http://www.indystar.com/article/2009...TS15/904070370 Even though I was hoping for the playoffs, I guess Kravitz makes a good point. Tanking aside, maybe it would've done more harm than good this year for the PLAYERS to go into the playoffs and get spanked. (If that's what would've happened, who knows?)
Bob Kravitz
Indystar
Bob Kravitz
Indystar
The record isn't close to anything Larry Bird and Jim O'Brien desired. The playoffs? They're not going to happen for these Indiana Pacers. They may be mathematically alive -- barely -- but coach O'Brien has been conceding for weeks now that the playoffs are a pipe dream beyond rational consideration.
And yet . . .
It has been a good season. A productive season. A season of significant growth. Seriously. What? You were expecting a snide comment?
For the first time in a long time, there is the sense the Pacers are building toward something, that next year's playoffs are easily within their grasp if only they add bodies, stay healthy and learn how to play a lick of defense.
At the risk of sounding like a Pacers apologist -- hey, there's a first time for everything -- let me enumerate the ways this franchise has taken a step forward after years of missteps.
Their best player, Danny Granger, developed into an All-Star performer this season. It was argued by no less an expert than Reggie Miller that Granger was one of those guys getting big numbers on a bad team. The league's coaches, though, disagreed and put him on the All-Star team, a move a lot of us fully endorsed.
This has been a breakout season, not just an All-Star season but a season that should earn him serious consideration as the league's Most Improved Player.
Next year, he must come back recommitted to being the team's best defender. And, as team president Bird mentioned recently, he has to learn to finish with his left hand.
The rookies, Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush, have gotten a lot of minutes and have shown signs they can be starters for years to come.
Hibbert progressed more quickly, which is unusual for a big man in his rookie season. He's still a step slow and a trifle awkward; in the post, he looks like a giraffe practicing yoga. But he has the desire and he has the work ethic. And size. Did we mention size?
Rush took longer, and for a while there, it was fair to wonder if he was another Shawne Williams -- minus the friendships with alleged murderers. I'd watch the game, then look at the box score the next day and see that Rush had played 14 minutes, and I couldn't even recall seeing him on the court. He was tentative. He floated. He was lost, seemingly overwhelmed.
And then a switch was flipped. These past few weeks, he has come out of his shell and played like the sweet-shooting two guard the Pacers drafted him to be. Give him another summer and more experience, he's going to be a central part of the Pacers' rebuilding.
Two years, and not a single mention on the police blotter.
I don't bring that up to be flippant. I say it because it's important, really important to a franchise that turned off its fans in the same way the Portland Trail Blazers chased fans from the Rose Garden.
The current crop of Pacers aren't great players or even very good ones. Only one of them, Granger, would be among the top third in the league at their position. (Troy Murphy, who has had a career season, would be in the top half.) But they are professionals. They are likable. They root for one another. They play exceedingly hard and have continued to play hard as the playoff goal has faded.
The crowds at Conseco Fieldhouse have improved in recent weeks, and they're going to continue growing as this team adds players and learns the fine art of stopping somebody.
All season, I've gotten grief for insisting the Pacers were better off missing the playoffs, and I believe that more strongly now than I did at midseason. This team doesn't need the experience of a 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers. This team needs bodies, specifically a low-post presence, who will help them take that next step.
Chances are, they won't make lottery magic, won't get the No. 1 and pick Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, but being in the NBA lottery is better than being just outside the lottery.
It's one thing if you're a young, up-and-coming team like the Atlanta Hawks, who benefited greatly from taking the Boston Celtics to seven games.
It's another thing if you're the Pacers, a team that will finish with around 35 victories.
They have a little bit of salary cap flexibility.
Not a lot, mind you. Not with Jamaal Tinsley's $7 million still on the books and the cap dipping by an expected $6 million. But at least they're moving in the right direction. The Murphy and Mike Dunleavy deals will be obstacles, but at least Jermaine O'Neal's contract is gone. And maybe you've noticed, none of the players Bird jettisoned this past offseason have done squat for their new teams.
No playoffs. No big deal. This is the best that a lot of us have felt about the Indiana Pacers in many years. And that's a terrific place to start.
And yet . . .
It has been a good season. A productive season. A season of significant growth. Seriously. What? You were expecting a snide comment?
For the first time in a long time, there is the sense the Pacers are building toward something, that next year's playoffs are easily within their grasp if only they add bodies, stay healthy and learn how to play a lick of defense.
At the risk of sounding like a Pacers apologist -- hey, there's a first time for everything -- let me enumerate the ways this franchise has taken a step forward after years of missteps.
Their best player, Danny Granger, developed into an All-Star performer this season. It was argued by no less an expert than Reggie Miller that Granger was one of those guys getting big numbers on a bad team. The league's coaches, though, disagreed and put him on the All-Star team, a move a lot of us fully endorsed.
This has been a breakout season, not just an All-Star season but a season that should earn him serious consideration as the league's Most Improved Player.
Next year, he must come back recommitted to being the team's best defender. And, as team president Bird mentioned recently, he has to learn to finish with his left hand.
The rookies, Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush, have gotten a lot of minutes and have shown signs they can be starters for years to come.
Hibbert progressed more quickly, which is unusual for a big man in his rookie season. He's still a step slow and a trifle awkward; in the post, he looks like a giraffe practicing yoga. But he has the desire and he has the work ethic. And size. Did we mention size?
Rush took longer, and for a while there, it was fair to wonder if he was another Shawne Williams -- minus the friendships with alleged murderers. I'd watch the game, then look at the box score the next day and see that Rush had played 14 minutes, and I couldn't even recall seeing him on the court. He was tentative. He floated. He was lost, seemingly overwhelmed.
And then a switch was flipped. These past few weeks, he has come out of his shell and played like the sweet-shooting two guard the Pacers drafted him to be. Give him another summer and more experience, he's going to be a central part of the Pacers' rebuilding.
Two years, and not a single mention on the police blotter.
I don't bring that up to be flippant. I say it because it's important, really important to a franchise that turned off its fans in the same way the Portland Trail Blazers chased fans from the Rose Garden.
The current crop of Pacers aren't great players or even very good ones. Only one of them, Granger, would be among the top third in the league at their position. (Troy Murphy, who has had a career season, would be in the top half.) But they are professionals. They are likable. They root for one another. They play exceedingly hard and have continued to play hard as the playoff goal has faded.
The crowds at Conseco Fieldhouse have improved in recent weeks, and they're going to continue growing as this team adds players and learns the fine art of stopping somebody.
All season, I've gotten grief for insisting the Pacers were better off missing the playoffs, and I believe that more strongly now than I did at midseason. This team doesn't need the experience of a 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers. This team needs bodies, specifically a low-post presence, who will help them take that next step.
Chances are, they won't make lottery magic, won't get the No. 1 and pick Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, but being in the NBA lottery is better than being just outside the lottery.
It's one thing if you're a young, up-and-coming team like the Atlanta Hawks, who benefited greatly from taking the Boston Celtics to seven games.
It's another thing if you're the Pacers, a team that will finish with around 35 victories.
They have a little bit of salary cap flexibility.
Not a lot, mind you. Not with Jamaal Tinsley's $7 million still on the books and the cap dipping by an expected $6 million. But at least they're moving in the right direction. The Murphy and Mike Dunleavy deals will be obstacles, but at least Jermaine O'Neal's contract is gone. And maybe you've noticed, none of the players Bird jettisoned this past offseason have done squat for their new teams.
No playoffs. No big deal. This is the best that a lot of us have felt about the Indiana Pacers in many years. And that's a terrific place to start.
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