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Observer NBA writer Rick Bonnell addresses five key questions as the Charlotte Bobcats enter training camp Tuesday at UNC Wilmington:
1. How much difference will Larry Brown make?
Of course he'll have an impact. A Hall-of-Fame coach replaces Sam Vincent, a guy who clearly wasn't ready for the job.
Brown will fine-tune technique – footwork, shooting, dribbling, defensive positioning – in practice. The players didn't improve much under Vincent, whose practices were short and sometimes infrequent (he said the injuries made it imperative he save the players' legs between games.)
I asked several NBA front-office types to quantify Brown's impact in Charlotte. The consensus: The Bobcats should win at least four more games this season than they would have in his absence, and perhaps as many as seven.
2. Who's the other big-man starter?
Emeka Okafor is now the team's biggest financial commitment, but they've never managed to find the right complement. By default, Sean May gets the first shot at training camp.
May has the skill set and the basketball IQ, but he's missed most of the past three seasons with a knee injury. He says he's healthy and has trimmed down his weight. Still, until the Bobcats add another big man as insurance, this is a dicey situation.
3. Was choosing D.J. Augustin over Brook Lopez the right call on draft night?
I felt better about that decision after watching Augustin play so well in summer league. Granted, the competition wasn't great, but this guy reached the rim constantly for layups and free throws. The way the NBA enforces its rules – anything resembling a hand-check is a foul – a point guard with the quickness and handle to penetrate has huge impact. And there's no doubt the Bobcats needed a backup/alternative to Raymond Felton.
Lopez is a big man who can score in the post, and those are hard to find. However, he's a mediocre athlete, so I don't know that he would have been a good complement to Okafor defensively, particularly in a division with unorthodox power forwards Antawn Jamison, Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Smith.
4. Will Adam Morrison ever justify being the third overall pick in 2006?
Restoring confidence is crucial for Morrison; he needs to be that creative/borderline-arrogant scorer he was at Gonzaga. He knows he was self-conscious as a rookie, listening too much to a home crowd urging him to shoot every time the ball hit his hand.
He has to convince himself his surgically-repaired left knee is back to normal. Be patient; he's been through a lot.
This is complicated by the crowd at small forward. With Gerald Wallace, Jared Dudley and Morrison (plus Jason Richardson when he switches over from shooting guard), small forward is the Bobcats' one position of over-abundance.
It wouldn't be surprising if one of those three ends up traded to address another need. But Morrison isn't much of a trade commodity until he shows he's healthy and productive.
5. What are their playoff chances in the Eastern Conference?
Recall that expression, “If you're not moving forward, you must be slipping behind.'' It could apply.
Swapping Brown for Vincent is an obvious upgrade and a healthy May and Morrison restores this team's depth, but they haven't done much else to improve the roster.
Consider the competition: Milwaukee trading for Richard Jefferson puts them in win-now mode and Miami and Chicago got the two impact players in the draft. Philadelphia made the boldest move of the offseason by signing free agent Elton Brand.
The only East playoff team that slipped this offseason was Atlanta, by losing Josh Childress to a Greek team. As currently configured, the Bobcats aren't the favorite to replace the Hawks as a playoff team.
