Who Is Your Starting Shooting Guard For Pacers?

by Tom Lewis on Aug 22, 2009 10:35 AM EDT in Indiana Pacers News

I have a few questions for Pacer fans regarding the starting lineup and in particular, just who you think should run alongside T.J. Ford and Danny Granger as the starting shooting guard. I love all of the diverse opinions IC readers offer so I laid out the options after the jump. Let me know your thoughts and contingency plans for doling out playing time on the wing.

At first blush, Brandon Rush appears to be the obvious answer. He played well in that role at the end of last season and if he's the shooting guard of the future, then the future is now. If he can't show growth in that role this year and continue the development then we need to know. As an older second-year player he needs to start and show he can step up his game consistently. What do you expect from Rush this year? Are you fine dealing with growing pains this year with an eye toward the future or are you only focused on results this year?

Then there's the case for starting Dahntay Jones. Mike Wells makes a strong case which for Jones starting to set the tone defensively and be able to get into the Dwyane Wades and Kobe Bryants of the world while protecting Brandon Rush from early foul trouble. Also, Rush off the bench could help the second unit's offensive output. Would you like to see Jones play the same role he did in Denver, by starting and then giving way to a more offensive-minded player off the bench? If Jones doesn't start and Mike Dunleavy returns, will there be many minutes for Jones off the bench? Should the Pacers include 10 players in their rotation?

Finally, the wild card in this discussion is Mike Dunleavy. Personally, I love the versatility Dunleavy could bring off the bench and made the case for him to come off the bench last year before the extent of his injury was known. Also, regardless of when Dun returns, it will take him some time before he'll be ready to play at full throttle for 30-plus minutes. When he is ready, though, should he start? Would you worry about Dun and Granger struggling defensively? Would Dun be better suited in a utility role off the bench including backing up Granger? Who would be a better fit with Dun on the second unit - Rush or Dahntay?

Jim O'Brien has some options at the position and much to his delight the quest for minutes should provide a competitive environment in preseason practices which will make everybody on the team better.

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Comments

We're still here Cornrows =P

In my opinion the pacers have to go this route:
If Ford starts, Jones must start.
If Watson starts, Rush should start.
Dunleavy shouldn’t start.
We could even rotate starting PG/SG rotations between those 2 options depending on the team we are playing. If the team has a star PG, start Watson to set that defensive tone u were talking about. In most cases if there is a star PG you wont have a superstar SG so Rush could score early.
If the team has a superstar SG, USUALLY they won’t have a superstar PG, so we could start TJ to get the offense going and Jones to keep the superstars at bay at least.

I think Dunleavy would serve a much better purpose off the bench for a few reasons:
1. It would protect him from injury a little bit more, and every little bit helps with him.
2. He could bring quite a bit of scoring off the bench, somewhat like Daniels did last year.
3. He would fit at the 3 with whatever PG/SG rotation we have in.

I just think with the PG/SG rotation, we have to stick with the 1offense, 1defense set up.
Although, Rush should end up being a defensive stopper in his career as well, he’s got the skill set to do it, just needs to grow into it. Maybe the addition of Jones can rub off on him and he can get a few pointers for the future.
I also this DG will step up the defensive side of the ball this year. He’s going to OWN his own defensive inconsistencies, to put it mildly, with the new mindset of the team being more defensively oriented. DG is the leader of this team, he knows that, and he will work hard to improve this year.

~SHaFF!~
The Little Sports Blog That Could:
http://www.thelittlesportsblog.blogspot.com/

by SHaFF87 on Aug 22, 2009 1:02 PM EDT reply actions

still reading IC

we’re still here reading, just not much to talk about right now, I figure that’s why everyone’s so quiet these days?

~SHaFF!~
The Little Sports Blog That Could:
http://www.thelittlesportsblog.blogspot.com/

by SHaFF87 on Aug 22, 2009 1:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Heh

Believe me, I’m concerned about the Colts’ Left Tackle position as well.

Indy Cornrows

by Tom Lewis on Aug 22, 2009 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Yea..

waitin for summer to end…nothing doing.

by captain flitzy on Aug 25, 2009 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Good points

I’ll be stunned and amazed if Ford doesn’t start. I still would like Rush to start, but my head keeps leaning toward Jones in that scenario.

Indy Cornrows

by Tom Lewis on Aug 22, 2009 1:12 PM EDT up reply actions

don't get me wrong

I’d like Rush to start too… I just think if they are so set on starting Ford, that Jones needs to start. I’d rather see them start Watson, and bring Ford and Jones in off the bench to lock down the backup 2’s that can score (ie Vujacic, JR Smith), as well as Ford would give most any team’s backup PG FITS!

~SHaFF!~
The Little Sports Blog That Could:
http://www.thelittlesportsblog.blogspot.com/

by SHaFF87 on Aug 22, 2009 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions

see.... another thing

Think about these back court rotations:
Starters:
Watson/Rush/Granger

Off the bench then we can bring in a lineup consisting of:
Ford/Jones/Dunleavy

that’s a lot better than most teams second line.

Followed with
Murphy/Hibbert starting
and
Hansbrough or McRoberts/Solomon Jones or Foster coming in off the bench.

I still think we are lacking Athleticism in the front court. I’m hoping McRoberts and Hansbrough can suprise me this year.

~SHaFF!~
The Little Sports Blog That Could:
http://www.thelittlesportsblog.blogspot.com/

by SHaFF87 on Aug 22, 2009 11:08 PM EDT up reply actions

and ANOTHER thing...

that’s the thing about the Pacers…. we can’t get any big name guys to come to Indiana without drafting them. BUT we can sign a LOT of above average guys, and get lucky in the draft sometimes. That’s what the Pacers are about, if we can’t get the big names, get a lot of pseudo big names so that you are deeper than most other teams. Which is another reason the Pacers were almost always in the game when it came down to the last 5 minutes of a game last year, we are just that deep.

~SHaFF!~
The Little Sports Blog That Could:
http://www.thelittlesportsblog.blogspot.com/

by SHaFF87 on Aug 22, 2009 11:11 PM EDT up reply actions

This is what I would like to see for the starting lineup and the bench:

lineup:
pg: T.j. Ford – backup: earl watson
sg: Dahntey Jones – backups: mike dunleavy/brandon rush
sf: Danny granger – backups: mike dunleavy/brandon rush
pf: Troy Murphy – backups: tyler hansbrough/josh mcroberts
C: Roy hibbert – backups: jeff foster/josh mcroberts

The reason why I would put dahntey jones as the starter is because we need some fire power off our bench this year with the losses of marquis daniels (13 points a game), and jarret jack(9 points a game) because we still need to score a lot but if we can have a defensive minded presence at the beginning of the game it can set some of the defensive tone we need to have going into next year. Starting dahntey is the best thing to do in my opinion. Defense is more important than anything right now as we proved last year we could score but our defense was awful, so why not bring defense out at the very start of the game? Sounds like a good idea to me

by pacers4life on Aug 22, 2009 2:58 PM EDT reply actions

See, this is the same thought process I go through which ends with my brain agreeing with you. Yet, I still want Rush to start.

Indy Cornrows

by Tom Lewis on Aug 22, 2009 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree in principle

I’m pretty concerned about our second unit’s offensive abilities, which is why I think we have to have to have to have Mike back 100%. But I simply think we can expect more out of Brandon as a starter than we can off the bench, which is kind of the biggest problem with it. In a sense, Brandon is holding the SG spot hostage because of how he performed last year.

But I think it’s important to kind of discuss the loss of Marquis Daniels’s offensive abilities. Essentially in discussing Daniels, we can’t look at losing all 13 points. Most of his season was spent as a starter. He played 43 of 54 games as a starter. In his 11 games off the bench, he averaged only 6.8 points per game. Those points aren’t going to be hard to overcome. Mike can easily get that and D.Jones averaged 5.4 in limited time.

However, when looking at starting D.Jones, we’re limiting our offense out of the gate. I believe in Brandon’s defensive abilities, and I trust Danny will be quite improved this year (though it’s not like he was that bad last year anyway). We’ve got Murphy and Ford who are a concern, yes, but I don’t even know what to expect from Hungry Hungry Hibbert defensively. If he turns to be halfway decent that’s about half of the starting unit that can play defense. That’s already an improvement over last year. Also in doing that, we aren’t sacrificing our offense for the sake of defense. Defense is a great thing to have, but at the end of the day, it’s about whose offense scored more points.

This team got off to fast starts last year, which I think we can also get as well. Our problem was in keeping the leads once the game changed. If we can keep the fast starts, and adjust to the game changing with our defensive players to at least maintain what we had done with the first unit (with Brandon), we’re going to be in good shape when we get back to Danny and Brandon.

by Nathan S. on Aug 22, 2009 9:10 PM EDT up reply actions

I worry about Rush’s confidence. He has been set up all summer to start… if he were to be benched I think he would lose all confidence.

IDK… if Jones start I hope he would still get bench minutes… not starter minutes.

I think dunleavy should come off the bench 100%

by dbcb on Aug 22, 2009 7:03 PM EDT reply actions

If Rush is our SG of the future,

then he has to start now. It makes absolutely no sense for him to come off the bench.

by pacers33 on Aug 22, 2009 7:20 PM EDT reply actions

As I said before, start Rush

It only makes sense. It’s a smart and conventional move based on Rush’s performance in that role last year. It’s a good long term move, it’s a good tandem move, it’s just a move I love all around. Sure D.Jones can set the tone defensively, but I’d say Rush is already one of our better defenders, wouldn’t everyone agree?

I would prefer to use our second unit’s defensive versatility on a night by night basis. I think a player like D.Jones can benefit us in scenarios that aren’t going to be present often enough to think of him as a real starter, even in the Denver sense. I’d want to go forward with Rush as one of the five “real” starters.

Idealistically, I hope to see all three players in question get a few starts at SG to see some different things. But as for player roles, Brandon Rush is our starter. Dahntay Jones is a player off the bench who should get the occasional start. And I want Mike Dunleavy to be our backup SF. I want his time playing SG to be limited to the necessity of offense alongside Danny, but other than that, I don’t like the idea at all of giving Mike minutes at the 2 spot simply instead of Brandon or D.Jones.

Now the Colts’ LT battle is a little tougher. I haven’t much cared for Ugoh in about a year, but Charlie isn’t doing any better than Ugoh would do. I feel the Pacers’ SG position is a little clearer. Haha.

by Nathan S. on Aug 22, 2009 8:53 PM EDT reply actions

Hansbrough might be able to start at LT for the Colts

I like your thoughts on Rush starting. One point about offense though, I wouldn’t be too worried with Granger, Ford and Murphy playing Rush (of Jones) will be getting scraps. Plus, in the half court Hibbert will be a big factor in the offense working out of the low post.

I do like Rush for his ability to make the defense honest. If he’s left alone I like his chances of knocking down shots better than Jones.

Indy Cornrows

by Tom Lewis on Aug 22, 2009 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Troy over Rush?

I’d hope the offense would allow Brandon more of a focal point in the offense than Troy. Troy’s scoring abilities aren’t nearly as dynamic as Rush’s can be.

I just personally like the choices we have with Brandon starting. I’d prefer to shift him into the second option in the first unit offense, kind of the second punch or the emergency first option, but of course, we do have T.J., so it can’t all be Care Bears and candy canes.

by Nathan S. on Aug 22, 2009 9:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I guess Murph is that kickout option also. TJ will always be an option with the ball.

I can see Hibbert filling that 2nd option role in the low post. Fortunately he can pass, so once he recognizes the defenses more efficiently he could cause some problems down there.

Indy Cornrows

by Tom Lewis on Aug 22, 2009 10:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Good poitn on Hibbert

His ability to read defenses quickly will definitely help our offense flourish quite a bit more. He’s got some nice inside moves and at 7’2 he’s tough to defend. We know he’s a good passer but when he learns to really take advantage of that, he’s going to be dangerous. Especially with a roster of shooters.

"If you don't [draft me], I promise you I'll come back and kick your ass for the next 15 years."

by psvirsky on Aug 23, 2009 9:03 AM EDT up reply actions

just gonna second everyone's thoughts

Both sides of the argument make sense. I guess I wouldn’t be shocked if the actual results of the different options don’t end up how we expect. As much as we all talk about the need for a defensive intensity to start the game on the perimeter, no one’s mentioned the big men. Is it more important to start Dahntay knowing that Murphy and Hibbert are also starting? Along with that, it feels like Rush makes more sense to play with guys like Foster, Hansbrough, and McBobs. With those guys, we’ll really need some points off the bench (another good reason to have Dunleavy off the bench). In fact, the thought of Rush, Dunleavy, and 2 of those 3 white bigs sounds pretty good to me, in terms of balancing tough defense on the inside and scoring on the outside.

As for the Colts LT, jesus, who knows what to do. The only option really is to have Ugoh start and hope he plays up to his potential. CJ has such a low ceiling that even if he’s on top of his game, our team suffers.

"If you don't [draft me], I promise you I'll come back and kick your ass for the next 15 years."

by psvirsky on Aug 22, 2009 9:15 PM EDT reply actions