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

Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 6
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 template Next
  • #1

    Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

    http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft...adetalk-080618


    With the NBA draft just days away and teams getting close to finishing their workouts with prospects, GMs are getting serious about jockeying for position in the draft.


    The last few days, a number of GMs have told me the phones ring more and more, with serious trade discussions taking place. Those talks will hit a fever pitch next week.


    Here's what we're hearing so far:


    The Phoenix Suns have put Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw on the table in attempts to either move up in the draft or secure another veteran to play alongside Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shaquille O'Neal.


    "I think our needs are pretty clear," one Suns insider told ESPN.com. "We can't ask Grant Hill to play 40 minutes a night, and Barbosa isn't really a point guard."


    The Suns own the Atlanta Hawks' pick at No. 15, but the players they covet in the draft -- Russell Westbrook, Joe Alexander and Brandon Rush -- probably will be lottery picks.


    Small forwards on the market include Richard Jefferson of the New Jersey Nets, Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavericks, Gerald Wallace of the Charlotte Bobcats and Tayshaun Prince of the Detroit Pistons.


    But there are stumbling blocks to each deal. The Mavs might not want to send Howard to a rival team. Detroit president Joe Dumars is probably not interested in Diaw. The Nets need contracts that expire by 2010. And it's unclear whether the Suns would be willing to take back Wallace's contract.




    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    The Suns and a number of other teams are talking to the Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers and Nets about trading up in (or out of) the draft.


    The Wolves seem especially ready to make a deal if Michael Beasley isn't on the board at No. 3. They like several of the bigs in this draft, including Brook Lopez, Kevin Love and Danilo Gallinari, but none of them is worth taking at No. 3.


    It appears the Wolves won't take back veterans, though. Several GMs told me that Kevin McHale is looking for young players only.


    The Knicks' Donnie Walsh would like to find a new home for Zach Randolph, but he has struggled to find takers. And New York would love to move up a spot or two in the draft to get O.J. Mayo or Jerryd Bayless.


    If it can't, much-desired Westbrook might be the target. Word of the Knicks' interest in Westbrook has generated phone calls from teams trying to get him.


    The Clippers have been looking to move up to the No. 3 spot to get Mayo, and they've talked with a number of teams about virtually everyone on L.A.'s roster.


    According to one Clippers insider, "No one is safe right now." With players such as Elton Brand, Al Thornton and Chris Kaman on the roster, the Clips could jolt things as the draft approaches.


    The Bucks have been trying to move up in the draft to add some star power to their team.


    In particular, we've heard Mayo's name associated with the Bucks. The Bucks have been trying to get into that seven-team Mayo workout in Chicago on Saturday to get a closer look.


    Bucks GM John Hammond has gotten a lot of calls, with other teams especially interested in Yi Jianlian and Charlie Villanueva. Mo Williams and Michael Redd are also in play in Milwaukee right now.


    The Nets, I'm told, did not make a promise to draft Danilo Gallinari -- in part, that's because they might not keep the No. 10 pick. They are trying to find a deal that brings them a star in the draft and/or allows them to move Richard Jefferson to clear cap space for the summer of 2010. Right now, it looks as though the cap space solution is the more likely option for New Jersey.


    The Blazers have the 13th, 33nd, 36th and 55th picks in the draft. Obviously, they don't want four rookies joining the two they already have coming in -- Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez.


    GM Kevin Pritchard, as always, is being creative trying to package those picks with young assets such as Jarrett Jack and Travis Outlaw and the expiring contract of Raef LaFrentz to move up or to get a veteran. Portland also is considering packaging those second-round picks to get another first-round pick.

    To hear Pritchard talk about the Blazers' draft plan in our Tuesday podcast, click here.




    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    We have, it appears, our first known promise of the draft. Multiple sources say that UCLA's Westbrook has shut down all workouts and has a promise in the mid-lottery range.


    Apparently the promise isn't coming from the Knicks. They like Westbrook at No. 6, but they're also looking at Mayo, Bayless, Alexander and Eric Gordon.


    The promise isn't coming from the Bucks or Pacers; neither team was able to get him in for a workout.


    That leaves the Clippers at No. 7 and the Bobcats at No. 9. As noted above, the Clippers are trying to move up to get Mayo, so I doubt it's them. That leaves the Bobcats as the most likely to have made a promise to Westbrook.


    One other possibility: The Seattle SuperSonics have taken a strong interest in Westbrook, according to sources. While No. 4 is a little higher than expected for him to go, one source said it's possible that the Sonics will trade down a few spots and take Westbrook.



    More trade notes:


    • With the Lakers flaming out in the Finals, it didn't take long for speculation about Lamar Odom to begin. A number of teams covet Odom because of his expiring contract.


    I'd expect the Lakers to hear from the Nets (for Richard Jefferson), the Bulls (for Andres Nocioni), the Kings (for Ron Artest) and Memphis (for Mike Miller).


    The Lakers and Grizzlies, as you might remember, have a history.


    • The hottest rumor of the day has the Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets talking about a swap that would send Kyle Lowry and the No. 28 pick to Denver for the No. 20 and Linas Kleiza.


    • The Cleveland Cavaliers have been talking to a number of teams about Anderson Varejao.


    One possible destination for Varejao is the Golden State Warriors. According to a source familiar with the talks, the Cavs would send Varejao and the No. 19 pick to Golden State for Brandan Wright. The Warriors hold a $10 million trade exception that allows them to take back a lot more money than they send out in a trade.



    Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

    If Westbrook has a promise from the Clippers or Bobkitties, I really think it is shaping up that Gordon is gonna drop.


    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

      Originally posted by Indy View Post
      If Westbrook has a promise from the Clippers or Bobkitties, I really think it is shaping up that Gordon is gonna drop.

      Something tells me the Knicks are going to take him at 6.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

        Things are heating up, but nothing involving the Pacers. Typical.
        Turn out the lights, this party's over!

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

          You traded during the draft just last year, didn't you?

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

            Peter Vecsey said on NBATV last night that the Lakers will look to trade Odom and Odom's people are expecting him to be traded this summer.
            Last edited by Unclebuck; 06-19-2008, 11:24 AM.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

              Originally posted by Fool View Post
              You traded during the draft just last year, didn't you?
              yup for Stanko.
              This is the darkest timeline.

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                Right, the draft is tomorrow.

                I'm curious.
                Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
                Bum in Berlin on Myspace

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                  I'll be waiting to see if we package Randolph with our draft pick to someone.

                  Walsh would be pilloried in the NY Press but I'm not positive that's a bad move.

                  The Zach Randolph we all know and ridicule won't be taken by anyone unless we offer them a huge piece of something tasty in return - or take back a problem.

                  This assumes Zach won't do a 180 on his game and decide to play defense and share the ball a little. I doubt it happens but you never know - new coach and GM who have a clue? Anything's possible.

                  I guess I'm not convinced there's anything available at 6 that will be worth more than ditching Zach's contract and being able to play in the FA market the summer of 2010. I get past the Big 4 - Beasley, Rose, Mayo & Bayless and I just can't get excited about the rest of the class - or at least I'm not more excited about picking 5 than if I was picking 15th.
                  The poster formerly known as Rimfire

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                    Originally posted by Indy View Post
                    If Westbrook has a promise from the Clippers or Bobkitties, I really think it is shaping up that Gordon is gonna drop.
                    I'm thinking that as well. I really hate the fact that we won't likely be getting Westbrook. I'm envisioning an available Gordon, and the Pacers choosing to pass. Didn't he refuse to work out here? Is there anything to that, other than him thinking he'd be picked sooner than 11th? He's the one that I see realistically dropping.
                    Last edited by NapTonius Monk; 06-19-2008, 11:56 AM.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                      Look for the Los Angeles Lakers to try and land an early second round pick (possibly from Seattle) in order to draft IUPUI’s George Hill. He worked out in Los Angeles and reportedly was very impressive. His college team actually ran the triangle offense, and that is always a big factor in the Lakers’ workouts.

                      From Draft Express
                      Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                        Originally posted by QuickRelease View Post
                        I'm thinking that as well. I really hate the fact that we won't likely be getting Westbrook. I'm envisioning an available Gordon, and the Pacers choosing to pass. Didn't he refuse to work out here? Is there anything to that, other than him thinking he'd be picked sooner than 11th? He's the one that I see realistically dropping.
                        I'd probably lose it if that happened.



                        RE: George Hill

                        From Ooey Pooey to LA huh? His head might explode.


                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                          It's really starting to look like Gordon, Westbrook, and Augustin are all going to be off the board by #11.

                          So much for 2-3 spots in the lottery not making much of a difference...

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                            Originally posted by Indy View Post


                            RE: George Hill

                            From Ooey Pooey to LA huh? His head might explode.

                            Exactly what I was thinking.
                            Passion. Pride. Patience. Pacers

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Re: Trade rumors heating up as draft approaches. - Chad Ford

                              Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                              Peter Vecsey said on NBATV last night that the Lakers will look to trade Odom and Odom's people are expecting him to be traded this summer.
                              I wouldn't want anything to do with Odom! Everyone was talking about how great he played in game 3 of the finals. He did play great.....in that one game. Out of 82 regular season games, he might play great in 15-20 of them. He has so much talent and natural ability but zero motivation! What a waste!
                              Turn out the lights, this party's over!

                              Comment

                              Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 template Next
                              Working...
                              X