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

Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

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

  • Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

    You know to expect me to post this...


    Dunleavy believes best is still to come

    He wants to expand on breakout season

    By Mike Wells
    Posted: October 2, 2008

    Indiana Pacers swingman Mike Dunleavy played and looked like a free man last season.

    He no longer had to deal with the constant criticism that marked his first 41/2 seasons with Golden State. A clear mental state and an offense geared around his skills allowed Dunleavy to average a career-high 19.1 points and quiet those who saw him as a spot-up shooter and draft bust.

    So what's next for the former No. 3 overall pick?

    "If I can get better in my sixth year in the league, I can get better in my seventh," he said. ". . . I had a lot of pent-up aggression (last season) and frustration and I never really expected it to take that long, that many years, to figure things out. I think I can play in a lot of systems, but I think it helped completely getting away from that mess (in Golden State)."

    Dunleavy's offensive breakthrough -- he averaged five more points than his previous best season and shot a career-high 42 percent on 3-pointers -- didn't surprise Pacers coach Jim O'Brien, who said he structured some of the offense to take advantage of Dunleavy's all-around ability.

    "Michael is a basketball player and Michael needs to play basketball," O'Brien said. "Playing basketball is moving, passing, handling it, being a playmaker. If the only thing you're going to do is spot up, he's never going to have his potential reached. Here, we almost created it because of his skill set because he's so good at moving."

    Dunleavy made enough of an impression on Larry Bird that the Pacers president said, "Whatever you did last summer, you should do it again," during their end-of-the-season meeting.

    That wasn't good enough for Dunleavy. He knows if he expects to finally play on a playoff team, it's going to take more than knocking down an open 3-pointer or filling the lane on fast breaks.

    O'Brien already has said he wants Dunleavy to become a better leader and improve his defense.

    Dunleavy took about three weeks off right after the season, then another couple of weeks in late June to get married. He spent the rest of the time working on parts of his game he routinely fine-tunes -- countless jump shots, fundamental pump-fakes and drives to the basket -- and put extra emphasis on his defense.

    "I put a lot of work into it," Dunleavy said. "The biggest thing I wanted to improve on was my quickness and things like that. Being 6-9, 6-10 and having to chase these little guys around, it's something I have to get better at and improve on."

    While working out in California and New York with teammate Troy Murphy, Dunleavy developed tendinitis in his right knee. It's still sore and forced him to watch the first two days of practice from the sideline. It's possible he could practice today.

    O'Brien said a player can't "dramatically" improve his lateral quickness. However, players can become better defenders by making sure their "technique is flawless, from his body position, to the angle of his feet."

    "There's nobody better on the team from a standpoint of understanding where he needs to be," O'Brien said of Dunleavy. "He's not going to be Kobe Bryant from the standpoint of containing the basketball, but there are ways -- little tricks -- that can be taught to players about how to improve and contain the ball."

    Dunleavy's offensive numbers might not grow this season; the Pacers are expected to have more capable scorers than they did last season. But if he can improve on defense, he'll be able to distance himself further from the mess that was Golden State.

    "It's great to see what's happened to him," said Murphy, his teammate since 2002-03. "He really had a tough go with some of the criticism out there in Golden State that was unwarranted. He worked his butt off (during the summer) and he's in great shape. He's going to get over this little hiccup (knee) he has and he'll be fine."

    http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...TS04/810020459
    I like this article. Things like this weren't said about him in Golden State. He is going to continure to improve his all-around game and become that player he was expected to be.
    Last edited by duke dynamite; 10-02-2008, 02:43 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

    I agree that he probably won't build on his point total this year but given his past history, I'd take another 17+ ppg just to solidify the consistency he has hopefully found. I want him to be a part of our future whether it be in a starting spot or 6th man situation and he's def. going to get his chance
    Reggie Miller is a God. Period.

    Passion. Pride. Pacers.

    It's ALWAYS Miller Time.
    #31 & Only

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

      "There's nobody better on the team from a standpoint of understanding where he needs to be," O'Brien said of Dunleavy.


      That is exactly what I always bring up whenever anyone criticizes Mike's defense. He's really one of the better team defenders the Pacers have had in many years.

      As far as team defense, I'd put him up there with Dale Davis and Derrick McKey - obviously he's not nearly as good as those two in one-on-one defense

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

        Dunleavy would be even better if he didn't have to "chase little guys around."

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

          Originally posted by rexnom View Post
          Dunleavy would be even better if he didn't have to "chase little guys around."
          Good point, but with the two best all-around players being Granger and Dun, one of them has to do it, or else one of them would have to bang with wide-body PFs, which is even worse.

          I used to think Dun would have to go, no matter how well he played, since he and Danny ought to play exclusively at small forward. But more importantly it is nice to have smart players, and I know that's a stereotype, so I'll apply it to BOTH Danny and Mike. I think they both have good instincts, work ethic, appreciation for the team concept, understanding of what it takes to get better, and a determination to get there. I want them both here for the long haul if they can make the defense work.
          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

            If Dun didn't chase the little guys he would have to chase and physically battle the Lebrons, Melos, Carons, Dengs, and other stronger and faster SFs in the league.

            At least this way he is not equally out powered by the Rips, Redds, AIs, Jason Richardsons, Ray Allens, and Brandon Roys.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

              He didn't mention it, but I hope he's working on post up moves to take advantage of "all those little guys" he has to chase around.
              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                Originally posted by intridcold View Post
                If Dun didn't chase the little guys he would have to chase and physically battle the Lebrons, Melos, Carons, Dengs, and other stronger and faster SFs in the league.

                At least this way he is not equally out powered by the Rips, Redds, AIs, Jason Richardsons, Ray Allens, and Brandon Roys.
                Yeah... but nobody can hang with Melo and Bron. The problem is that almost all SGs are faster than Mike and while most SFS won't tire him out, quicker guards will .

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                  Mike doesn't always guard the shooting guard. Granger defends whoever is the better scorer -whether it is the small forward or shooting guard. Anbd Mike takes the other guy. Granger guards Redd so in that case Mike guards the small forward. Not sure about this season now that RJ is there.

                  Last season Granger generally guarded Rip and Mike took Prince

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                    So Mike will have a problem with quickness against most of the leagues starting swingmen.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                      Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                      Mike doesn't always guard the shooting guard. Granger defends whoever is the better scorer -whether it is the small forward or shooting guard. Anbd Mike takes the other guy. Granger guards Redd so in that case Mike guards the small forward. Not sure about this season now that RJ is there.

                      Last season Granger generally guarded Rip and Mike took Prince
                      Obviously.... I was simply referring to "chasing little guys," which neither Danny nor Mike should do.
                      Last edited by rexnom; 10-02-2008, 10:26 AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                        Originally posted by intridcold View Post
                        So Mike will have a problem with quickness against most of the leagues starting swingmen.
                        True.

                        but let me say this, of all the problems with the Pacers defense last season - Mike Dunleavy was at worst a wash. What he gave up in trying to guard his man, he made up for in the team concepts and in trying to get his teammates to play the team defense. My point is Mike wasn't the problem last season.

                        Not to bring Granger into this. But he is in many ways he is the exact opposite of Mike. Danny is excellent at guarding his own man (he should be able to get better at it) but he often gets completely lost in the team defense. Not sure if he just gets too locked into his own man, or if he just isn't understanding what he is supposed to do.

                        The Pacers player who was the best ever at doing both was McKey. Artest was the best ever at guarding and shutting down his own man and while his team defense was better as the years went on - he still was too locked in

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                          Originally posted by rexnom View Post
                          Obviously.... I was simply referring to "chasing little guys," which neither Danny nor Make should do.
                          No doubt both Danny and Mike have trouble with the little guys. That is where Jack should help for sure (of course he will be guarding the point guards, but he can slide over and guard some of the smaller and quicker shooting guards at times) and that is where in time hopefully Rush can really help

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                            Originally posted by McKeyFan View Post
                            He didn't mention it, but I hope he's working on post up moves to take advantage of "all those little guys" he has to chase around.
                            If he'd do that, I'd feel better about him being that big. But his height doesn't do anything for him except give him a higher release. I wouldn't feel comfortable with him posting up anybody taller than 6'4".
                            This space for rent.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Dunleavy believes best is yet to come...

                              Let's face it, either Dun or Granger will ultimately be moved before this team is a contender again. Unless either one of them is really willing to play in the sixth man role. They are both legit starting SFs, but I don't like either of them at SG - especially on the defensive end, period.

                              Probably won't happen this season - although I hope Rush earns the starting SG spot soon - but it is coming.
                              Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                              Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                              Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                              Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                              And life itself, rushing over me
                              Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                              Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X