How did we get here?

by captain flitzy on Feb 1, 2010 3:35 PM EST

I personally think I can sum this up pretty dam quickly. But TrueHoop linked to a website that maps exactly how we got where we are today. Link and my thoughts after the jump. (I always wanted to type that)

http://gmapuploader.com/iframe/x8eS6Jgqyo

Visual view of how we acquired the entire current team, really neat, and they have one for every team.

Here's how I think we got here, couple bullet points.

-Jermaine was a diamond in the rough coming from Portland, and blew up. Than proceeded to take Max Money, and go right on to complain about basically everything. Had some great seasons, but failed to realize by being the max franchise player, the burden to win was on his shoulders. Besides the horrible attitude and health issues, the little fact he ate up an enormous amount of our cap didnt help. During this time, he also became my least favorite Pacer of the last 15 years.

-Ron Artest and Ben Wallace had 45 gallons of extra testosterone, got under each others skin, a teeny tiny little riot between fans and some Pacer players broke out, which led to the departure of Ronnie Boy and Stephen, and ultimately the pacers run as a top 3 East team. Worse, it left us with horrible contracts of Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy. Even worse than that, it led to Dunleavy mustache and Troy's fast break trailing 3s and pump fakes.

-Tinsley, Jermaine, Artest, and Stephen Jackson together gave us wins and a good teams, but too much personality and insnity. This led the Pacers to do the direct opposite, and take on players who for the most part are very bland, sorry.

-Granger was a great pick.

-Reggie left, and took the whole heart and soul of the team with him.

-The end.

-----Captain

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Comments

JO was your least favorite Pacer of the last 15 years?!

That’s a bit harsh. Yeah, he did eat up a lot of capspace, and he was injured a lot during the latter stages of his Pacers career, but JO in his prime was a top 10 player in the league(that’s more than DG33 is right now). Personally I hated Stephen Jackson. Still can’t stand the SOB.

I think the real reason why we got here is because management took it easy when we had it good. While we were contending in the East we didn’t draft a single player(except for DG33) or pick-up a ‘diamond in the rough’ for the future. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pacers_draft_history
Then after the brawl we never bothered replacing players. Artest asked for a trade, he traded him for Peja, and let Peja walk for nothing. We traded JO for Ford, Rasho and Jack. We won’t play Ford, and let Rahso and Jack walk.

So basically it comes down to 2 things:
1) Bad drafting for years has finally caught up with us
2) We didn’t get any quality replacements for Artest, JO, Harrington, Stephen Jackson, and Tin Man

by Gary D on Feb 1, 2010 3:59 PM EST reply actions

In hindsight firing Carlisle was a mistake too...

…especially when we replaced him with JOB.

by Gary D on Feb 1, 2010 4:08 PM EST up reply actions

I liked Carlisle alot...

And I COMPLETELY forgot about the enitre Peja thing, wow. And for JO, just never sat well with me. Hated him as soon as he signed that deal. (7yrs, 126 Mil) To his credit, he had some excellent years and was one of the best shot blockers I have ever seen. One thing I hated is what I referred to earlier, how I just don’t think he “got” what it meant to sign that deal, and the responsibilities that come along with it. Although Danny isn’t as good as Jermaine was (yet), i think he “gets” it alot more.

by captain flitzy on Feb 1, 2010 4:19 PM EST up reply actions

IIRC

We turned Artest into 1/2 season of Peja but got a trade exemption from that deal that we were able to flip into the Harrington return. But then everyone cried and said we need to get rid of Jackson too so we had to give Harrington away to get rid of Jackson (and again, got the horrible contract bros from GS). Just a horrible series of moves.

by TheHawk5 on Feb 1, 2010 5:28 PM EST up reply actions

We also lost a Lotto pick in that process as well

" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "

by aaronb on Feb 1, 2010 5:51 PM EST up reply actions

But everyone wanted Acie Law with that pick

And being a senior, I would’ve almost banked on Bird picking him anyway, and that guy’s on his way to being out of the league, so I dunno how bad it was to not have that pick, really.

Though it was a horrible series of moves. I wasn’t a big fan of bringing Baby Al back in the capacity we did though. That was a short sighted move, it reeked of desperation to me. But hopefully Murph can be turned into something in the next couple of weeks, that could salvage a lot, possibly.

by Nathan S. on Feb 1, 2010 6:30 PM EST up reply actions

Nice write-up

" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "

by aaronb on Feb 1, 2010 4:36 PM EST reply actions

I think we got here cause we’re so scared of picking a guy who might get in trouble with the law that we pick guys like Hansbrough. Sure he’s a nice player but we need bolder actions than this.

by B-Huse on Feb 1, 2010 5:20 PM EST reply actions

Something tells me...

As genius as the Pacers brass comes across, something tells me they didn’t do all of this with the intent of picking up Tyler Hansbrough.

The FAULK

by incredibleFAULK on Feb 2, 2010 5:20 PM EST up reply actions

Well in an interview Larry said he had liked Tyler for years and had planned on getting him if he had the chance. Im not gonna sit here and say Tyler was a terrible choice or that he won’t make it in the NBA. But we NEED to make moves. We can’t just wait for things to happen.

by B-Huse on Feb 4, 2010 5:04 PM EST up reply actions