Ok, so most of us are sad, angry, upset, angry, betrayed, angry and upset.
That doesn't make for the most considerate posts in your lifetime, or even the past 24 hours.
So I am not sure if mine will be listed among my worst (easy, there's a lot of them) or whether I have "calmed down" enough to really make clear what my thoughts are.
Shock, when I first read, partly rejection when I heard that Rick was misquoted.
Stupid Ron, when I read it again, dumb Pacers when I read it again, wondering how on earth, knowing this guy, they let him alone during an interview and did not take other precautions for preventing this coming out the way it did.
Why would I want to prevent this coming out ? because no matter how you look upon it and whether you like Wells or not (I specifically don't, I'm no enquirer reader) this hurts the franchise far more then anything else or any player.
This sinks any championship hopes we had, this ruins the value of a team and a player, no matter that in case of a trade there will be more then enough suitors.
Now for some information that is greatly ignored and I will not speculate on what DW & LB will do, whatever it will be done with the best of the franchise in mind, however I do think they carry at least as much responsibility for letting this get to where it is at right now as anyone else.
Earl yin the season, Reggie reports "chemistry problems" on the team on national television. The discussion here and everywhere takes of, all newspapers and columnists run with it, JO speaks out, Cro speaks out, they settle whatever it was they had and we win a few games, until the next burnout.
The pattern in our W/L coumn is; a team over 500 is likely to be beaten, a team under likely not.
Now that is an important pattern, certainly if we add the stats for the loss and wins, +12 on wins and -10 on losses. According to Carlisle that is astonishing, menaing they can and will play the system, that the system works, but not when they can not be bothered.
In the mean time, JO gets ripped on these board, untill he steps it up about 4 or 5 games into the competition and starts playing MVP style ball.
Next to be ripped is Tins, and while he's out with an injury the focus shifts on Jax, next of the goats.
Some question Carlisle, AJ states in an interview that when Rick lets the team play (like aginst the Nets) they do a lot better then when he micro-manages, yes AJ commented on Rick.
JO is the face of the franchise and has firmly underscored that by playing as he does at the moment and being thoughtfull though open in his interviews, he gets in a scuffle with Jax but strangely enough Rick does nothing.
Tinsley in the meanwhile is silent, while the fans en mass jump on the Saras bandwagon, an influx of LT fans helping with that "view" and make yet again a rookie and newcomer on the team the team's saviour (remember when Jax came here, or Miller, or (stop, list can easily get to long) Granger (new rook) also sees his status with the fans rising to the top, while last year's heroes, Tinsley, Harrisson and Jax see their stock plumet on the index that is PD.
Back a little while, (last seasons) Artest states Rick micro-manages to much, as says JO, Tins, even Reggie to a point says so.
return to the future:
Once again Ron comments on Rick's coaching, added with the above, (L/W column) and Jax has done so, if Tins did this time I missed it, but I doubt he did, last time he did he was riding pine in favour of Kenny Anderson and AJ.
Hulk obviously is so unhappy that he smashes his own picture, not the first and not the last player to do something like that.
A pattern of unhappy players is clear, for whatever reason, the list grows, and the chemistry is not getting better.
Then we return to today; Ron's statements, and the trade propositions made here, and even an open letter to the Pacers, management, though I would write the players, nonetheless, a large part of the team now needs to be traded because they are no choir boys.
Of course it is UB who writes that letter and who keeps in mind that if his favorite Pacer has to be traded he might as well get rid of all other players he does't really like, so I'll take it with a grain of salt.
Now what do I consider we should do?
Look hard at why these guys worked together great over the past 3 years, what happed after we lost in the conference finals and a 61 win season?
For one: we got Stephen Jackson and last year he was hailed as our saviour when he came in, went in the stands, threw punches, got 30 games and came back, still our saviour, but some soured on him for the brawl, some later for his play.
We drafted Hulk, another last pick in the first round that according to some would turn out to be the steal of the draft and fill the void we had at C (seemingly).
After the brawl the team went on a merry go round, up and down, up and down and so on, until we brough on Dale and made a nice run towards the semi's of the conf, where we were exposed by the Pistons once again and in no part due to a serious injury to JO.
So now we started a new season, people wanting to get rid of JO, because he's always inured, and Tins for the same reason, certainly after the European Saviour was signed and AJ had his yearly "great" game early on.
So let's see, and forget the fans pov, just for a minute, we have unhappy players galore, none of them like the system the coach plays, we lost a co-head coach in Mike and that happened the one who brought Tins back in to the game, kept Jax in hand and related well with Ronnie and all other players.
He's "replaced" in function by our 3rd coach, Kevin O'neal, who left Tororto because he lost the players confidence shortly before management lost it as well, here he becomes co-head coach.
Chuck Person is moved from the front office to the bench (by management or did Rick request it?) and is supposed to "replace" the player-interaction Mike brought.
Now in that picture, where best friends Rick & Kevin are head coach, the influence of new comer Chuck is small at best if Rick suggested adding him, but even less then that if management came up with the idea.
The medial staff was replaced, the conditioning coach was replaced, in short a lot of other people moved into important places, important places for chemistry, trust and human relations on a team.
We now are heavily discussing trading Ron, as he asked for it, Tins, as he is injured, Jax, as he is "disruptive" and wants things that shouldn't be and ok, for now we do not want to trade JO, but AJ, Fred, Hulk can all go as well.
Does no one stop to ask questions?
If so many are unhappy with the coaching staff, perhaps we have a problem there?
Do we want to trade away half our team, give up all hope and wait another 3 years to see what happens?
Or do we think "just trading Ron" will solve our problems and we'll remain a "contender"?
Or do we stop to think and ponder what is really wrong and going on?
I like to do the latter, not to save Ron for the Pacers, not because I like the player Artest, he's certainly not my favourite Pacer, but his talent remains undiscussed, and if most of you recognise that Phil J could make it perhaps work with him, then why not another coach?
Do you really think that Rick is still the ideal coach for this team?
Let's look at all angles, if there is a fire when there is smoke, then there is a fire in the coaching staff as well, only Ron and it is nonsense, but all those players and it becomes a very serious problem.
That doesn't make for the most considerate posts in your lifetime, or even the past 24 hours.
So I am not sure if mine will be listed among my worst (easy, there's a lot of them) or whether I have "calmed down" enough to really make clear what my thoughts are.
Shock, when I first read, partly rejection when I heard that Rick was misquoted.
Stupid Ron, when I read it again, dumb Pacers when I read it again, wondering how on earth, knowing this guy, they let him alone during an interview and did not take other precautions for preventing this coming out the way it did.
Why would I want to prevent this coming out ? because no matter how you look upon it and whether you like Wells or not (I specifically don't, I'm no enquirer reader) this hurts the franchise far more then anything else or any player.
This sinks any championship hopes we had, this ruins the value of a team and a player, no matter that in case of a trade there will be more then enough suitors.
Now for some information that is greatly ignored and I will not speculate on what DW & LB will do, whatever it will be done with the best of the franchise in mind, however I do think they carry at least as much responsibility for letting this get to where it is at right now as anyone else.
Earl yin the season, Reggie reports "chemistry problems" on the team on national television. The discussion here and everywhere takes of, all newspapers and columnists run with it, JO speaks out, Cro speaks out, they settle whatever it was they had and we win a few games, until the next burnout.
The pattern in our W/L coumn is; a team over 500 is likely to be beaten, a team under likely not.
Now that is an important pattern, certainly if we add the stats for the loss and wins, +12 on wins and -10 on losses. According to Carlisle that is astonishing, menaing they can and will play the system, that the system works, but not when they can not be bothered.
In the mean time, JO gets ripped on these board, untill he steps it up about 4 or 5 games into the competition and starts playing MVP style ball.
Next to be ripped is Tins, and while he's out with an injury the focus shifts on Jax, next of the goats.
Some question Carlisle, AJ states in an interview that when Rick lets the team play (like aginst the Nets) they do a lot better then when he micro-manages, yes AJ commented on Rick.
JO is the face of the franchise and has firmly underscored that by playing as he does at the moment and being thoughtfull though open in his interviews, he gets in a scuffle with Jax but strangely enough Rick does nothing.
Tinsley in the meanwhile is silent, while the fans en mass jump on the Saras bandwagon, an influx of LT fans helping with that "view" and make yet again a rookie and newcomer on the team the team's saviour (remember when Jax came here, or Miller, or (stop, list can easily get to long) Granger (new rook) also sees his status with the fans rising to the top, while last year's heroes, Tinsley, Harrisson and Jax see their stock plumet on the index that is PD.
Back a little while, (last seasons) Artest states Rick micro-manages to much, as says JO, Tins, even Reggie to a point says so.
return to the future:
Once again Ron comments on Rick's coaching, added with the above, (L/W column) and Jax has done so, if Tins did this time I missed it, but I doubt he did, last time he did he was riding pine in favour of Kenny Anderson and AJ.
Hulk obviously is so unhappy that he smashes his own picture, not the first and not the last player to do something like that.
A pattern of unhappy players is clear, for whatever reason, the list grows, and the chemistry is not getting better.
Then we return to today; Ron's statements, and the trade propositions made here, and even an open letter to the Pacers, management, though I would write the players, nonetheless, a large part of the team now needs to be traded because they are no choir boys.
Of course it is UB who writes that letter and who keeps in mind that if his favorite Pacer has to be traded he might as well get rid of all other players he does't really like, so I'll take it with a grain of salt.
Now what do I consider we should do?
Look hard at why these guys worked together great over the past 3 years, what happed after we lost in the conference finals and a 61 win season?
For one: we got Stephen Jackson and last year he was hailed as our saviour when he came in, went in the stands, threw punches, got 30 games and came back, still our saviour, but some soured on him for the brawl, some later for his play.
We drafted Hulk, another last pick in the first round that according to some would turn out to be the steal of the draft and fill the void we had at C (seemingly).
After the brawl the team went on a merry go round, up and down, up and down and so on, until we brough on Dale and made a nice run towards the semi's of the conf, where we were exposed by the Pistons once again and in no part due to a serious injury to JO.
So now we started a new season, people wanting to get rid of JO, because he's always inured, and Tins for the same reason, certainly after the European Saviour was signed and AJ had his yearly "great" game early on.
So let's see, and forget the fans pov, just for a minute, we have unhappy players galore, none of them like the system the coach plays, we lost a co-head coach in Mike and that happened the one who brought Tins back in to the game, kept Jax in hand and related well with Ronnie and all other players.
He's "replaced" in function by our 3rd coach, Kevin O'neal, who left Tororto because he lost the players confidence shortly before management lost it as well, here he becomes co-head coach.
Chuck Person is moved from the front office to the bench (by management or did Rick request it?) and is supposed to "replace" the player-interaction Mike brought.
Now in that picture, where best friends Rick & Kevin are head coach, the influence of new comer Chuck is small at best if Rick suggested adding him, but even less then that if management came up with the idea.
The medial staff was replaced, the conditioning coach was replaced, in short a lot of other people moved into important places, important places for chemistry, trust and human relations on a team.
We now are heavily discussing trading Ron, as he asked for it, Tins, as he is injured, Jax, as he is "disruptive" and wants things that shouldn't be and ok, for now we do not want to trade JO, but AJ, Fred, Hulk can all go as well.
Does no one stop to ask questions?
If so many are unhappy with the coaching staff, perhaps we have a problem there?
Do we want to trade away half our team, give up all hope and wait another 3 years to see what happens?
Or do we think "just trading Ron" will solve our problems and we'll remain a "contender"?
Or do we stop to think and ponder what is really wrong and going on?
I like to do the latter, not to save Ron for the Pacers, not because I like the player Artest, he's certainly not my favourite Pacer, but his talent remains undiscussed, and if most of you recognise that Phil J could make it perhaps work with him, then why not another coach?
Do you really think that Rick is still the ideal coach for this team?
Let's look at all angles, if there is a fire when there is smoke, then there is a fire in the coaching staff as well, only Ron and it is nonsense, but all those players and it becomes a very serious problem.
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