Ball Don't Lie's Kelly Dwyer Pokes Fun At Former Pacer Troy Murphy, Before Giving Him His Due

by Ian Levy on Aug 24, 2010 6:16 PM EDT in Indiana Pacers News

Over the past week, Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don't Lie has been in the process of ranking the Top 30 NBA players at each position. The small forwards were posted yesterday, with Dwyer listing Danny Granger as the 6th best in the league. Today Dwyer turned his attention to the power forwards with posts covering #30-21, and #20-11.

In a piece of cruel, and as yet unexplained humor, Dwyer has made a point of singling out Troy Murphy's "legendary" defense. The photos of 14 of the other 29 power forwards feature Murphy being dunked on, shot over, driven by, blocked or boxed out. Dwyer even dug up a photo of Murphy from his Golden State days.

Whatever his gripe with Murphy, Dwyer showed him some respect listing him as the 13th best power forward in the league. Remembering that these rankings are based on projected performance for this season, it's clear he thinks Murphy will be having a strong year in New Jersey. I've been acting as the designated "we'll miss him more than we think" broken record here at IndyCornrows, so it's nice to see someone else offer recognition of his unique skill set.

The #1-10 power forward rankings should be out later today or tomorrow morning. Stay tuned, and keep your fingers crossed for appearances by Josh McRoberts and Tyler Hansbrough.

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The last sentence made me chuckle

I am interested to see wehre Hibbert ends up.

I think if we go into the season with Hansbrough, McRoberts, and Rolle ast he PFs… we will miss murphy. But if we get anyone that doesn’t suck, I wont’ miss him. Just because hibbert plays so much better without him.

by dbcb on Aug 24, 2010 6:57 PM EDT reply actions

PAUL GEORGE TWEETED THAT HE’S “UFC” FIGHTING WITH “BIG ROY HIBBERT”. I REALLY WANNA KNOW HOW THAT WENT LOL

by B-Huse on Aug 24, 2010 7:20 PM EDT reply actions

٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ The sky is falling!

by IndyPacers on Aug 24, 2010 10:46 PM EDT up reply actions

LOL wtf

by dbcb on Aug 24, 2010 11:36 PM EDT up reply actions

The guys got a 7’9 wingspan lol. Remember Kareem Abdul Jabar being taught by Bruce Lee? it’s great stamina and I’m sure this will help him be able to take shot in the mouth inside and still get the bucket. It’s also AMAZING footwork practice. I wanna see Paul doin it with him. Think if the Pacers had a fight club to help conditioning and bring some morale lol. I wouldn’t mess with Tyler, you wouldn’t want him getting a hold of you

by B-Huse on Aug 25, 2010 12:39 AM EDT up reply actions

Picking on Murph

I don’t know what he is trying to say murph with those pictures, because in the SF he was using Lebron, SG it was OJ mayo and PG’s he was picking on Ty lawson, so i’m not so sure he was making fun of murph.

by Nate Sperka on Aug 24, 2010 10:02 PM EDT reply actions

I kinda think he is just picking someone and rolling with it

by dbcb on Aug 24, 2010 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed, I don't think the player chosen was due to his defensive skills

It was just a running joke

by Bacalao on Aug 25, 2010 5:26 AM EDT up reply actions

I just found it funny. I noticed it after a few pictures and I chuckled. He’s a pretty easy NBA player to make fun of. Big dopey white guy with a bird nose and bad defense. And he went to Notre Dame. All the successful ingredients for being made fun of in the NBA.

by ben.renz on Aug 25, 2010 1:33 PM EDT up reply actions

The theme of Murphy's D in the pictures is amazing. Just amazing.

It brings a smile to my heart.

by SethGrandpa on Aug 25, 2010 12:25 AM EDT reply actions

"We'll miss him more than we think"

Couldn’t agree more. The thing about Murph was always the perception of his play rather than his actual play. When he shot threes at an unheard-of percentage, people complained that he wasn’t a “power” forward. When he put up great rebounding numbers, people said he was stealing rebounds from his teammates. His biggest problem may have been the fact he was white, so he was the prototypical “unathletic white guy with poor defense” for many fans. I don’t think his defense is as bad as advertised, even though #13 among power forwards seems high; nevertheless, this ranking is from someone who sees all the players in the league.
So yes, we’ll definitely miss the #13 power forward in the league. Nevertheless, I think it was the right move for the team’s future.

by bodi on Aug 25, 2010 3:52 AM EDT reply actions

I can agree

Even though we got the “14th best” PG in return for the “13th best” PF, Murph’s consistency will be missed. At least you could count on him to do the things that were asked of him, as unspectacular as he seemed doing them.

I think 13th is about right. He’s undervalued, but overpaid. I think that’s where he lies in terms of crossroads. But regardless of value or “we’ll miss him more than we think,” he’s going to continue to be an unspectacular stalwart of consistency. I mean, that’s just going to be what happens.

We’ll notice it when we rebound less, when we hit threes at a lower percentage (looking forward to that…), and when we miss a few of those automatic 10-15 points. But I think “we’ll miss him more than we think” is going to be sort of a night-to-night way to look at it. From a month-to-month look, I don’t think we’ll notice a whole lot. Murph knows what he does best and does it better than a lot of guys in the league, but I don’t think you can bank on that to lead you to W’s.

Basically, I think we’ll miss him, but I don’t think I’ll be looking back on many losses and saying, “Troy would’ve gotten us over that hump.” Because I’m almost certain it will be offset by “Had we had Troy, we probably would’ve lost.”

by Nathan S. on Aug 25, 2010 7:16 PM EDT up reply actions