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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.

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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.
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Mock expansion draft

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  • Mock expansion draft

    Ford: Mock expansion draft for Bobcats

    By Chad Ford
    ESPN Insider

    The Bobcats (finally) are in the house. After a year of planning, scouting and
    strategizing, the Charlotte Bobcats will begin adding the first key pieces of
    their franchise tonight in the NBA expansion draft.

    Charlotte actually got a head start Monday night when it shipped its No. 4 and
    No. 33 picks in the regular draft to the Clippers for the No. 2 pick and Peja
    Drobnjak. By virtue of the trade, which was completed last night, Drobnjak
    officially becomes the first Bobcat.

    On Thursday, the Bobcats will cap the week with the No. 2 pick. It's no secret
    Bobcats general manager Bernie Bickerstaff prefers the Magic take Dwight Howard
    and leave Emeka Okafor for Charlotte. But if Howard falls to them, the Bobcats
    can live with it.

    Tuesday night's expansion draft should add anywhere from three to six pieces to
    the Bobcats' puzzle. While they must select a minimum of 14 players, the Bobcats
    are expected to select a number of restricted free agents, who will
    automatically become unrestricted free agents and won't play for the Bobcats
    next season.

    For the most part, the work is already done. Charlotte must submit its list to
    the league no later than noon ET on Tuesday. Several league sources told Insider
    on Monday that the Bobcats already have agreed to two trades and have decided to
    select and keep at least three players on the list.

    Bickerstaff reiterated Monday evening that the team would not select any
    "big-money players." That means names on the expansion list like Antoine Walker,
    Penny Hardaway, Eddie Jones and Jerry Stackhouse can rest easily.

    Bickerstaff also made it clear what he is looking for in his expansion players.
    "We're looking for young players who need an opportunity to play, to get
    minutes," Bickerstaff said. "They've got skills, athleticism and talent, and we
    just feel they need the opportunity. That's how you get better. You don't get
    better through osmosis. You have to get on the court, and you have to
    participate. What we like about it also is that a lot of these young men will
    come into the situation and they will be hungry, simply because a lot of them
    are in the last year of their contract also."

    That means the Bobcats are going to be looking for deals that land them draft
    picks, young players with a chance to develop, and/or players with low-priced
    contracts or team options whom Charlotte can clear off the books quickly to make
    room for free agency.

    Before we begin, just a quick reminder of the rules of the expansion draft:
    Unrestricted free agents are ineligible for the expansion draft.

    Each team can protect up to eight players. A team with fewer than eight players
    on its roster to protect (because of pending free agency) still must leave at
    least one player unprotected.

    The Bobcats must select a minimum of 14 players and can select a maximum of 29
    overall.

    The Bobcats can select only one player from any one NBA team.

    The Bobcats are not bound to the salary cap during the draft. They can take on
    as many contracts as they choose. However, once the draft is over, any players
    they've drafted and kept on the roster will count toward their cap (which should
    be around $29.5 million next season, 66 percent of the full cap number).

    If the Bobcats waive a player selected in the expansion draft before the first
    day of the regular season, the player's remaining contract will not count
    against the team's salary cap. Of course, Charlotte still would be on the hook
    for the actual salaries of waived players, but there would be no cap effect.

    Restricted free agents selected in the expansion draft automatically become
    unrestricted free agents.

    Teams are allowed to entice the Bobcats to select players by offering cash (up
    to $3 million), draft picks or agreeing to additional trades in return.

    If a team has a player selected by the Bobcats, it receives a trade exception
    equal to the player's 2004-'05 salary. This allows teams to replace a player
    lost in the expansion draft with another player of comparable salary.
    Here's Insider's take on what could go down tonight. Insider has learned that
    some of these players on the expansion mock draft will be taken by the Bobcats.
    Others are speculation. The comments detail which is which.
    MOCK EXPANSION DRAFT FOR CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
    PickPos./NameTeamContractComment
    1
    C Peja Drobjnak Clippers 2 years, $4.7 million As part of the trade that
    sent the Clippers' No. 2 pick to the Bobcats, Charlotte agreed to select
    Drobjnak. According to Bickerstaff, it looks like the team plans on
    keeping him on the roster this season.

    2
    C Jahidi White Suns 1 year, $6.2 million According to several league
    sources, this deal is basically done. How did the Suns convince the
    Bobcats to swallow this contract? They offered $3 million in cash and a
    future first-round pick, perhaps the one Cleveland owes them (that pick is
    lottery-protected, so Phoenix won't get it until the first year the Cavs
    make the playoffs). The Bobcats likely will either turn around and trade
    White to a contender or waive him to get his salary off their cap. Getting
    White off the books gives Phoenix roughly $14.1 million in cap space to
    make a run at a free agent this summer.

    3
    PF Malik Rose Spurs 5 years, $32.8 million Call this one "informed
    speculation." Bickerstaff has been in heated talks with Isiah Thomas about
    selecting Rose and sending him on to the Knicks. Here's how it would work
    if the three teams make a deal: The Spurs, who are trying to clear cap
    space to make some noise in the free-agent market, would send the Bobcats
    $3 million and their first-round pick (No. 28) in return for Charlotte
    selecting Rose. The Bobcats then would ship Rose to the Knicks for Dikembe
    Mutombo, who is in the last year of his contract, and the Knicks'
    second-round pick. Mutombo would end up costing the Bobcats a little more
    than $1 million once you factor in the Spurs' cash payment.

    4
    C Primoz Brezec Pacers 1 year, $1.5 million Bickerstaff revealed Monday
    night he would be taking one of the players the Pacers left unprotected.
    The word out of Charlotte was the team had settled on Brezec -- a 7-foot-1
    center who has played very sparingly over the past three seasons in
    Indiana. It's likely the Bobcats will keep Brezec.

    5
    PF/C Jamal Sampson Lakers 1 year, $695,000 (team option) Sources claim
    Sampson -- young, athletic and inexpensive -- is another player the
    Bobcats will draft. That doesn't mean they'll keep him, however.

    6
    SG/SF Aleksandar Pavlovic Jazz 3 years, $4.3 million This is a no-brainer
    for Charlotte, and sources claim it's very likely he'll be on the team's
    list. The question is, will the Bobcats keep him? There are several teams
    around the league who covet Pavlovic. Expect one of them to offer a
    first-round pick (either this year or in the future) for the Bobcats to
    take Pavlovic in the expansion draft and ship him off in a trade.

    7
    PG Troy Bell Grizzlies 2 years, $2.8 million From here on out, this is all
    speculation. Bell is one of the most attractive names on the expansion
    list. Sources claim Charlotte has been debating between Bell and
    Washington's Juan Dixon. It's likely one of the two will be on the
    Bobcats' list. The Grizzlies have several other players, including Dahntay
    Jones and Theron Smith, that also have some appeal to Charlotte.

    8
    SG Gerald Wallace Kings 1 year, $1.7 million Wallace fits the description
    of the type of player the Bobcats want more than anyone on this list. He
    is another player with huge upside who just never really found his groove
    in Sacramento. At one time he was considered the best high school player
    in the country. The Bobcats could give him a starting role and lots of
    shots next season.

    9
    SF Jason Kapono Cavs 1 year, $620,00 Kapono is a skilled, big-time shooter
    who got some valuable playing experience in Cleveland last year. He's
    likely to make the roster given his minimum salary.

    10
    PF Brandon Hunter Celtics 1 year, $620,000 (team option) Hunter had a
    stretch in late February where he looked like a real keeper. Obviously
    this list isn't littered with serviceable big guys. He's a little
    undersized for the position, but Hunter is worth a gamble.

    11
    SG/SF Tamar Slay Nets Restricted FA Slay is a promising talent whom the
    Bobcats like. However, he'll become an unrestricted free agent if the team
    drafts him, making him eligible to sign with any team in the league.

    12
    G Jeff Trepagnier Nuggets Restricted FA He'll become an unrestricted free
    agent, and the two sides likely will part ways.

    13
    PF Marcus Fizer Bulls Restricted FA Fizer becomes an unrestricted free
    agent if he's selected. The Bobcats can either dump him off the books,
    faciliatate a sign-and-trade or re-sign him if the price was right.

    14
    SG Courtney Alexander Hornets Restricted FA He becomes an unrestricted
    free agent if he's selected and will be in the same situation as Fizer --
    he'll either be dumped off the books, be part of a sign-and-trade or they
    could keep him if he's willing to work cheap.

    Phase One

    With the first three picks, the Bobcats are dealing with an eye toward picking
    up draft choices and moving veteran players to other teams in trades. They've
    already picked up the No. 2 pick as part of the Drobnjak trade. The Suns'
    first-rounder is a future pick. The Spurs' pick, if that deal actually happens,
    would give the Bobcats the 28th and 43rd pick in the draft this year.
    In the three trade scenarios, the Bobcats gain $6 million in cash to offset the
    $13.4 million cost of those players next season. Under the rules of the
    expansion draft, Charlotte could waive White immediately and clear his $6.1
    million salary completely off their cap. Chances are, they'd do just that.
    There's also a good chance the Bobcats would trade Pavlovic if he was selected.
    That deal also could include a first-round pick and cash.

    The next group of players are those the Bobcats are likely to keep. This group
    includes Bell, Brezec, Wallace, Hunter, Kapono and Sampson. If the Bobcats kept
    all six, the total cap hit comes to just $6.4 million. Add in Drobnjak's $2.6
    million salary and Mutombo's $4 million (assuming again they make this trade)
    and the Bobcats have spent $13 million of their projected $29.6 million cap.
    That's not a bad core. Bell is capable of playing point. Wallace is a young,
    athletic two. Kapono can play the three. Hunter and Sampson can play the four.
    Drobnjak, Brezec and Mutombo can all play the five.

    The last four players -- Trepagnier, Slay, Fizer, Alexander -- become
    unrestricted free agents and wouldn't count against the cap unless the Bobcats
    re-signed them.

    Phase Two

    Next, the Bobcats turn to the regular draft. With the No. 2 overall pick,
    they're looking at either Okafor or Howard. The Bobcats prefer Okafor, but can
    live with either one. Either way, they'll get their starting four in the first
    round.

    Bickerstaff also has been trying to acquire a late-lottery or mid-first-round
    pick in an effort to draft Jameer Nelson. Given all the deals the Bobcats are
    looking to do, it seems possible they could get that done.

    If the Bobcats pick up a late first-round pick from the Spurs, they could use it
    on another point guard. They're said to be fond of both Beno Udrih and Chris
    Duhon. However, if they somehow find a way to get Nelson, they instead could
    focus on a big man like David Harrison.

    Phase Three

    The Bobcats won't find everything they need in the draft, but given the extra
    cap space they'd save in the expansion pool as outlined above, the team would
    have roughly $13 million to fill in the holes via free agency.

    With young players such as Kenyon Martin, Mehmet Okur, Jamal Crawford, Quentin
    Richardson, Stromile Swift, Rodney White and Hedo Turkoglu available, Charlotte
    might be able to land a couple of nice, young free agents.

    If I were Bickerstaff, I'd conserve cash and offer nice deals just above the
    mid-level exception to restricted free agents Swift and Crawford. Both are
    young, immensely talented and really need a change of scenery. If you offered
    both a starting salary around $5.5 million to $6 million a year, chances are
    Memphis and Chicago wouldn't match.

    I'd use the rest on a few well-placed veterans who know how to win and play
    hard. Players such as Brian Cardinal, Bob Sura, Bruce Bowen, and Michael Curry
    would all be good fits on an expansion team.

    If the Bobcats follow that blueprint -- and if other teams and players cooperate
    -- here's what their lineup could look like come October.

    Point guard: Jamal Crawford, Troy Bell
    Shooting guard: Gerald Wallace, Bob Sura
    Small forward: Jason Kapono, Brian Cardinal
    Power forward: Stromile Swift, Brandon Hunter, Jamal Sampson
    Center: Emeka Okafor, Peja Drobnjak, Primoz Brezec

    That's a pretty decent team to put on the floor in year one -- high-octane, fun
    to watch, with a real eye toward developing some young stars for the future.

    Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN.com's Insider.
    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

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