Bobcats SG Raja Bell has decided to opt against surgery on a torn ligament in his left wrist for the time being, hoping that he can recover naturally enough to play this season. If he underwent the surgery, he could be out for upwards of four months.
“I’m going to [sit out] for another week to see if it continues to progress as it has, then I’ll probably wind up playing,” Bell said. “If it doesn’t, then we’ll go back to the drawing board.”
He was initially injured in an exhibition game on Oct. 18, when his wrist was bent back awkwardly when he went after a loose ball. He sat out the last two preseason games, opting to visit a Chicago hand specialist instead – the specialist said he could play if he could deal with the pain.
“I’m pretty encouraged,” Bell said. “It’s feeling a lot better than it did. I still have some hurdles to clear with it, but I feel good.”
While Bell has been the team’s best defensive stopper since the Bobcats acquired him from Phoenix in December, he appears skeptical that he’d be as effective currently with the wrist injury.
“Defensively, it’s tough. It’s hard to kind of put your hand on people, it jams it,” Bell said. “Taking a charge would probably be a scary thought for me right now. And it gets so heavily taped that passing and dribbling, anything to my left, is a problem. That really hinders your game. … I have to be able to play with a little less tape to be effective.”
Bell could also explore arthroscopic surgery on the wrist if it doesn’t improve in a week, as the arthroscopic surgery could only take four to six weeks to recover from (compared to the three to four months it’d take if he had the ligament surgically repaired).
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 7:53 pm by bryan
Bobcats starting shooting guard Raja Bell’s season may be over before it started.
Bell has a partially torn ligament in his left wrist and plans to decide whether to have surgery soon.
“The way I understand it, surgery would be 6-8 [weeks] in a cast with pins and then 6-8 [weeks] worth of rehab,” Bell said.
Bell’s injury would rob the Bobcats of one of their vocal leaders and their best defensive player.
“It’s pretty disappointing to me,” Bell said. “I was looking forward to coming in and having a good season and being as healthy as I could be to start the season. In that regard, it’s a big setback for me personally.”
Bobcats forward Gerald Henderson suffered the same injury during his college days at Duke; he admitted that the injury caused a great deal of pain and that the length of the NBA season could factor into Bell’s decision.
It’ll be something he’ll have to decide on,” Henderson said.
“I think we’re not as discouraged as this thing might sound,” Bobcats coach Larry Brown said. “We’ll see what happens in the next few days and then we’ll be able to make a better decision on what the prognosis is and what the treatment will be.”
PG D.J. Augustin started in Bell’s place along PG Raymond Felton and scored 15 points in the Bobcats’ 94-87 loss to Milwaukee on Tuesday.
Friday, October 23, 2009 at 12:06 am by bryan
Larry Brown, head coach of the Bobcats, is now $60,000 poorer after being ejected from the Bobcats game on Monday in an uproarious manner.
The NBA fined Brown $60,000 for his behavior - $25,000 for publicly criticizing the referees, and $35,000 for verbally abusing game officials and for his refusal to leave the court in a timely and orderly fashion after being ejected. The NBA fined the Bobcats an additional $60,000.
Replacement referee Kevin Scott slapped two technicals on Brown in the third quarter, automatically ejecting him from the game. Brown took his time to leave the court, to say the least, causing Scott to call for security to escort Brown off the court. Eventually, Brown walked off on his own accord.
The NBA has locked out the regular referees in a labor dispute, one which appears to threaten to spill over into the start of the season.
The Bobcats also learned that guard Ronald “Flip” Murray will be out the rest of the preseason because of a left shin injury. Team doctor Glenn Perry found early signs of a stress reaction in Murray’s shin, leaving the team to provide no timetable for his return.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 9:31 pm by bryan
Second-year head coach Larry Brown got his first win with the Charlotte Bobcats in the preseason on Thursday, as his Bobcats beat the New Orleans Hornets, 108-101.
The Bobcats, who sported an embarrassing 0-9 preseason record in Brown’s first season as head coach, got the win thanks to heroics from backup PG D.J. Augustin from Texas. Augustin scored 22 points in the game, going 16 of 18 from the free throw line, to ruin Chris Paul’s homecoming to North Carolina.
“I was just being aggressive, driving,” Augustin said. “Coach told us to drive and not settle for jump shots, and that’s what I tried to do.”
Despite blowing a 21-point lead in the game, the Bobcats used a late 10-3 rally to spark their first preseason win in two years.
SG/SF Gerald Wallace was the only Bobcats starter to score in double figures, chipping in 14 points. Stephen Graham added 15 for Charlotte.
Without Boris Diaw and C Tyson Chandler, both out due to injuries, Brown continued to tinker with front court lineups.
“It’s not an experiment. We’re just finding out who can play,” Brown said. “That’s what training camps are for, to give guys that deserve to play the opportunity, and then work on the things you think are important to help your team win.”
Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 1:08 am by bryan
On Tuesday, the Charlotte Bobcats exercised the third-year option on point guard D.J. Augustin’s contract for the 2010-2011 season.
“It’s a no-brainer,” head coach Larry Brown said of the move. “He had a great year. He’s a great kid and he’s only going to get better.”
The former Texas star, who left for the NBA after his sophomore season, averaged 11.8 points and 3.5 assists this past season. He should see even more minutes this year, and should signal the end of the Raymond Felton era in Charlotte after this year.
In a short history marked with poor personnel decision after personnel decision (the aforementioned Felton, and Emeka Okafor over Dwight Howard, anyone?), selecting and developing Augustin will go down as one of the few that went right for the Bobcats. Expect a breakout year for the ultra-quick guard.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 8:54 pm by Raj Sethi
