This is why Larry Brown gets paid a lot of money
Honesty time: I absolutely thought “Larry Brown to the Bobcats” would end in disaster. And not just “Terry Porter to the Suns”-level disaster, but something even more epic and salacious. And while there’s still time for things to go wrong — and LB’s recent track record clearly allows room for skepticism — at least this season has turned out better than a lot of people expected.
Last night’s loss to the Spurs snapped Charlotte’s six-game winning streak, which wasn’t against the toughest competition (SAC, GS, LAC, CHI, ATL, NYK) and was overshadowed by Utah’s coinciding 12-game streak, but nonetheless put the ‘Cats in position to challenge for a playoff spot. Going into tonight’s schedule, the Bobcats are one game behind the Bulls for the eighth seed in the East.
(Charlotte’s schedule is pretty favorable down the stretch, too. Road games at Minnesota, Toronto, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Oklahoma City, Chicago, New Jersey and Orlando; home games against the Rockets, Raptors, Kings, Pacers, Knicks, Lakers, Heat and Sixers. What’s not working in their favor is a season-ending four-game road trip to OKC, Chicago, Jersey and Atlanta that could be a factor if the eight-seed is decided on one of the season’s final days.)
It seems that for the majority of the Bobcats’ existence, no one’s really argued that they don’t have talent. Franchise cornerstones Emeka Okafor and Gerald Wallace (and to a lesser extent, Ray Felton) each have star potential. And this year, midseason trade pickups Boris Diaw and Raja Bell (and to a lesser extent, DeSagana Diop) have provided not only on-court ability, but playoff-tested experience.
Charlotte’s progress is even more impressive when you consider that within this same season, it seemed ’08-09 would be just another letdown. Back in January, I did a Q&A with Wallace where he hinted that whatever chemistry the ‘Cats did have was upset by the Diaw/Bell trade, and that some players still didn’t understand their roles in Brown’s system. In November, Sports Illustrated ran a feature on the Bobcats headlined “Charlotte’s Web,” highlighting everything from Michael Jordan‘s hands-off managerial style, to the city’s lukewarm reception to the team, to owner Robert Johnson‘s apparent lack of enthusiasm for his own project. Brown was even quoted in the article saying, “We have serious deficiencies on this team.”
But that SI story also talked about the good things Brown could do with these Bobcats, the reasons he liked this job: Teaching. Molding. Coaching.
Granted, Brown doesn’t deserve all of the credit for the turnaround — and it’s not like this squad is even on the right side of .500 — but his role shouldn’t be downplayed, either. Like him or not, he’s on the verge of doing what he was hired to do: make the Bobcats better tomorrow than they were yesterday.
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:05 am
fallinup says:
Oh how one ill fated job in New York can make people overlook what you’ve done in a Hall of Fame career.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:21 am
KnicksFan84 says:
Yeah he’s doing a good job out there. The best thing they did was balance the roster and hold players accountable for not producing or being in shape. (Adam Morrison, Sean May, J-Rich etc).
This is what happens when coach and management are on the same page.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Patrick Cassidy says:
Maybe this is exactly what Brown needed. His last three stops were high-profile jobs with high expectations in Philly, Detroit and New York and he didn’t do well at all. He’s always yammering on about wanting to just go coach a high school team somewhere – the Bobcats are pretty much as close as you can get. Small market, no media, no expectations, etc.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Kobeef says:
The trades were the key and I think Larry was the lead on the trades.
Turning J-Rich into Raja and Diaw was brilliant. Diaw has been one of the most important players on the team since the trade (who knew?)
Acquiring Diop and Vlad Rad hasn’t really paid off yet but they guys they dumped (Morrison and..who did they trade for Diop?) weren’t doing anything.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Max says:
@fallinup: Brown is a HOF coach, but it wasn’t just New York — he really tarnished his image (or rather reinforced it) with the disastrous Olympic team in 2004.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Patrick says:
@Pat Cassidy
He did win the Chip with Detroit.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:58 am
haslem says:
i used to hate LB, starting with the olympics and ending with the knicks he just came off like a pompous ass. But I hope he changes my impression.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:02 am
djKianoosh says:
Diaw is the kind of player Brown loves. long and athletic and can play multiple positions. hopefully they don’t irritate each other down the line.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:15 am
matthew says:
Even with that streak, the Bobcats are EIGHT GAMES under .500. The fact they’re challenging for a playoff spot says more about how cruddy the East is than how good Charlotte is.
The East may very well have two sub-.500 teams in the playoffs this year.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:52 am
srb says:
emeka rocks
i hope they can finally make the playoffs.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:58 am
the truth says:
@Patrick
The only reason (well two) why Detroit won the chip in 04 was a) Malone was injured b)Lakers were on self-destruct mode.
I don’t think they would have won had they faced the Spurs that year.
But reaching the Finals was a feat in itself.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Jim says:
I think it’s tough to say he didn’t do well in Philly and Detroit considering he won a chip with Detroit and took a one-man team to the Finals in Philly.
Campaigning to get out of Detroit was bad, and the Olympics a disgrace, but otherwise he was gold until NY, I thought.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
doc says:
He gonna do this.He’s a hell of a coach.He just gotta get players that can withstand its bullshit.
March 11th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Jo Jo says:
@ the truth
Well you can say that every Champion of the last decade only won because of some injury, fluke play, suspension, etc. The Lakers wouldn’t have beat the T-wolves if not for Sam’s injury in the WCF in 2004. They wouldn’t have even been there if not for a miraculous shot by D-Fish that beat the Spurs in game 5. LB is a great coach. I would take him before anyone currently coaching besides Phil & Pop.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
dagwaller says:
Pat, when he coached the Sixers, he did a good job, there, too. I can only think of one team that he didn’t do well with, and that was the Knicks.
March 12th, 2009 at 12:21 am
added says:
apart from NY, he’s never failed to improve a team in his entire career…not sure why you thought it would be THAT big of a disaster?
March 12th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
ekstor says:
I’m a Lakers fan through and through… but I’ll be the first to state that Malone’s injury did NOT cost the Lakers the ring. The Pistons were clearly the superior team and while Malone was very good against Duncan earlier in the playoffs… Sheed would have been a difficult matchup for him even if he were healthy as he preferred to defend physical post players as opposed to someone like Sheed who could drop from outside and was long enough to shoot over Karl when he was posting.