Announcement

Collapse

The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
See more
See less

James White Update

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • James White Update

    I know there was an old thread, but I can't find it. This was in the SA paper today. It is after the part about Parker and the basketball.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...k.2e6855d.html

    Parker was rare player who didn't loathe synthetic ball

    Web Posted: 12/31/2006 11:51 PM CST

    Johnny Ludden
    Express-News

    The Spurs played their final game with the NBA's microfiber basketball Sunday and most weren't shedding tears over its dismissal.
    The NBA will begin using leather balls again today. The Spurs play their first game with the new-old ball Tuesday in Cleveland.

    Tony Parker was one of the few players in the league who didn't dislike the synthetic ball. In his final game with it, he scored 27 points to help the Spurs beat the Atlanta Hawks.

    "I like it, to be honest with you," Parker said. "But it doesn't matter to me. I played with the old ball for five years, so it will be OK."

    Elson on the mend: Center Francisco Elson, who has missed the past two games with a right shoulder injury, remains on schedule to return next week, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

    After Elson suffered a small tear to his right rotator cuff in Tuesday's loss to Milwaukee, team officials said they expected him to be out for two weeks. That would get him back on the court for either the Jan. 9 game against Portland or the next night's game in Denver.

    "He's on schedule," Popovich said. "They said it would be a couple weeks and I haven't heard anything differently from that.

    "He's doing his rehab and just getting a little bit better each day and getting his shoulder stronger."

    White shines: Spurs rookie guard James White scored 23 points Saturday for the Developmental League Austin Toros.

    The Spurs sent a large contingent — Elson, assistant general manager Sam Presti, director of pro player personnel Dell Demps and assistant strength coach Chris White — to watch James White, who also had six rebounds and six steals. In four games for the Toros, White is averaging 17.3 points while shooting 47.9 percent.

    The Spurs recalled White last week when Manu Ginobili, Matt Bonner and Brent Barry were sick, but reassigned him to Austin on Friday.

    Popovich believes White is benefiting more from playing for the Toros than merely watching during Spurs' games.

    "I'd love to get him on the court and see how he plays," Popovich said, "but we've got so many guys ahead of him right now. That's why we sent him down to Austin, so he could get some playing time.

    "We just want him to get as much experience there as we can and get him to understand what we'd like him to improve on. We'll just see what transpires as the year progresses."

    The Spurs want to see how White develops as a defender.

    "What a guy does defensively is of much greater concern to me than what he does in any offensive system," Popovich said. "We want him to learn how to play individual and team defense, and no matter what system anybody is using, those situations exist and you evaluate."


    Briefly: Bruce Bowen banged his right knee in a collision with Robert Horry on the final play of the first half, but returned. Popovich used Jacque Vaughn to back up Tony Parker in the first half. But after Vaughn went 0 for 4 in the half, Popovich called on Beno Udrih in the third quarter. Udrih had two points and an assist in eight minutes.

  • #2
    Re: James White Update

    Originally posted by SycamoreKen View Post

    "What a guy does defensively is of much greater concern to me than what he does in any offensive system," Popovich said. "We want him to learn how to play individual and team defense, and no matter what system anybody is using, those situations exist and you evaluate." [/B]

    I'd like to hear Rick say that same thing about 10 times a day

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: James White Update

      I thought you couldn't go back and forth from the development league.
      "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: James White Update

        Sounds like more egg on Larry Bird's face possibly.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: James White Update

          Yeah this is the same league where Bracey Wright was putting up like 30 a game all season last year. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: James White Update

            That begs the obvious question......why can't we send players like Harrison ( assuming that he is healthy ) or Shawne down to the D-league?

            I would much rather have them play against D-League scrubs for 30 minutes a game as opposed to playing 5 minutes a game against NBA scrubs.
            Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: James White Update

              Originally posted by CableKC View Post
              That begs the obvious question......why can't we send players like Harrison ( assuming that he is healthy ) or Shawne down to the D-league?
              We could. But Carlisle didn't want to.

              Also, we don't have our own D-League team, while the Spurs do.
              This space for rent.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: James White Update

                Does anybody here think James White will ever become an NBA player? I don't.

                I don't think the big mistake was cutting James, it was trading two 2nds for him in the first place. And the guy we should've had with one of the 2nds is a PF performing very well off the bench for the Grizzlies.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: James White Update

                  Originally posted by CableKC View Post
                  That begs the obvious question......why can't we send players like Harrison ( assuming that he is healthy ) or Shawne down to the D-league?

                  I would much rather have them play against D-League scrubs for 30 minutes a game as opposed to playing 5 minutes a game against NBA scrubs.
                  We can't send Harrison because he's in his 3rd year, only 1st and 2nd year players can be sent down (and can only be sent down twice).

                  As for why we've never sent anybody down? It was very apparent in the fall from Conrad's articles that TPTB are so egotistical they believe a guy sitting around watching here is more beneficial than learning and doing elsewhere. They backed off of that around Thanksgiving, right before Shawn had his short string of PT.

                  As for White, if a 4-year (or 5-year if you count the transfer) college player can benefit from the D-league, one would think a 1-year player would, too.
                  Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: James White Update

                    Originally posted by Anthem View Post
                    Also, we don't have our own D-League team, while the Spurs do.
                    Which they share with Houston and Boston. Hell of a lot closer, though.
                    Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: James White Update

                      Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
                      We can't send Harrison because he's in his 3rd year, only 1st and 2nd year players can be sent down (and can only be sent down twice).

                      As for why we've never sent anybody down? It was very apparent in the fall from Conrad's articles that TPTB are so egotistical they believe a guy sitting around watching here is more beneficial than learning and doing elsewhere. They backed off of that around Thanksgiving, right before Shawn had his short string of PT.

                      As for White, if a 4-year (or 5-year if you count the transfer) college player can benefit from the D-league, one would think a 1-year player would, too.
                      But here is where I disagree with the point. Would you explain why in the world a 5 year college player needs a lot more playing time experience in order to learn how to play well enough just to get small minutes with the NBA?

                      This guy was at Cincy and Florida, not some JuCo. He better be way past the basics of how to beat guys weaker than him (and his numbers prove that he is).

                      It's one thing when you use the NBADL as a SUBSTITUTE for college experience, quite another when it's supposed to teach you the NBA game. It doesn't IMO.

                      One major problem keeping it from teaching the NBA game is that a TALENTED player can still rely on athleticism to beat out sub-NBA talent on a regular basis. The bad habits just get reinforced rather than broken at some point.


                      Right now Pop gets to talk it all up. But he already brought White up once and sent him right back, so I guess he wasn't that impressed by the number JW was putting up. Let's see this plan truly CHANGE White's game and make him better (and how will we measure since he hasn't been allowed to be tested yet anyway?)

                      What can a guy learn from a league he is already dominating in, especially if despite being one of the best players in the league he's not good enough to stick in the Spurs deep rotation even?


                      The NBADL is supposed to be the OPTION to college, the NBA's version of the MLB minor leagues. Problem is that it isn't set up like that yet. I think it fills a role that allows very young, undeveloped players to spend the very early process getting up to speed, but it isn't the same as being a 10 minute NBA player and learning what does and doesn't work against players equal or better in speed, strength and jumping, as well as being more crafty.

                      Harrington and Bender would have benefitted from 1 year in the NBADL, but not their 3rd year or 5th year. By 22 or so they would have been past that stage (and were).


                      Honestly I think Shawne has already gotten more out of his limited time on the court for the Pacers than White is in the NBADL. Heck, just look at Baston and how much he's already improved or how Granger dropped his silly fouls after his first rookie month even.


                      Bear in mind that I do think White has the ability to play in the NBA. I just think 15th man or worse is not what he needs. And for all we know he could already be capable of great numbers. It's not like Pop has used him even in sample minutes to see how he reacts to the NBA (in blowouts, or mid 2nd for a few, etc).

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: James White Update

                        Originally posted by Quis View Post
                        Does anybody here think James White will ever become an NBA player? I don't.

                        Obviously, many of us do. And obviously, Popovich does. And Rick Carlisle says he expect him to become a very good NBA player.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: James White Update

                          Originally posted by Anthem View Post
                          We could. But Carlisle didn't want to.

                          Also, we don't have our own D-League team, while the Spurs do.
                          Actually, our D-League team is the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. We share it with Cleveland and Phoenix. The Thunderbirds even won the D-League championship last year.

                          Here are the teams and their affiliates:

                          Albuquerque CLE, IND, PHO
                          Anaheim LAC, POR, ORL
                          Arkansas ATL, MEM, MIA
                          Austin BOS, HOU, SAS
                          Bakersfield GSE, SAC
                          Colorado DEN, NJN, TOR
                          Dakota CHI, WAS
                          Fort Worth CHA, DAL, PHI
                          Idaho SEA, UTA
                          Los Angeles LAL
                          Sioux Falls DET, MIN
                          Tulsa MIL, NOK, NYK
                          I think KP is a Captain Planet fan. He believes that the collective will of five decent starters can outweigh the power of top-level talent. Too bad Herb won't cut the check for their Planeteer rings.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: James White Update

                            Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                            This guy was at Cincy and Florida, not some JuCo. He better be way past the basics of how to beat guys weaker than him (and his numbers prove that he is).
                            The point isn't for him to beat guys, it's to learn how to play in a defensive system:

                            Originally posted by Pop
                            "We want him to learn how to play individual and team defense, and no matter what system anybody is using, those situations exist and you evaluate."
                            No matter how good his rep for defense is, Huggins almost certainly left him to freelance. It's like when Rick came here, and Ron *****ed about having to play a system. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to totally deconstruct him as a player after playing for Huggins, but then I hate the guy, so who knows.
                            Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: James White Update

                              Well that may be the case and is a good point. But it still suggests that his STATS aren't a sign of anything. Rather in that case it would just be about the coaches/scouts seeing if he is making the right spacing/position decisions or not, regardless of his shooting, etc.

                              I do think that if there is something specific to be worked on and that it will develop best with lots of game flow situations as practice then the D-league presents a good option.

                              I still think that in most cases what fans envision is a guy just playing away someplace and getting progressively better just from repetition.

                              What you have suggested actually matches what I'm saying, the D-League is a SUBSTITUTE for a quality NCAA basketball education. If in fact Cincy/FLA did nothing to improve White's understanding of how the sport works from a team concept then he is basically still lacking in that college level education.

                              That's not the same as a player who saw plenty of good college level coaching and situations and is ready to now learn what must be adjusted in order to keep up with NBA caliber athletes. That's a different type of learning that simply will not come from the D-league. How do you learn to defend Parker or Nash by playing against Snap Hunter?

                              And I will stand by the idea that the D-league or CBA or whatever allows players to learn habits that work in that pool of talent, but which won't work against smarter, faster, bigger NBA players.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X