Brown’s Failed Experiment With Bell

Aug 17, 2009

HoopsAddict.com
By Ryan McNeill

Raja Bell can lay claim to being one of the few players to prove Larry Brown wrong during his illustrious coaching career.

When Bell left college for the NBA, he was pegged as a shooting guard, however during his rookie season Bell had a tough time hitting his shots. He only suited up for five games during the regular season and when he did get a chance to play he failed to leave a lasting impression while shooting an abysmal 28.6% from the field and failed to attempt a single free throw.

This rough start to his career was far from the ideal way for a shooting guard to earn minutes in an already crowded backcourt behind Allen Iverson, Aaron McKie, Kevin Ollie and Eric Snow.

Throw into the mix that Brown is known for having an aversion to playing younger players and it’s easy to see why Bell failed to secure a lot of minutes during his rookie season.

Even though Bell showed improvements across the board during his second season in the NBA - he suited up in 74 games while shooting 42.9% from the floor and 75% from the charity stripe - his head coach, Brown, still didn’t have faith in his ability to provide the team with a scoring spark off of the bench.

“I had Raja (Bell) initially and I wouldn’t let him shoot the ball because I was trying to make him a point guard,” Brown admitted to the media prior to a game in Toronto last March. “Every time he shot I would yell at him. Now he can shoot the ball but I’m trying to get him to reinvent his game a little bit.”

It’s rare that a young player gets to prove his coach wrong but once Bell left Philadelphia he earned a reputation as one of the top three-point shooters in the NBA. In his second season in Utah he connected on 40.3% of his three-point field goal attempts and he made at least 40% of his three-point attempts in each of his four seasons in Phoenix.

Brown’s vision of making Bell into a point guard fell by the wayside which has worked out better for the gritty shooting guard.

“The more places I went and the longer I stayed in the NBA people afforded me more opportunities to explore my game,” Bell told Hoops Addict. “In college I was a scorer so it just so happened when I arrived in Philly I didn’t need to be and I got labeled as a guy who didn’t shoot. But once I got to other teams who let me shoot people got the chance to see that I could. I’m excited to be back with him and that he lets me shoot the ball even when I’m going 0-for-12.”

Even though it took parting ways with Brown to reach his potential, now that the two are reunited in Charlotte, if you ask Bell he couldn’t have asked for a better script to his NBA career. Even though he endured a lot of adversity early in his career, there’s not doubt that Bell holds Brown among his favorite coaches he’s played for and values all he has learned from the legendary coach.

And, if you ask Brown, I’m sure he’ll tell you this is one of the few times he’s been happy to be wrong about a player.