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

Kravitz: The Pacers are stuck in purgatory, and the NBA is to blame

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

  • Kravitz: The Pacers are stuck in purgatory, and the NBA is to blame

    All throughout certain portions of the NBA, a manic game of musical chairs was being played before and during the league’s free-agency period. Superstars were changing locations as free agents. Others were forcing trades from their current teams so they could join forces with another superstar. The big names were flying about with big-market teams, or better yet, big-revenue teams, finding a seat among the league’s elite.

    And the Indiana Pacers?

    They couldn’t even get meetings. They couldn’t get meetings with the Tier I free agents, which comes as no great surprise. But even after decades of sustained success — and by success, we mean being a playoff team year in and year out — they couldn’t even get a meeting with the representatives of the second-tier free agents. Khris Middleton? Not interested. Tobias Harris? Thanks, but no thanks.

    That’s not to say the Pacers struck out this offseason. Fact is, they did as well or even better than expected, pulling off a sign-and-trade for former Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon, dealing for former Phoenix forward T.J. Warren (in exchange for cash) and signing free agent Jeremy Lamb. If Victor Oladipo can return from his injury sometime in December or January — there is no established timetable, or at least there’s not one the Pacers are willing to share externally — Indiana figures to be a playoff team once again. One thing about the Pacers is, they always seem to get more bang for their buck than their competitors – which is great, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the Pacers will be playing deep into the spring.

    And that’s the problem, for Indiana and for so many of the lower-revenue, small-market teams: The most they can promise their fans is that they’ll be good, better than average, competitive. The Pacers have resided in this NBA purgatory for years, having not won a first-round playoff series since 2014. They won’t tank — ever — which is both an outdated philosophy and a noble one. So they continue to reside somewhere in the middle, good enough to maintain fan interest but rarely great enough to make a run at an NBA title.

    The one thing sports can do is sell hope, something the parity-driven NFL does better than anybody. In the NFL, worst-to-first is not a complete anomaly. A few prescient off-season moves, a great draft like the Colts had last year, and you can go from 4-12 to 10-6 (with a whole lot of help from Andrew Luck’s return).

    My fear is, the NBA, with its soft salary cap and more loopholes than the tax code, continues to become a league of haves and have-nots, creating a semi-permanent underclass of teams who are always left picking up the crumbs after the free-agent party passes them by.


    While NBA Twitter was entranced by the wild machinations of free agency and offseason trades, where KD and Kyrie decided to look for their elusive happiness in Brooklyn, where Kawhi and Paul George chose to join forces with the Clippers, where Anthony Davis left New Orleans to join LeBron, where the rich generally got richer, small-market teams were left with their noses pressed up against the glass.

    Is this healthy?

    Let me answer my own question.

    This is not healthy.

    Would a hard cap — and good luck negotiating that into the next collective bargaining agreement — level the playing field?

    Let me answer my own question again.

    Absolutely.

    Right now, the salary cap is like a highway speed limit: It’s just a suggestion, a vague parameter. And that allows teams such as the Lakers, arguably one of the most mismanaged franchises the league has seen the past decade, morph into a title contender virtually overnight with the Davis addition.

    Meanwhile, the Pacers, who have been a model of consistency and solid leadership the past 30 years, are resigned to competing with good, but not elite, players.

    It’s not a matter of being unwilling to spend money, although the Pacers figure to have one of the lowest payrolls, if not the lowest payroll, in the league next season. Owner Herb Simon is on record saying he would spend more to make the Pacers a title contender, but if expensive players and their representatives are not interested in so much as taking a meeting with Kevin Pritchard and his staff, who do you pay?

    NBA commissioner Adam Silver has addressed the concept of a hard cap, something that’s utilized in the NFL, NHL and Major League Soccer, but he has suggested he doesn’t want to legislate the kind of parity that produces mediocrity (his words). What I’m saying is, the NBA could use a little bit of parity. The NBA needs to establish a system that gives everybody — that is, well-managed franchises — some real hope they can succeed at the highest level while operating out of a low-revenue market.

    Clearly, there are anomalies. The San Antonio Spurs have been a beacon of excellence for years while playing in a city that hardly rates as a huge market. The Pacers themselves reached the NBA Finals in 2000 and have made seven other trips to the Eastern Conference Finals since 1994. Toronto, a team that didn’t have a single lottery pick and a market that doesn’t draw big-time free agents because of its location, won the NBA title last year. Milwaukee, another small market (albeit one that has spent a ton of money), reached the Eastern Conference Finals last year, thanks in large part to the growth of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

    Certainly, less-visible markets are making inroads, such as Portland and Utah, which both figure to be contenders out West next season.

    It has happened and it can happen. But this is the age of super teams, mega-stars conspiring with one another, even tampering, in order to run with their old AAU buddies. The Lakers got richer. The Clippers got richer. The Nets got richer. And everybody else is left to look on. Anybody see a change on the horizon? I don’t.

    If you’re Indiana or any of the other smallish markets in this league, you are operating with one hand tied behind your back. To succeed, you have to ace every offseason. You know game-changing free agents aren’t coming — David West rates as Indiana’s biggest-name free-agent acquisition in the team’s history — so that means winning every trade and drafting brilliantly, often in the middle of the first round (see: the refusal to tank). The margin of error is slimmer than Tacko Fall. The Pacers can’t make the same kinds of mistakes the Lakers have made in recent years and have any reason to believe they can turn it all around with one massive move to acquire the likes of an Anthony Davis. And it is a source of perpetual frustration for the men who run franchises like the Pacers, Grizzlies, Kings … and the list goes on.

    Meanwhile, Silver has to deal with the ongoing issue of tampering in his league. Nobody around Indy will ever forget Magic Johnson’s absurdly ill-advised appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, where he clearly tampered with then-Pacer Paul George. The Pacers have a tough enough time retaining free agents-to-be without the Lakers then-team president going on national TV and overtly expressing his desire to add George to his lineup. As you might expect, the Pacers were properly incensed and complained to the league.

    The result was laughable: A $500,000 fine. That’s pocket change. But you know what it is, too? It’s the price of doing business. In the end, George decided to remain in Oklahoma City — for one additional season, anyway — but you don’t think it was worth the price the Lakers paid? There is no incentive to play by the rules.

    If Silver wants to put some teeth into the tampering rules, he will start taking away draft choices.

    That would stop the tampering in a heartbeat.


    The absurdity of the whole thing was on full display during the free agent period. According to the NBA calendar, teams, players and agents could start discussing the parameters of a free-agent contract beginning June 30 at 6 p.m. But at 6:01, here came all the tweets from The Athletic’s Shams Charania and his ilk, telling us about all the epic signings throughout the league. In some cases, journalists reported that several signings were a fait accompli long before the 6 p.m. start time.

    Silver knows he needs to fix the problem. He just doesn’t seem to know how at this time.

    “Obviously, if deals are being announced immediately after the discussion period begins, there had been prior discussions,’’ Silver told reporters recently. “I think the consensus at both our committee meetings and the board meeting was that we need to revisit and reset those rules, that some of the rules we have in place may not make sense. I think it’s pointless at the end of the day to have rules that we can’t enforce. I think it hurt the perception of integrity around the league if people say, ‘Well, you have that rule and it’s obvious that teams aren’t fully complying, so why do you have it.'”

    Look, I’m all for players having power and doing what’s best for them and their families. It’s their collectively bargained right to shape their careers, although I’m chilled by guys forcing trades with years left on their contracts. But there’s got to be some kind of middle ground, a way to keep the revenue disparities, and geographic location, from producing a league that is composed of a small number of super teams and a whole bunch of wannabes.

    Free agency was wild and fun and completely nuts.

    Here in Indiana, and places just like Indiana?

    Yawn.

    Just like always
    .
    Despite their sustained success, the Pacers couldn't even get meetings with top-tier free agents. It seems to happen almost every year.
    Sittin on top of the world!

  • #2
    Let's see ... Kravitz is a well known shill for the Pacers, doing his best PR job to set the fan base up to accept the excuse that they did the best they could while being cheap and stupid.

    Did I get that right?
    BillS

    A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
    Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

    Comment


    • #3
      Kravitz has been doing Pacers PR for years now, my guess is since he was let go from the Star he had to change his style to survive wouldn't surprise me if he takes the Montieth a** kissing award soon
      @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

      Comment


      • #4
        Hey just like KP and Bird failed to put any sort of talent around Paul George while he was a Pacer. The Pelicans failed to put elite talent around Davis, and OKC was so hard up to trade for Paul George they didn't even consider the salary cap ramifications of adding him and resigning him, along with trying to fill out the team with good shooters. In pretty much every case its a situation where the team was built terribly from roster standpoint or the star player was traded for a year before his free agency. Expecting players who have never had a choice in what teams they play for pass up the opportunity to do so in free agency is a red flag in my book. Teams in good situations kept their players.

        This dynamic duo trend is the best thing to happen to the league in years. Its going to be no longer about overwhelming talent to win the championship. Matchups are going to be really important going forward.

        if Indiana play's its hand correctly over the next 2 years, they will be able to make a trade to get a guy like Beal.

        I'd also like to add that it appears star players can be had for essentially multiple first round picks. The Pacers just refuse to pay this kind of price for a star player, even though they have only hit on 2 draft picks in the last 9-10 years? Paul George and Myles Turner. Solomon Hill, Lance Stephenson, Georges Niang, Miles Plumlee, Orlando Johnson...none of these guys were kept around past their rookie deals. Infact trading the draft pick has resulted in George Hill and Thad Young who are solid starters. So if the Pacers expand their trade tolerance to included multiple first round picks....they too can pursue the likes of Westbrook, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, and etc...
        Last edited by graphic-er; 07-16-2019, 03:30 PM.
        You can't get champagne from a garden hose.

        Comment


        • #5
          Two PR articles by different people about how "poor Pacers can't catch a break" it's not coincidence, this has PR campaign written all over.
          @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
            Two PR articles by different people about how "poor Pacers can't catch a break" it's not coincidence, this has PR campaign written all over.
            The Star article has NBA players quoted in it. They're not doing PR for the Pacers.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by CJ Jones View Post

              The Star article has NBA players quoted in it. They're not doing PR for the Pacers.
              Those NBA players are well known PR flacks for the Pacers. They were told to say those things by Herb Simon.
              BillS

              A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
              Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

              Comment


              • #8
                I think Kravitz is right.

                The NBA Salary "Cap" is a joke. They need a hard cap.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Instead of refuting that the Pacers cannot land tier 1 or even t2 free agents for the most part - you just bash Kravitz as schilling. I'm sure you have numerous examples through the last 20-30 years of the Pacers luring and attracting big level Free Agents. I know, I know facts and all don't really fit the narrative that Simon's cheap and we aren't trying hard enough, but that's a stupid take grounded in 0 reality. If Leonard, Harris, Butler, or whomever wanted to sign here, we would have made them the offer. Even J. Michael stated as much - we would go into the luxury for a guy that would put us over the hump aka a Leonard. We just never were going to even get a meeting with him or other aforementioned players. That's like getting mad we didn't draft Zion Williamson - just wasn't going to happen no matter what. It's stupid.

                  We only landed Brogdon because of a trade and he wanted to be here. David West was coming off a torn ACL and probably didn't have a ton of offers. Where are all of those other "top"(because West doesn't fall into that bracket) of guys dying to play here? Oh, just the same people whining, being negative, and ignoring reality - gotcha.

                  Dear P_George,
                  You have received an infraction at Pacers Digest.

                  Reason: Unacceptable Comment and/or Content

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    i mean, maybe, then again the ECF was Milwaukee-Toronto

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Pritchard: "everybody thinks because we have 40+ mil to spend that we are going to spend it in one player"


                      Pacers homers and PR people: "bUt nObOdy wAntS tO cOmE tO iNdY pOoR pAcErS"
                      @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Very strange responses in this thread. The article was spot on. Almost word for word correct. Or maybe I am misinterpreting others' views.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Brogdon was a nice pickup and the other two are decent. But we lost Thad, Bojan and Collison. I think we will miss Thad more than people know but are better off overall. With Dipo at half mast I would expect another first round exit. No all-star free agents like these super teams are getting, that's for certain.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            A hard cap and the removal of "max contracts" would solve it all.
                            "man, PG has been really good."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
                              Hey just like KP and Bird failed to put any sort of talent around Paul George while he was a Pacer. The Pelicans failed to put elite talent around Davis, and OKC was so hard up to trade for Paul George they didn't even consider the salary cap ramifications of adding him and resigning him, along with trying to fill out the team with good shooters. In pretty much every case its a situation where the team was built terribly from roster standpoint or the star player was traded for a year before his free agency. Expecting players who have never had a choice in what teams they play for pass up the opportunity to do so in free agency is a red flag in my book. Teams in good situations kept their players.

                              This dynamic duo trend is the best thing to happen to the league in years. Its going to be no longer about overwhelming talent to win the championship. Matchups are going to be really important going forward.

                              if Indiana play's its hand correctly over the next 2 years, they will be able to make a trade to get a guy like Beal.

                              I'd also like to add that it appears star players can be had for essentially multiple first round picks. The Pacers just refuse to pay this kind of price for a star player, even though they have only hit on 2 draft picks in the last 9-10 years? Paul George and Myles Turner. Solomon Hill, Lance Stephenson, Georges Niang, Miles Plumlee, Orlando Johnson...none of these guys were kept around past their rookie deals. Infact trading the draft pick has resulted in George Hill and Thad Young who are solid starters. So if the Pacers expand their trade tolerance to included multiple first round picks....they too can pursue the likes of Westbrook, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, and etc...
                              I disagree with the narrative that OKC did not surround Davis with talent. Jrue Holiday is very good. They also traded for Demarcus Cousins. Pelicans made second round of playoffs two seasons ago. Davis left NO because Lebron recruited him in an underhanded way. Fans of NO deserve better than to have their best player sniped from them. Silver has been terrible as commissioner, and should fire himself. As a Pacer fan, we have been already been affected by this trend, when Paul George demanded a trade. We will probably be facing the same dilemma in a few years when Oladipo's contract is up. New NBA has star players teaming up only in big markets. Days of wanting to compete vs the best are over. Damian Lillard is an outlier, and few players will stick with small markets going forward.
                              Being unable to close out a game in which you have a comfortable lead in the 4th Q = Pulling a Frank Vogel

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X