Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

[Jay@Section12]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Dahntay-Jones-is-exactly-who-we-knew-he-was-sad?urn=nba,213127

I didn't write this. I am not Kelly Dwyer. I used to think Kelly was hilarious and insightful ... his 2000 Pacers preview article back on NBATalk.com was the funniest bit of sports journalism I've ever seen (it was presented as "Presidential Debate style", with Reggie and Isiah Thomas arguing about the confusing state of the Pacers as they dismantled an NBA Finals team but still had their two best players... I digress...) But this piece, even with several valid points is not well-written.

Sadly, I think Kelly spends too much time trying to be "Bill Simmons to the non-Boston world". There are some decent points in there but they don't really make it out. Its worth a skim, but probably not a full, indepth read.

[90'sNBARocked]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

It just makes me rue the fact that the Indiana Pacers are a mismanaged organization that really doesn't have a clue

Well, it is a biggie. Because it's symbolic of Bird's constant obsession with lifting his Pacers toward the middle of the pack, at all costs.

Because Bird thinks you are. Bird thinks you're just a step away. How else do you explain these win-now moves? Dahntay Jones. No big trades. Not trading Troy Murphy(notes) at his peak, the ultimate sell-high moment. Drafting a 24-year old.

pretty much the sediment here unfortunatley

[Jay@Section12]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

I actually thought this was spot-on:

After years of inept offensive play alongside the occasional flagrant foul ("defense!," said the cable TV announcers)...

So many people confuse flagrant fouls/ hard fouls with actual defense...

[90'sNBARocked]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

I actually thought this was spot-on:



So many people confuse flagrant fouls/ hard fouls with actual defense...

Tyler?

[duke dynamite]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

This article makes me feel like less than an inch small.

[Unclebuck]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

OK, I guess if that article makes the writer happy, so be it. I am less than impressed.

[imawhat]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

I actually thought this was spot-on:



So many people confuse flagrant fouls/ hard fouls with actual defense...

That's not the problem. The problem is that too many people (er, one) confuse offense with defense.

[Gamble1]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

I didn't realize we brought him in to be a offensive threat. Seriously he wasn't even suppose to be the starter. A solid backup sure but not the starting sg/sf.

Writers like this get confused with fixing a team. There are no quick fixes in the NBA.

[McKeyFan]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

I think Dahntay is getting a terrible, raw deal.

He led this team to several victories, following the mandate to make it a more defensive oriented team.

JOB strayed from that vision, and we have lost nearly every game since.

Dahntay Jones has not gotten worse. Our team has.

[Brad8888]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

The only part that is well written is the part that basically says that Dahntay is Dahntay, and that Bird went and got him because he supposedly defended well and could shoot 3's, which is exactly what O'B wanted.

Well, turns out that Dahntay can't hit threes like advertised (no surprise there, otherwise Denver would have played him more than 17 minutes and would not have let him go), so now O'B won't play him because he can't space the floor, and his defense is predicated on grabbing, pushing, and getting in the heads of opponents, and because of that he gets into foul problems and hurts the performance of the team by sending the opponents to the line more than they otherwise would get there.

Maybe we can trade him during the offseason as filler with one of our desireable expirings. It would take quite a bit to make up for him, but hopefully some teams really like Troy.

[Jay@Section12]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

That's not the problem. The problem is that too many people (er, one) confuse offense with defense.

You may be right. That particular distinction is a bigger problem for announcers who don't understand the difference between "commiting flagrant fouls" and "playing good defense" and the posters in InternetLand that repeat the confusion but think they know what they are talking about.

[Jay@Section12]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

OK, I guess if that article makes the writer happy, so be it. I am less than impressed.

Its not well written. I said that in the O.P. But there are some solid points inside the rubble.

1. The good thing, for my reputation solely, is that Jones has fallen off. It's a bad thing, everywhere else. You'd think it'd be a horrible thing for the Pacers, but as bad as they are, it hasn't really mattered much.

2. There's nothing that Dahntay is doing this season that is in any way unrepresentative of his career arc, per minute.

3. He's playing exactly as he should. He's playing like Dahntay Jones, and that's enough to receive DNP-CDs for a team that is winning less than a third of its games.

4. Because Bird thinks you are. Bird thinks you're just a step away. How else do you explain these win-now moves? Dahntay Jones. No big trades. Not trading Troy Murphy at his peak, the ultimate sell-high moment.

5. And Dahntay Jones finally reveals himself as exactly who we thought he was. Nothing against Dahntay, because he works his tail off, but he's Dahntay Jones. For some reason, Larry Bird thought Dahntay Jones could become Dahntay Jones!

So we could continue harping on how badly written (it is a blog post, not a "real" article, as far as I can tell, so the standard should be lower).

But I'd rather see a discussion around those five points. Tell me why Kelly is wrong? Tell me why you are unimpressed with those five points. I get tired of watching PD turn into the "Critique the professional writers' writing skills" Digest. Let's talk about basketball/ the Pacers instead.

[90'sNBARocked]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

Its not well written. I said that in the O.P. But there are some solid points inside the rubble.





[COLOR=black]

So we could continue harping on how badly written (it is a blog post, not a "real" article, as far as I can tell, so the standard should be lower).

But I'd rather see a discussion around those five points. Tell me why Kelly is wrong? Tell me why you are unimpressed with those five points. I get tired of watching PD turn into the "Critique the professional writers' writing skills" Digest. Let's talk about basketball/ the Pacers instead.

I dont think he is that far off

[travmil]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

So Bird must have called Kelly and told him "man I thought dahntay would be better and I was really hoping he'd be the free agent pickup that vaulted us into the playoffs". Either that or Kelly is pulling assumptions out of his ***. Again.

[90'sNBARocked]

Re: Dahntay Jones is exactly who we knew he was, sadly

So Bird must have called Kelly and told him "man I thought dahntay would be better and I was really hoping he'd be the free agent pickup that vaulted us into the playoffs". Either that or Kelly is pulling assumptions out of his ***. Again.

Its just his perception thats all