1. Trading the #2 pick of the Jordan,Barkley draft for Tom Owen

2. Hiring Larry Bird as GM

3. Trading Artest for Peja

4. Not rebuilding after Peja left as a free agent

5. Firing Rick Carlisle

Looks like you have recency bias. I agree with aaronb on the trading of the #2 pick (could have had Jordan). Also, we took Rick Robey with the 3rd pick in the same draft Bird went 6th.

I’m going to rebuttal most of these moves and parlay them into positive moves…well, the ones I can anyway. When I look at a move, I think about what leads to the next. A move doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the end of it. For example, Mark Jackson begat Jalen Rose who begat Ron Artest who begat the brawl who begat Danny Granger. Positives and negatives all wrapped together, so on and so forth, what have you. But I actually liked most of the moves you stated…well…maybe not most, but at least a couple of them in a long term sense, one in a short term sense, and I’ll explain why…

1. Mark Jackson trade – The trade ended up being a bad immediate move, but was a crucial long term move (and not in the end up with Danny Granger sense). Travis Best had a pretty good rookie year as I remember it. He even got key playoff time in the series against the Hawks (Reggie was still fouled on that shot……). Trading Jackson for an up and coming Jalen Rose didn’t make a lot of sense, but it didn’t totally suck either, not with Travis Best maybe…maybe…maybe being good. Also, they jumped thirteen spots in the 1996 draft, got Rose, and drafted Dampier (who was key in the deal to land Chris Mullin).

Where this trade comes together is when Jackson came back at the deadline. He was brought back on two second rounders. Think about that. The Nuggets lose Dikembe to Atlanta in free agency, move to get Jackson and give up a higher pick AND one of their two good young players only to send him back to Indiana three months later with no real talent in return and only two second rounders. That would be about #1 on Denver’s dumbest moves ever, not Indiana’s, haha.

The return of Jackson and the emergence of Jalen Rose shot the Pacers into elite competition, more than the scrappy challenger they were, winning a franchise best 58 games in 97-98. The Nuggets won 11 in that year. Of course, those gooberheads also traded Antonio McDyess for about eighteen first rounders that all ended up being mid-late firsts.

The immediate fallout of that trade of course was the dreadful 96-97 season, where Best was far from Jackson, Miller struggled with contract issues and hate crimes, and Larry Brown had worn out his welcome. The long term fallout was worth it. Considering letting Jackson walk after 2000…I’ll cover that later.

2. Acquiring DunMurph as a basketball move for Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington was dreadful, especially considering we just got Harrington back (a stupid move in its own right) for a first rounder when I was more than content to move forward with Danny. But it was unfortunately a necessary move in terms of fan relations. It’s hard to defend, but it’s kind of understandable. We had to sell Jackson low, the return was even lower.

But Ford? The T.J. Ford/Jermaine O’Neal swap was brilliant. It’s one of my favorite moves the Pacers have pulled in the past few years. First off, the Pacers managed to move the Unmovable Contract in Jermaine O’Neal. We didn’t want him anymore. Let’s face it. He was done to us. Heck, I thought he was hurting the team more in 07-08 than helping (though he did look good coming back at the end of the year). T.J. Ford hasn’t panned out, but the move did land us the first rounder we used on Roy Hibbert, which I’m pleased with, even if I was crying on draft night because of it.

3. This is what could be a bad move because there is no long term upside in it. We took Bender’s upside over A.D., who was still improving at that point. Imagine having his energy in 99-00 and how much better we would’ve been. I don’t fault Walsh for looking long term, but it cost us a fan favorite, and a guy who would somehow become an All-Star.

4. The Brad Miller situation is tragic. But there wasn’t enough in the books to keep him. A reasonable final deal for Reggie aside, it was really him or J.O. Both were signed to 7-year deals totaling to about $190 million. I mean, yikes. We aren’t the Yankees. While ideally, having Miller and O’Neal in the front court would make the 03-04 even more fearsome, we made the right decision. O’Neal was an MVP candidate in 03-04, Miller never would’ve been that, even if he were more durable.

5. This is the one I actually agreed with when it happened and still think is one of the greatest retoolings in NBA history. Breaking up the boys was sad, but smart. Trading Davis for O’Neal was one of the greatest swindles in the decade, losing Jackson made sense as he was getting older, Smits was retiring, Mullin was well passed cooked. It made sense. 2000 was the last hurrah of that team. Putting Isiah Thomas aside, the Pacers broke up a championship contender in 2000 and put together a new one by 2003. Forget what O’Neal did his first year (even though he led the league in blocks), look at what he did when he won Most Improved Player, was one of the most unstoppable big men in the game, and was…as I said…an MVP candidate. An aging Dale Davis is not going to get you that.

All in all, I think 1 & 5 were good moves…1 only after the trade back.

Is an enigma. If it wasn’t for his astronomical contract, he would actually be a decent stat stuffer. However, he doesn’t live up to his contract, that we can all agree on. I’ve never seen a player put up 15+ points and 10+ rebounds so quietly so often. He just doesn’t do it as consistently as needed to justify his salary though and isn’t much defensive help either. I don’t think setting a Pacers Rebounding Record & “Suck” work together well so that might have been a little bit of stretch.

Ford… eh. Underachieving badly. The Jack/Ford combo was alright, but Ford and a group of backups taking over when he slips just doesn’t mesh. PG is possibly our biggest need. In hindsight, Bayless might have been a good option to keep.

Dunleavy… injured way too often. I’ll wait and see how he finishes this year to see what his potential could be when healthy.

I’ve actually never seen a more constantly injured team since, ummm, wait, uhhh, actually the Pacers of last 3-5 years. O’ Neal and Tinsley were oft-injured only to get Dunleavy’s knee issues, now Foster, Granger’s planter fascia, etc… MAKE IT STOP.

Quick Fix: Get lucky with a PG in the draft. Get an interior scoring/defensive Post PF/C and stay healthy.

What’s with the revisionist’s history on Carlisle? I seem to remember pretty vividly everyone being on board with moving on from Carlisle because the team hated each other and people were tired of his fairly predictable and plodding offensive schemes.

Discussing letting go of Carlisle as a mistake seems like a real “grass is greener” scenario. Carlisle is a better coach, but he also coached the Pacers to a season killing eleven game losing streak in 07, and could not piece together the locker room, while Obie did.