The Charlotte Bobcats' recent moves have made some players skittish about their roles as new acquisitions Boris Diaw and Raja Bell will be in the starting lineup for their debuts on Saturday when they host the Detroit Pistons.
The Bobcats (7-16) hired former Pistons coach Larry Brown during the offseason to help turn around a franchise that has failed to win more than 33 games in a season since its inception in 2004-05.So far in 2008-09, Charlotte has the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference, and appears headed for another long season.
But Charlotte also made some big changes this week, trading leading scorer Jason Richardson to Phoenix for Diaw and Bell as part of a five-player deal. Both will be in the starting lineup, with Diaw taking over for the struggling Sean May and Bell filling Richardson's spot.
"You're not going to make up 20 points a game," Brown said of Richardson. "But now Raymond (Felton) and D.J. (Augustin) will play a little bit more together, and Raja will be in the rotation with them. Boris, in this environment, he'll score more. And hopefully if we're better defensively it'll create scoring opportunities for us."
Bell and Diaw met their new teammates for the first time at shootaround on Saturday. For Bell, it's a second chance to play with the coach who took a chance on him as an undrafted free agent while Brown was leading the Philadelphia 76ers.
"Obviously being familiar with LB was real important," Bell said on Saturday. "He's a great coach and someone who teaches as well, if not better, than anyone in the league. It was an exciting opportunity for me."
On Friday, Charlotte also signed veteran forward Juwan Howard. The 35-year-old played three games with Denver before being waived in November. He's averaged 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 1,004 career games.
Brown also believes the team may not yet be finished with roster moves as former first-round pick Adam Morrison, Matt Carroll and Gerald Wallace appear to be most likely to be dealt.
Wallace, now the team's leading scorer with 15.3 points per game, returned to the Bobcats on Friday after missing three games following his grandmother's death.
Diaw averaged 8.3 points with the Suns while Bell scored 9.6 points per game. Both had seen their roles in Phoenix change when the Suns hired Terry Porter to replace Mike D'Antoni as coach, but Brown believes the new acquisitions will help the Bobcats.
"We had so many holes to fill," Brown said. "We haven't completely done that, but we have addressed some issues. I think it's more of a pro team."
The transactions left the Bobcats short-handed on Thursday when they lost their season-high fifth straight, 95-90 to Dallas. Emeka Okafor had a season-high 27 points and 17 rebounds.
The Bobcats have lost five straight to Detroit (12-9), which snapped a three-game skid on Friday, beating Indiana 114-110.
Richard Hamilton scored 28 points and Allen Iverson had 17 and 12 assists. The Pistons had been held below 95 points in their previous three games.
"In all my years around this league, I've always seen that when you are struggling, there's never a great game that breaks you out of it," first-year Pistons coach Michael Curry said. "It's always a grind-it-out game like this one, and then you can breathe a sigh of relief."
Hamilton was 11-of-20 from the field, two nights after scoring a season-high 29 in a win over Washington.
Detroit is 11-4 all-time against the Bobcats. It beat them 101-83 on Nov. 3 in Charlotte.
