Ugh.......
I just typed for over 45 min. about the party and my computer shut down on me. It is now gone
So I am not typing all of that over again. I will just hit the highlights and others can fill in later.
The highlight of the night was ABAdays coming to the party. It has been a long 4 years since he could be with us but everybody was thrilled that he could be there and I hope that he had a good time with us.
Attending:
Diamond Dave
Roaming Gnome
Naptown Seth
Jose Slaughter
Hicks
BillS
Uncle Buck
ABAdays
Thunderbird
Pig Nash
Shade
Duke Dynamite's lovely and more concise girlfriend
Duke Dynamite
and our newest convert Quick Release who added tons in his short time there.
I arrived late due to the weather but once I got there here is what we talked about.
How the Pacers can close out better?
Roy Hibbert.
Brandon Rush.
Jeff Foster.
Marquis Daniels.
Rasho.
Mike Dunleavy.
Jim O'Brien.
Diamond Dave, ABAdays and Quick Release left us around 10 and did not go to Perkins
Uncle Buck finally paid up and bought Bill S his pie.
I'll give you a quick run down of group thoughts on the above although I typed out everything before.
Closing games was basically a three way split.
A. Coaching
B. Players
C. Circumstances
Thunderbird felt that O'Brien did not utilize his assitant coaching staff appropriatley or at all for that matter.
Bill S and Pig both felt that the current players could get the job done once they get more time together to gell and improve.
Diamond Dave felt that the team lacked any low post presence on either offense or defense to ever be a good closing team.
Roy Hibbert.
Universally no one was happy with Roy's min. Even the largest O'Brien supporters felt like Roy should never get a DNP-CD
Some felt that they have no idea what Roy will be like because they have seen so little of him.
Some felt like he will be a solid bench to maybe starter material.
Diamond Dave lectured us all on how pathetic a person is who is seven feet tall and can't rebound. Needless to say he did not see Roy as our future star.
In fact I think the tone on Roy overall was very moderate. There was really no one there willing to say that Roy would be anything more than just a serviceable center other than Seth who felt like he could be a defensive specialist.
Brandon Rush was pretty much universally liked. Most people felt like he will be the starting shooting guard of the future.
Seth compared him to Bobby Phils.
I actaully made the statement that I felt like he would not only be our starter in the future I could see him becoming one of the best defenders in the NBA over time and that I would not be suprised to see him as 3rd team all defensive in about 8 years. Nobody really disagreed.
Scoring wise it went from as low as 13ppg up to 20ppg.
Jeff Foster:
Thunderbird was not a fan of giving him the extension when we did and felt like the team should have waited till the trade deadline.
Everyone else though was happy to have Jeff on board and even I said that this was one of Jeff's best years because he now is at least not totally inept on offense.
Marquis Daniels: This was the odd one for me. I don't remember the exact count but it was a pretty wide margain that most of the people in attendance would prefer to let Quis go at the end of the year. Sign and trade was the preffered method but most wanted him gone.
I felt really odd about that considering how he has played this year.
Rasho was in the same boat. Very very few wanted to keep Rasho for the same contract with a 2 year ext. Some thought that no matter what Rasho was going back to Europe.
Mike Dunleavy: Very controversial topic here.
Most wanted him back and eventaully in the starters role if he is healthy. There were a few who were concerned that the teams defense would suffer with Mikd on the floor.
Proving that the universe mysteries, Uncle Buck wanted the more offensive oriented over the more defensive oriented Marquis Daniels. Stating that our teams problem was on offense.
I about called for a priest to perform an exorcism right there on the spot.
Duke Dynamite's girlfriend made probably the most astute observation on the topic when she said that Mike will decrease turnovers thus helping on defense by not allowing teams to start in attack mode.
I fell on the Daniels side of the argument, however her point was not lost on me.
Jim O'Brien:
Neither universally loved or hated. Most felt he has faults however almost everybody agreed that he is ok for the players we have now. Seth was probably the most vocal against him while Bill S was most vocal for him.
However nobody supported the 8 or 9 man rotation.
I'm sorry guys I had this all much better than this but I just can't do it again. I'll answer any questions I can tomorrow.
A BIG BIG thanks to Jose Slaughter for once again putting this together. I don't know how many this is now but I have been to all but 2 I think and I know he puts a lot of effort in scouting out and calling these places.
Great to see everyone again and I was happy with the turnout considering the weather.
We did not get to as many questions as we would like to have but it was just the circumstances.
I just typed for over 45 min. about the party and my computer shut down on me. It is now gone
So I am not typing all of that over again. I will just hit the highlights and others can fill in later.
The highlight of the night was ABAdays coming to the party. It has been a long 4 years since he could be with us but everybody was thrilled that he could be there and I hope that he had a good time with us.
Attending:
Diamond Dave
Roaming Gnome
Naptown Seth
Jose Slaughter
Hicks
BillS
Uncle Buck
ABAdays
Thunderbird
Pig Nash
Shade
Duke Dynamite's lovely and more concise girlfriend
Duke Dynamite
and our newest convert Quick Release who added tons in his short time there.
I arrived late due to the weather but once I got there here is what we talked about.
How the Pacers can close out better?
Roy Hibbert.
Brandon Rush.
Jeff Foster.
Marquis Daniels.
Rasho.
Mike Dunleavy.
Jim O'Brien.
Diamond Dave, ABAdays and Quick Release left us around 10 and did not go to Perkins
Uncle Buck finally paid up and bought Bill S his pie.
I'll give you a quick run down of group thoughts on the above although I typed out everything before.
Closing games was basically a three way split.
A. Coaching
B. Players
C. Circumstances
Thunderbird felt that O'Brien did not utilize his assitant coaching staff appropriatley or at all for that matter.
Bill S and Pig both felt that the current players could get the job done once they get more time together to gell and improve.
Diamond Dave felt that the team lacked any low post presence on either offense or defense to ever be a good closing team.
Roy Hibbert.
Universally no one was happy with Roy's min. Even the largest O'Brien supporters felt like Roy should never get a DNP-CD
Some felt that they have no idea what Roy will be like because they have seen so little of him.
Some felt like he will be a solid bench to maybe starter material.
Diamond Dave lectured us all on how pathetic a person is who is seven feet tall and can't rebound. Needless to say he did not see Roy as our future star.
In fact I think the tone on Roy overall was very moderate. There was really no one there willing to say that Roy would be anything more than just a serviceable center other than Seth who felt like he could be a defensive specialist.
Brandon Rush was pretty much universally liked. Most people felt like he will be the starting shooting guard of the future.
Seth compared him to Bobby Phils.
I actaully made the statement that I felt like he would not only be our starter in the future I could see him becoming one of the best defenders in the NBA over time and that I would not be suprised to see him as 3rd team all defensive in about 8 years. Nobody really disagreed.
Scoring wise it went from as low as 13ppg up to 20ppg.
Jeff Foster:
Thunderbird was not a fan of giving him the extension when we did and felt like the team should have waited till the trade deadline.
Everyone else though was happy to have Jeff on board and even I said that this was one of Jeff's best years because he now is at least not totally inept on offense.
Marquis Daniels: This was the odd one for me. I don't remember the exact count but it was a pretty wide margain that most of the people in attendance would prefer to let Quis go at the end of the year. Sign and trade was the preffered method but most wanted him gone.
I felt really odd about that considering how he has played this year.
Rasho was in the same boat. Very very few wanted to keep Rasho for the same contract with a 2 year ext. Some thought that no matter what Rasho was going back to Europe.
Mike Dunleavy: Very controversial topic here.
Most wanted him back and eventaully in the starters role if he is healthy. There were a few who were concerned that the teams defense would suffer with Mikd on the floor.
Proving that the universe mysteries, Uncle Buck wanted the more offensive oriented over the more defensive oriented Marquis Daniels. Stating that our teams problem was on offense.
I about called for a priest to perform an exorcism right there on the spot.
Duke Dynamite's girlfriend made probably the most astute observation on the topic when she said that Mike will decrease turnovers thus helping on defense by not allowing teams to start in attack mode.
I fell on the Daniels side of the argument, however her point was not lost on me.
Jim O'Brien:
Neither universally loved or hated. Most felt he has faults however almost everybody agreed that he is ok for the players we have now. Seth was probably the most vocal against him while Bill S was most vocal for him.
However nobody supported the 8 or 9 man rotation.
I'm sorry guys I had this all much better than this but I just can't do it again. I'll answer any questions I can tomorrow.
A BIG BIG thanks to Jose Slaughter for once again putting this together. I don't know how many this is now but I have been to all but 2 I think and I know he puts a lot of effort in scouting out and calling these places.
Great to see everyone again and I was happy with the turnout considering the weather.
We did not get to as many questions as we would like to have but it was just the circumstances.
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