Pacers Offer Not Sweet Enough To Land Jamal Crawford; Josh McRoberts To Lakers

The Indiana Pacers pursuit of shooting guard Jamal Crawford intensified on Tuesday and then quickly resolved itself with Crawford passing on a 2-year, $10 million offer with an opt out option after the upcoming season that would've essentially made it a one-year deal.

For starters, considering the lagging pace of NBA news starting with the lockout, lingering around for days at a time, it was nice to have a situation fly into focus and out without a day or two of speculation bouncing around. After the Memphis sticking with O.J. Mayo news hit, it seemed like the reports immediately hit with the Pacers offer to Crawford. Then a few hours later, Mike Wells reported that Crawford would look elsewhere (also, thanks for the FanPosts to help keep up with the stories).

I also appreciate that the Pacers took their shot with Crawford but didn't throw more money in the pot to maintain his interest. Now we'll see what happens next? Is there another scorer worth going after or do the Pacers go with what they have? That opens up an opportunity for a George Hill, Paul George, maybe Lance Stephenson to step up their role on the team.

I was in on Crawford, more than willing to take the good with the bad, but with Sacramento, Portland and the Knicks as his final options, I'll be surprised if he doesn't go to Portland for similar money to what Larry Bird offered but just down the road from his home in Seattle with more playing time available.

A little further down the Pacific Coast Highway, former Pacers forward Josh McRoberts will take up residence with the Los Angeles Lakers. After getting tugged around in rumors the past few days, I couldn't be happier to see McRoberts land in such a great situation with a 2-year, $6 million deal. There's even buzz that he may be a lock for the slam dunk contest now that he's with the Lakers. Seems fitting that McRoberts will be playing his home games at Staples Center, the scene of his "irrelevant" game two seasons ago.

McRoberts arrived in Indy as an NBA afterthought and worked his way into a situation this week where he had choices to make among teams pursuing his services. Whenever Josh officially signs that contract he will have earned every penny. Congratulation to J-Mac and we'll look forward to seeing him play in all of those Lakers games on national TV.