Pacers Make A Move, Sign Dahntay Jones

I like the price, but I hate the fact that we now will have three Duke players if McRoberts is signed.

June 26, 2003: Drafted 20th overall by Boston Celtics in 2003 NBA Draft.

June 26, 2003: Traded by Boston along with draft rights of 16th pick Troy Bell to the Memphis Grizzlies for draft rights of 13th pick Marcus Banks and 27th pick Kendrick Perkins.

September 26, 2007: Signed as a free agent by Boston.

October 25, 2007: Waived by Boston.

December 10, 2007: Signed as a free agent by Sacramento Kings.

February 16, 2008: Waived by Sacramento.

March 21, 2008: Signed as a free agent by D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

July 30, 2008: Signed as a free agent by Denver Nuggets.

• his resume doesn’t look too good. however i haven’t watched enough denver basketball to say whether he’s gonna be a future boon or bain. pacers need a lot of help on the defense aspect of their game. i hope dahntay will be able to help and blend in asap with the other pacers.

I think we all need to temper our expectations for this upcoming season anyway, just like we did for last year. Remember, the Pacers were just a couple games out of the playoffs with an atrocious road record (I think they won 11 games away from Conseco) and some pretty devastating injuries.

Jones may be the biggest move they make this off-season (apart from maybe Jack) and at $2.5 mil per year, that’s not a scary-huge commitment. Personally, I’d still like to see what the market value is for Murphy, Foster and Ford, seemingly Indiana’s three biggest non-Granger trade pieces, but that’s either here nor there. In a perfect world they’d have money to re-invigorate the franchise right now with a huge free agent signing, but that’s not the safe direction that Bird has chosen to take.

If the Pacers only re-sign McRoberts, Jack and one other middling free agent (maybe Rodney Carney?) they’d still field a team that was just as competitive and fun to watch as the one they fielded last year. Add a few more road wins and a few less injuries, a little more defense (enter Jones, hopefully) and you’ve got a 40-42 win team that’s a contender for the 6, 7 or 8 seed. What more can you ask for after three years out of the playoffs?

Also, people need to quit pressing the panic button because other Eastern Conference teams “seem” to have gotten better. This happens every year, and every year, inevitably a free agent/trade or two backfires and the Pacers have a chance, however small, to make some noise. It’s not like they’ve been historically bad for most of the past decade or more like the Hawks, Clippers or Warriors. The Pacers haven’t had a win percentage under .427 since 88-89. They won’t contend for a title any time soon, but they’ll be respectable in the short-term, and I think very good in the long-term if Hibbert, Rush and Hansbrough develop before Granger expires.

I’ll admit hearing bad news about the franchise losing money is disturbing, but I think they’re doing everything in their power to make safe decisions; the gamble is they want to rely on the players they’ve drafted, and I feel like it’s a sound gamble.

We now have 2 Jersey guys on the team (McRoberts and Jones) and 3 Duke guys on the team (McBob, Dun-knee-vy, and Jones). I hate Duke but I love Jersey more than I hate Duke, so I will allow the signing. On a serious note though, I like the signing. From what I have seen from him, he may be a little dirty but we need that. He is very intense, comes from all winning programs, and I just think he’ll bring that toughness defensively that Quisy didn’t bring. He is just another one of thoes role guys that Bird seems to be filling the roster with.

This is all reminding me of Rounders when Mike picks up worm from jail, and worm wants to go play cards.
 “I mean, you got your table all set up, your fork, your knife, your A1 sauce…”
“All you need is the steak”

We definitely have the table set up, it is just “the steak” in the NBA is 2 or 3 really really good players, and we have 1. Right now we have a table with a good hamburger on it.

Good info I would have never guessed he’d been cut that many times from watching him last year.

When I saw him play last year he had the most energy of anyone on the court, he could jump through the roof and also stay with anyone he was asked to defend (excpet Kobe in the playoffs)

Overall I think this is a great move by the White Chocolate (L. Bird)

there are plenty of gifted players in the nba, but attitude is another thing. hmm maybe he’s already worked on it, if he really did have a prob with his ’tude. the fact that larry bird & co. really wooed him to sign makes me think he might fit.

getting back to the caliber team we have been before, but i am still not sold on this team, and its more clear everyday that we have the players to be a playoff team but we need a better coach….i don’t know how you guys feel, i just don’t think O’brien can fire these guys up. If any proof is neccessary look at the number of games we lost last year by 5 or fewer. i feel the next step we make has to be getting an elite presence into our locker room to fire these guys up…

but on the signing of jones….don’t know anything about him other then what i saw during the playoffs, and that is way to little to make a judgement about the kid…best of luck hopefully bird is right about him!

His time spent in the NBDL may prove worthwhile seeing that last year he came around and was an NBA starter last year, after being sent to the minors the year before ….

Marquis was not going to take this contract, what we lose in slashing we gain in defense with Jones. I am really loving this deal the more I look at it.

Obie is the defines the term: LAME DUCK

Obviously when you ask anyone what our biggest weakness is, it’s defense. But more specifically, remember how many times last year a random guy would get his season high in points against us? Remember how many times guards would just drive into the lane at will all night? That’s why this signing is big. Who cares if he can’t score? We were top 5 in the league in scoring. We need someone who can lock down perimeter players and now we have it. He fills a very significant role on the team that was lacking as much as anything else last year. I’m really pretty excited to have a guy who can stop people from driving all game.

"we’ve got to score, and hit shots, and we’ve got to run back and play defense!"

wahahaha he really talks like this?

we need either of these gentlement to be the next coach of the indiana pacers! Nothing makes a team better then having 20,000 fans screaming their heads off at every home game, and we would get that back as well as educated hard working no nonsense coaches who could relate to the players enviroment and have been in enough big games that they could help the younger guys grow….

I would love to see a pacer from that generation come and take over the reigns. Not sure if they would be great, but I can still remember the feelings I got when Bird came to coach us. JOB isn’t horrible by any means, but he is a retread and I doubt he gets a job after we let him go.

On Jones, all I really know about him were the allegations of being a dirty play in the playoffs and I gotta say… hell yeah!!! I love the idea of having this guy on the team. His defense will make up for anything Daniels had to offer if he leaves. I’m so excited to see this guy play for us next year!!!

from the SB Nation blog “Pickaxe and Roll”, the Denver Nuggets blog.
http://www.pickaxeandroll.com/2009/7/9/943369/cash-rules-everything-around-me

“I think ideally he would have loved to have stayed in Denver and continued building on what the team did last year,” Jones agent, Mark Bartelstein, said. “But, for financial (reasons), it just didn’t make sense. And it’s a little bittersweet. He would have loved to have stayed with the Nuggets. The fans were great to him, he really enjoyed playing for George Karl and with his teammates. But, it’s also a business. The Pacers present a great opportunity for him, a big role on their team. After weighing everything he thought it was the right decision to make.”

It gives Obie something to work with defensively, so he’s not complaining about personnel.

I also like the deal. Four years isn’t too bad, especially for $11 million. That’s excellent really. He’s eating up a very very small portion of our cap the next four years and when you consider what’s eating up our cap right now…doesn’t 2.75 mil for anyone who can do what Jones can do sound good?

As for Jones’s resume…there are some players that don’t mirror their resume. Anthony Parker is one, and Dahntay Jones could be doing that as well. The only way this is a bad move is if he completely bombs in Indiana, completely bombs.

As for Quisy, he possesses quite a bit more to his game, but didn’t give us a whole lot in his tenure here. Why do we want to keep bringing back someone who we know can be really good, but will never reach that level consistently?

Wasn’t last year considered his career year? He was great the first half, then got injured for a large portion of the second half, and when he wasn’t injured, he was invisible out there. He fell off the face of the earth from the day Mike came back, and aside from a good week or two at the end of February/beginning of March, he spent the second half of the year in a suit or throwing up three pointers.

I’d much rather take a flier on Jones, who is what he is, gives us something we need, and can’t realistically have less of an impact than Quisy did as a Pacer if he can be available to play. And considering he has missed one game due to injury the past two years…yeah, I like this move.