Chad Ford's East Grades

by 08dooley on Sep 14, 2010 12:20 PM EDT

Chad Ford of ESPN has posted his summer grades for the Eastern Conference. He had Miami as the obvious #1, Washington as #2, then he had this:

3. Indiana Pacers

Key additions: Darren Collison (trade), James Posey (trade), Paul George (draft), Lance Stephenson (draft)

Key subtractions: Troy Murphy

Larry Bird and David Morway may have pulled off the trade of the summer in August. Desperately in need of a point guard and some fresh blood, they were able to grab Collison in a four-way trade that cost them just Murphy.

Collison is the point guard the Pacers have been longing for … forever. As a rookie starter for the Hornets during the second half of last season after Chris Paul went down with an injury, Collison averaged an impressive 18.8 ppg and 9 apg, while shooting 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range. Those are rookie of the year numbers. Pair him with Danny Granger and an emerging Roy Hibbert and the Pacers finally have a young core to build around.

The Pacers also made some noise in the draft. George has Tracy McGrady-type talent. Whether he ever lives up to his abilities is still up for debate -- but at the 10th pick in the draft, he was worth the gamble.

The real steal, however, could be Stephenson. The second-round pick wowed scouts in the Orlando summer league with his play and drew a few comparisons to last season's rookie of the year, Tyreke Evans. A domestic assault charge for Stephenson and a five-game drug suspension for Brandon Rush put a bit of a damper on the summer but shouldn't set the team back too much.

The Pacers now look as if they have a legit shot at making the playoffs this season and should be $20 million under the cap next summer. After a long dark spell, things are finally looking up in Indy.

Grade: A-

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Getting some love from national media.

Sweet!

Confucious say "He who dives for loose balls need proper fitting athletic cup!"

by Wise Master on Sep 14, 2010 12:34 PM EDT reply actions

thanks

Thanks for posting something from ESPN insider for those who don’t have it to read. Nice ranking!!

by pacerfan20o8 on Sep 14, 2010 12:36 PM EDT reply actions

I can’t say I’m too surprised. Chad Ford seems to have a soft spot for the Pacers, and judging by many of his comments throughout the years you get the impression he’d really like to see Larry and Co. succeed.

by Hinrich10 on Sep 14, 2010 12:46 PM EDT reply actions

You can't deny

an all time great leading his homestate team back from disaster wouldn’t be an outstanding storyline for the NBA. I’m not saying that in endorsement of Larry or disparaging him or anything, just saying it would be a good story.

٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ The sky is falling!

by IndyPacers on Sep 14, 2010 8:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Agree

I absolutely agree it would be a good story. As a Pacers’ fan, I’m rooting for it to happen. I’m just saying, for whatever reason, Chad Ford seems to really dig the Pacers (or feels sorry for them), and so seeing him praise the team isn’t all that shocking or surprising. And I don’t know if I even disagree with him. I don’t know if I’d put them No. 3, but the Pacers do deserve a fabulous grade for their offseason. They made some significant strides (hopefully more is to come), and deserve to be praised. It’s just Ford has become a little predictable when it comes to his favorable views of the Pacers. Even when a lot of times that praise hasn’t necessarily been deserved.

by Hinrich10 on Sep 14, 2010 9:29 PM EDT up reply actions

I really don't care

About Ford’s or anyone else’s opinion. That’s the beauty of the internet age, if I want some informed analysis of a franchise’s moves I can get on a message board or one of the other SB Nation blogs and find out what fans who actually follow every little tiny thing involving their franchise.

I think a lot of the “soft spots” some national writers have for certain franchises comes from how solid their sources with that team are. There’d be obvious reasons for that. I know Ford’s nailed our drafts the last few seasons, so I’ve gotta assume he’s got a good contact with us. Another example’s Peter Vescey. Whatever you think of him, he used to usually be fairly kind to the Pacers. People always floated that he and Donnie were pretty close. Then like a week after Mel Daniels (a Walsh guy) got fired last year he wrote a hit piece on Bird and the rest of the front office in the NY Post. I’m not saying that Larry doesn’t deserve his fair share of criticism, but that was pretty convenient timing for the Vescey column.

٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ The sky is falling!

by IndyPacers on Sep 14, 2010 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I hope you don’t think I’m turning this into a “hate Larry” session because I’m not. I just find the “Ford effect” interesting considering most media guys try to convince us journalism is all about impartiality.

By the way, I’d take an “uneducated” national guy over an “educated fan” any day, who tries to convince everyone that Atlanta would be interested in something like TJ Ford and a 2nd round pick for Josh Smith in a trade. There are negatives to both sides (national viewpoints can be uneducated and fans’ viewpoints can be overly bias), but it just so happens that the national guys are the ones who are going to influence how fans outside of Indy view the team. For that reason, I think we should care how they portray the team. Even as strange as it is to see a media member like Ford love on the Pacers so much, it’s good for the Pacers rep.

by Hinrich10 on Sep 14, 2010 11:00 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't think Ford's ever been impartial

He just has his opinion on how small market teams like ours should operate, the whole “singles and doubles” analogy he used so much this offseason in regards to us.

Far as your 2nd paragraph, those people clearly aren’t educated fans. I don’t disagree at all that a lot (maybe even the majority) of fans of a given franchise overvalue their own guys, but I for the most part I watch enough of every team to at least have a general opinion on basically any given player. Even if not I can look up his #s, both basic and advanced, and garner some form of opinion. I don’t disagree that it’s nice to see national writers give us props for our offseason (deservedly), but I’m a fan of the team, I just don’t care. All it really amounts to is a guy or girl who has no clue about our franchise saying “oh, Indy did alright for themselves,” and move on to the next team. I just don’t care much at all about the national opinion of the franchise, only the opinion of the actual fanbase.

٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ The sky is falling!

by IndyPacers on Sep 14, 2010 11:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Chad Ford

Has really been an unrepentant Bird apologist from the beginning. He loved the Rush, Hansboro and Shawne Williams picks as well.

Though Collision was a good pickup. No debating that.

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

by aaronb on Sep 14, 2010 12:47 PM EDT reply actions

+1

Simmons calls him out on it every time. He’s always loving what the Pacers front office is doing. I’m surprised he keeps going back to giving them so much love when all they’ve done is miss (mostly).

by spstevenson on Sep 18, 2010 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Wow… I would’ve said 4th after the Bulls. Oh and yea Hinrich ur right he always has had a soft spot for us. Still wow.

by B-Huse on Sep 14, 2010 12:49 PM EDT reply actions

He rated last offseason 8th

And we had one of the worst Pacers offseason’s in recent memory.

He also picked the Memphis offseason 30th last year. And they picked up Zach Randolph for nothing, signed Allan Iverson for the MLE, and picked up several low pay free agents that helped out. Went from 24 wins to 40 wins.

Don’t put much stock in Chad Ford and his professional opines. John Hollinger is the better expert source over there.

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

by aaronb on Sep 14, 2010 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Not so sure

After the Jermaine trade, I remember an article by Hollinger claiming TJ Ford would be a 20 and 10 PG for the Pacers. Granted he wasn’t making that assessment based on an emotional connection, but it was a bit irresponsible considering Hollinger’s whole deal is stats, and the stats overwhelmingly show PGs just don’t produce much in the Jim O’Brien system.

That’s why I’m scared to death that Collison isn’t going to live up to the hype (this season). Believe me, I want him to more than anything, but he’s got his work cut out for him dealing with JOB.

by Hinrich10 on Sep 14, 2010 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions

I think he was basing Ford on his production rates

TJ Ford was an extremely effective player everywhere he’s been BEFORE he got here. So it made sense that he would put up numbers if given 35-40 minutes a night to do so.

You are correct that he failed to that the JOB system into account.

As a whole though. Hollinger seems to be correct with much more regularity than Ford. Hell Bill Simmons makes fun of Ford and his irrational biases and strange love for foreign players and certain guys.

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

by aaronb on Sep 14, 2010 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions

I can see why he gave some love to TJ. He had all the talent in the world when we got him. He just got paired with Jim O’Brien and underperformed.

by B-Huse on Sep 14, 2010 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions

Chad Ford is truly spot on for the Pacers. Collison trade was genius, but the Pacers didn’t need Lance and Brandon doing dumb and damaging stuff.

If Tyler gets cleared soon, then it’s an easy A. This team is still young, and I honestly don’t see them making the playoffs, but it will be close despite the ineptitude of JOB.

by Sparhawk on Sep 14, 2010 1:49 PM EDT reply actions

I keep forgettting James Posey is on the team.

Anyways, it’s nice to get some degree of affirmation from a larger media source.

by infinityzero.systemerror on Sep 14, 2010 4:24 PM EDT reply actions

I’d say it’s more that Chad Ford has more NBA knowledge and is more objective that most other members of the national media.

It’s hilarious (or maybe not) how obvious it is how little many of the sports writers actually know about sports. Those of us here definitely know more than most of them.

by P J on Sep 14, 2010 5:47 PM EDT reply actions