When I arrived back home again in Indy this afternoon 3:00PM, I couldn't help wondering if Eddie Jones was in the vicinity since he was supposed to report to the Pacers by 5:00PM Sunday night.

According to  Bruno's latest Caught in the Web, the Pacers have yet to hear from Jones let alone see him in person. This isn't surprising since it makes no sense for the Pacers to actually use Jones nor does it appear that Jones has any interest in playing for the Pacers. Jim O'Brien did his best to play his part of the uninformed coach just taking care of the players management sends out on the practice court.

"He was in a situation that he wasn't in Dallas' camp," said O'Brien. "We would like him in our camp and we would like him on our team unless he decides he doesn't want to play. And then that's something that Larry (Bird) and his agent are going to have to talk about. We anticipate seeing where he is and getting him up here."

Does O'Brien believe Jones could help the Pacers?

"Until I'm told differently, that's my viewpoint," said the coach. "My anticipation is that we just made a trade and we got a player in the trade and we expect any player we trade for to report. If they don't, then there's an issue. But I'm expecting him to be here and to play. That's my expectation. We expect him in here unless he decides to not be in here an then that's out of my hands and it comes down to his agent and our management."

JOB really wanted to tell us about the contractual loopholes they were covering in order to free Jones and move on, but now is just not the time. Should be interesting too see how all of these formalities are worked out. They have to be, because any minute that Eddie Jones would play for the Pacers would be a minute less for Brandon Rush and simply just hold the Pacers back in their quest to move forward.

Couple of other links:

• Jeff Rabjohns reports on Eddie Jones and the possibility of Jones not reporting but instead retiring.
• Mike Wells chats up Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Travis Diener and finds no concerns with their injured status during camp so far. Considering the couple of times I saw Dun and Murph after games last year they both had their knees and ankles submerged in ice, there's no sense in putting on any additional miles during preseason. Dunleavy did practice on Sunday which is good news.
• Shawne Williams is officially ready for his fresh start in Dallas.