR_BOX}Roy will be re-evaluated after Portland’s upcoming three-game road trip, which ends December 28th in Denver. Roy – and Coach Nate McMillan – emphasized this is not (yet) a season-ending decision, but stems from the fact Roy not only had pain playing ball but also simply walking off the court. It seems that slowly Roy is coming to terms with the fact the pain is not going to just go away. What exactly that means he isn’t sharing completely. 

"I think it’s sinking in, "Roy said." I wouldn’t say I’ve accepted it totally yet. I wouldn’t say it’s totally sunk in, but it’s something I think about from time to time."

It really does seem like all parties are holding out hope this is something time will fix, that just a little more time off will give Roy the break he needs and allow him to return to his All-Star form. For now, perhaps optimism is a good course of action, because the alternative – that this is simply how it’s going to be – isn’t something they are willing to accept or deal with yet.

Milestones: With Dirk Nowitzki passing Larry Bird on the all-time scoring list last night congratulations are definitely in order. Any time a player moves into 30th place on an all-time list it’s commendable. So what other milestones are coming up?

Kobe Bryant: Bryant is 411 points from passing Hakeem Olajuwon for 10th on the all-time (ABA/NBA)scoring list. At his current rate of 25.7 points a game that will be about 16 more games – January 29th in Denver. He is also 102 assists from 5,000 for his career. (Note: As Jose pointed out, on the NBA only list this would move Kobe to 8th all-time.)

Vince Carter: 169 points from 20,000. If Carter maintains the 15.1 points per game he averaged with the Orlando Magic, this would happen in 12 games – Monday, January 17th in New York.

Jason Terry: 312 points from 15,000. At his current average of 15.9 points a game that’s about 20 games out, which would be Wednesday, February 2nd – also in New York.

Ray Allen: 62 three-pointers made from breaking Reggie Miller’s all-time record of 2,560. This season he is making 2.1 a game, so that puts the target for him breaking the record about 30 games out: Thursday, February 24th, in Denver. Nuggets’ fans could see quite the history this year.

Shawn Marion: 45 steals from 1,500 for his career (currently 39th all-time). Marion is averaging 0.8 a game this season, lowest since his rookie year, and at that pace would take 57 games. If he ups the pace a tad he may make it this year, otherwise it looks like game three next season.

Melo Note: Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony will miss the San Antonio game due to a death in the family. Here is Denver’s press release:

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony has been excused from Wednesday night’s game in San Antonio due to a death in his family.

"Our entire organization supports Carmelo during this difficult time for him and his family," Nuggets executive vice president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said. "It is heartbreaking news, particularly during the holiday season."

Anthony would like to thank Nuggets fans for their thoughts and prayers and asks that they and the media respect his privacy during this time.

NBA Chats: Tommy Beer, who covers the New York Knicks and is our Fantasy Editor as well as well-versed on the league as a whole, chats tonight at 8pm Eastern Time. Stephen Brotherston, based in Toronto, will chat tomorrow at noon Eastern Time, followed up by Joel Brigham, based in Chicago, at 3pm Eastern. Check out all the upcoming chats here, as well as all the chat wraps here.