Team Preview: Charlotte Bobcats

The Ghost of Seasons Past
Larry Brown and Don Nelson are old. Nelson played for the Chicago Zephyrs. He played with Bill Russell and Jerry West. Brown has been coaching since players had names like Sleepy Floyd and Foots Walker (1982 New Jersey Nets). He coached in the ABA. Both turned 70 earlier this year and each is now a septuagenarian member of our fine society. In his send-off to sexagerarianism, Don Nelson spent his 69th year living in style. He set his own hours, traveled around the country, had a bit of fun and steadfastly refused to relate to today’s youth. NBA devotees will also note that Don Nelson was the coach of the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors season served as a fascinating case study of how an NBA team would fare without any sort of direction from a head coach. They finished 26-56 and Nelson was fired in the offseason. On the other hand, Larry Brown spent his 69th year tirelessly coaching a mediocre NBA and led them to the playoffs. The Charlotte Bobcat roster had comparable talent to that of the hapless Warriors but finished 44-38. I don’t particularly like Larry Brown (see 2004 Pistons over Lakers) but the man can coach. According to Basketball Prospectus, Brown has the third best composite defensive rating of the thirty current NBA head coaches (behind Scott Skiles and Gregg Popovich). He has accomplished this despite frequently taking control of teams without quality talent (see Bobcats-Charlotte, Knicks-New York and Clippers-Los Angeles). Somehow, he coaxed career years out of Gerald Wallace and Nazr Mohammed while keeping Stephen Jackson (mostly) out of trouble and Boris Diaw (occasionally) out of the nearest Krispy Kreme. The Bobcats were the best defensive team in the league last year. Gerald Wallace is an excellent defender and umm…Raymond Felton won an NCAA championship and umm…Tyrus Thomas was picked 4th in the draft a couple years ago? The credit goes to Brown. In a surprising turn of events, he led Charlotte to their first playoff appearance in franchise history while the UNC basketball team struggled to an NIT berth. Don’t count on a continuation of this topsy-turvy version of North Carolina basketball. More Harrison Barnes, less Eduardo Najera.