Man the pacera sure have looked good in the.first 1/3 of the season. But of latley tgey seem to be n a big shhoting slump and def strugle. You sure can tell tonight the BIG Hib is btherd because he is gettn out played by Memhis big man number 33. Hes lettn it get.to him again. I sure hope he doesnt get back in his.old way. What do you guys think? It just seems when they get the.ball under the basket they freeze and cant make it more then half the time.

ESPN basketball writers Chad Ford and John Hollinger offer their take on which NBA franchises have the brightest future. Oklahoma City is #1, Miami #2, Chicago #3, L.A. Clippers #4 and at #5:

5. Indiana Pacers | Future Power Rating: 748

PLAYERS	MANAGEMENT	MONEY	MARKET	DRAFT
399 (7th)	130 (10th)	141 (7th)	41 (18th)	37 (20th)

We continue to get more excited about the roster Larry Bird and David Morway have put together. While there are no superstars, the team is incredibly deep and plays well together. Danny Granger is in his prime, David West brings leadership, Roy Hibbert is playing like an All-Star, Darren Collison continues to improve, Tyler Hansbrough brings manic energy, George Hill (when healthy) has given the team a scorer off the bench, and Paul George may very well be the best player on this team in another year, if not one of the best players in the league -- he has that much potential.

The team continues to be prudent with its money, too, and still has significant cap room to add other pieces. Adding one more scorer could put the Pacers in serious contention for the Eastern Conference crown.

But it's the Pacers' jump in management score that moved them up to No. 5. Owner Herb Simon remains committed to putting a winning team on the floor, which means the front office has the green light to spend if it's on the right guy. And while no one had heard of Frank Vogel before last season, he's quickly looking like one of the best up-and-coming coaches in the NBA. He doesn't get enough credit for his contribution to the unselfish culture on the Pacers.

Bird, however, deserves the lion's share of the credit. Is this the year the three-time NBA MVP and former coach of the year completes the triple crown and takes home executive of the year honors? It's hard to think of anyone else who deserves it more.

(Previous rank: 7)

The BS Report with Bill Simmons

Listen to the first 5-10 minutes of Bird's Interview with Bill Simmons. Seems to me that the chances of him trading Danny Granger, after all he has been through with this team, are pretty small. I think Larry would like to see Danny retire with the Pacers.

I don't really have much else to day, but it won't let me publish this without putting some more letters in. Cheers to loquaciousness.

Clearly every person that participates on this site is a hardcore Indiana Pacers fan. Up until 53 or so weeks ago it was pretty easy to question why, but that's not how we roll, for better or worse. I love and appreciate you all, even the ones I perpetually think are out of their damn minds.

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I think the Pacers are in a tricky situation, but as Tom posted on the front page the other day, albeit slight, there is a chance the Pacers could score a diamond in the rough via a 10-day contract. Personally, I think completely overpaying a legit veteran or two for the remainder of the season is probably a more productive use of funds, but there are plenty of examples guys recently who've come out of the D-League, or some other obscure realm, to make an impact in the NBA. Jeremy Lin is the most recent example.

I'm not suggesting the Pacers expect to cherry pick some future star from an anonymous location. I am suggesting that they get some able bodied guys in here to bang around in practice and provide blows for our increasingly-depleted rotation, at least until Hill and Foster can get right.

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I usually start off by saying "let's trade DG", but today, I'll be a little more subtle than that. The Pacers are playing pretty good basketball right now "when" they play as a team. With a sell out crowd the other night against Orlando, the old selfish Pacers showed up, and of course 'lost'. Everyone must've decided on that particular day, that they wanted to be a superstar. And, of course we have none. DC had zero assists!!! That's our point guard, the one who is suppose to be running the team, the extension of the coach on the floor. If your point guard isnt' handing out assists, one of two things are probably happening. 1. Your team is gonna be in a mess, and /or 2. he's tryng to be the superstar that night, and DC just isn't! So now, for the trading of DG. Yes, he's picked up his game for the most part, and playing pretty good, but still taking alot of shots, missing most, in order to get his 20 pts. per game. What if? We trade DG for a great shooting guard, move Paul George up to Danny's spot, and then we get good production from both areas. Paul George is not a guard. You can call him that till you're blue in the face, but he's just not! Move him to the SF spot, and have a true point guard feeding him the ball, and have a good shooting guard out there, and maybe we'll look even better. Coach should've had a good talking to Collison after that game! Actually, he should have told him at halftime to 'run the offense, get the ball to the other players, and then let the cards fall where they may. As bad as we played, we still just barely got beat. Maybe 2 or 3 "assists" by Collison would've made a difference. No one will know for sure, but lets not have another repeat where the point guard gets no assists, please.

Mike Wells at the Indy Star

Injured Indiana Pacers guard George Hill has some work ahead of him before he returns to the lineup, but he took a step in that direction Saturday when he wore a shoe on his left foot instead of a walking boot.

Hill has missed the past three games after suffering a small chip fracture in his left ankle against New Jersey on Jan. 31.

"It's not as bad as they thought it was," Hill said. "It's only a partial chip instead of it being fully chipped. They say my return is looking pretty good."

Neither Hill nor the Pacers would put a timetable on his return, but the former Broad Ripple High School and IUPUI star said his goal is to return before the All-Star break, which starts Feb. 23.

"I'm planning on it," Hill said. "I have to continue to do the rehab they've got me doing and things like that."

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we would have the 4th seed and would be playing Atlanta with home court advantage. We would have won that series then we play the winner of the Bucks-Bulls series. Winner of that series would probably be the Bulls. That should be a fun series and we have a good chance of winning and advancing to the ECF to play the winner of possibly Heat-76ers series. Against the Heat, we might be a little overmatched unless we bring our A game the entire series. If we did, we have a good chance of beating them especially if we play zone against them. Against the 76ers, we all know we can beat them and we will beat them. I truly believe, when healthy, we can go deep in the playoffs this season.

I know we are just coming off a loss, our 2nd loss at home but when I looked at the standings, I couldn't help but look at the bright side.

Feel free to do your own Pacer forecast and say I'm wrong.

Yeah, I know it's silly to discuss breaking up a team with the chemistry the Pacers have shown recently. Still, even if the Pacers hadn't demonstrated their need for more depth against the Magic last night, it's something we all know that they need. I'm not talking about some monster trade scenario involving Danny Granger, or really any contributing player. The only players I'd really be willing to give up, actually, would be ones like AJ Price, Lance Stephenson, Lou Admundson, or Jeff Pendergraph, so I know this all kind of "in an ideal world" hyperbole. Still, if Larry Bird could somehow make it happen, these players might be interesting for the Pacers.

Anthony Randolph: I remember this guy was on Bird's radar in the last couple years, when the Knicks were trying to ship him out. The Timberwolves have so much depth with their big guys (Milicic, Brad Miller, Kevin Love, Tolliver) that Randolph was actually a DNP-CD against the Pacers, and hasn't played since. This is a guy who's never really gotten a fair chance at some playing time, but who has performed well when given some here and there. Being that he's still only 22(!), there's plenty of room for development. He's in the final year of his contract, so this could basically be a trial run to see how he fits with the team. At 6'11" he could arguably play some C when Foster isn't available, but he'd be best as an insurance policy for these bad spurts Hansbrough has had recently. The trade machine shows that we could get him straight up for Admundson, although in real life we'd obviously have to sweeten the deal somehow. As a young team with fifteen players already under contract, the Timberwolves might be more interested in a future second rounder.

Leandro Barbosa: The Pacers probably need more depth at the guard position than anywhere else except C. With George Hill out, we've been forced to go with Price and Stephenson, who combined against the Magic had twenty minutes of playing time and no points to show for it. If we'd had George, or a true scorer off the bench, it's possible we'd have had the depth to pull an ugly win out of that game. Barbosa, in the final year of his contract with the Raptors, could be that guy. The Raptors are 8-16 and, realistically, should probably be more worried about their draft position next year than winning games this year. Especially with DeRozan locked in as their SG of the future and three other guards on the roster, Barbosa (maybe) could be had. His 3 PT% is a little lower than we'd probably like at 35%, but he's a proven scorer. Again, we have nothing of real value I'd be willing to offer them, but a future second rounder and a player to make the numbers work (any of the previously mentioned players work in the ESPN trade machine) might be enough for a team that should be more concerned about the future. Even if he can't be had in a trade, Barbosa might be a player the Pacers could get in free agency for a relative bargain during the offseason.

Could it happen,should it happen?

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