Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer is on the same page I am when thinking about what Larry Brown must have seen in Flip Murray, but I'll go even further than Bonnell. I think Brown is so rookie-phobic that he's willing to block Gerald Henderson and jettison Dontell Jefferson just to get a guy on the floor who's been in the league a while. I mean, Murray's no slouch. We know we're not getting an All Star, but we also know he's no scrub (and a scrub is a guy who can't get no love from me).
What I'm getting at is that It's a real possibility Gerald Henderson will only get 500 minutes this year.
Say the PG rotation is 55% Felton, 35% Augustin, 10% Murray.
The SG rotation could be 65% Bell, 10% Felton, 10% Murray, 10% Henderson, and 5% Radmanovic.
If Raja Bell goes down for an extended period of time, do you really think Brown's going to hand over starting minutes to Henderson if Murray and Felton are on hand? The frustrating part of it for me, personally, is that I think Brown is building a roster with potential to be one of the most exciting teams in the league, if not a playoff contender.
With the hand we've been dealt right now, the only thing missing from a clean-cut roster is a backup PF. However, if they go for another shakeup, trading Bell, for instance, there's an opportunity to be a specially exciting squad. I don't see a trade that makes sense for both teams, but let's say they trade Bell's expiring contract for someone with upside plus a guy with a poor, but workable, contract. Maybe Milwaukee and Scott Skiles don't want to wait on Joe Alexander anymore, and they'd be happy to give up Charlie Bell's contract in the process.
I'm not saying this is The Thing To Do, but that Raja Bell is the one major piece of the puzzle who is a traditional grind it out Brown type of player. If Brown and the Bobcats want to blow our minds, they could make that trade, or something like it, and roll out a three-point-bombing, alley-ooping, floor-running, lineup of Augustin/Felton, Murray, Wallace, Diaw, and Chandler, with Radmanovic, Alexander, Henderson, and Diop playing supporting roles, and cameos from Derrick Brown and Charlie Bell. Instead of playing one of the slowest paces in the league and scoring 71 points per game, that would be a pretty flashy roster with at least four guys who can jump out of the gym.
Sorry for the flight of fancy. I'm just not convinced that the marginal improvements the Bobcats keep making in the short term are worth the delay on finding out whether our young guys are any good or not.