Now that we have West,

what i wrote was Indy would have a line-up like this with tyler and hill as main weapons coming off the bench while these other teams would look like this:

Collison Chalmers Rondo Rose

George Wade Allen Evans

Granger James Pierce Deng

West Bosh Garnett Boozer

Hibbert Anthony J. O. Noah

Bench:

Hill Battier Green Korver
Hansbrough Miller Bass Gibson

hopefully, lance is above price…at least eventually. That is, unless he beats more women…

It gives a good shot to win the Central Division, as long as West returns to pre-injury form. The Bulls are obviously the team to beat right now, so let’s compare starting line-ups.

Collison v Rose
Ok, obviously Rose has the huge advantage here, no need to talk it over at all.

Advantage-Bulls

George v Evans
Even without growth, i believe George to be the better of the 2, then you add his expected growth from year 1 to 2, then

Advantage-Pacers

Granger v Deng
This is a fairly close one, and i may be biased, but i’d have to give it to Granger. Deng is better defensively(though maybe by less, depending on how much effort Granger puts on the defensive end this year, now that he wont be our only scoring option), but Granger is a legitmate 20ppg scorer, a player that defenses HAVE to key on. Also, everything points to Granger going back to his all-star year form, as he has put it a TON of effort this past offseason…well, for him.

Advantage-Pacers

West v Boozer
Before, with Hansbrough starting, Boozer obviously had the advantage. But now with West, assuming he returns to pre-injury form, i believe we have our own, better, version of Boozer. An 18-8 guy, slightly less than Boozer’s 20-10, but he plays better defense(not saying much, as Boozer doesnt play defense). Plus, he doesnt go into hibernation in the playoffs.

Advantage-Pacers

Hibbert v Noah
Even though i fully expect Hibbert to continue to improve, i just cant put him on Noah’s level yet. Noah is an anchor defensively, a great rebounder, and his offense isnt too bad either.

Advantage-Bulls

That gives the Pacers a 3-2, positional advantage. This is without even taking into account the bench, which the Pacers have one of the deepest benches in the NBA, and that will hopefully only improve as free agency continues. So i fully expect the Pacers to be a contender in the Central division, and as such, the Eastern Conference this year.

finally, an answer or opinion to my post and not some….well, something entirely unrelated

they may have good starters especially anthony, amare and t. chandler but their bench is not better than ours.

1. Make trade for Mayo
2.Trade Brandon Rush and 2nd round pick to anyone, for ANYTHING
3. Amnesty James Posey
4. Waive A.J. Price
5. Sign Carl Landry and Hilton Armstrong
6. Sign Michael Redd(preferred 1 year deal so he can prove his worth to the league)

The reason why we trade brandon rush and amnesty James Posey will be merely for roster space, and a little more cap room to pick up Landry and Redd. At the same time, we get a decent sized center in Hilton Armstrong who could be a nice back-up in case one of our centers goes out with an injury.

If we went through with this, our line-up would look like:

Collison / Hill / Stephenson
Mayo / George / Redd / Hill / Stephenson / Jones
Granger / George / Jones / Redd
West / Hansbrough / Landry / Pendergraph
Hibbert / Foster / Armstrong

Our roster would be set at 15 with this line-up. Obviously some concerns are apparent, including the fact that we’d be short at the SF position, which could put a damper on our defensive abilities towards players like Lebron James, Melo, and Kevin Durant who all play at that position. Never the less, I still think we’d be able to put up pretty good fights and become an incredibly good team with these type of players

the biggest question is can this young team sustain the effort through the entire team from starters to the bench through times good and times bad. How will Vogel and Braian Shaw with the rest of the coaching staff implement their offense and defense, and will it eb an effective system. How good can this team be on defense as a unit. Those questions will decide the Pacer’s success more than individual success.

we pickup McRoberts than Landry. Signing Redd for a year would be a great move..