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9 Indiana kids in the top 175 on 247. Kids not listed that will still be playing D1- Hopf, Sisley, Montgomery (baseball more than likely), Jacobi.. can't get over how deep this class is.

Additional notes from the press conference today with Brogdon: Simon helped seal the deal with the Bucks. Pritchard thought they had a 10% chance to get him, once Simon jumped on the phone that went up to about 90% chance to get Brogdon. Brogdon was on atop the board for Pacers Free Agency plans/want list from basically when their season ended. Kevin Pritchard considers the Brogdon addition as a "EPIC" day for the Indiana Pacers and a franchise Brogdon deal was a last minute deal, audible as Pritchard referred to as Foundation of many good players in Indy not just having two superstars Brogdon was excited about how Simon went above to help get him to Indy Brogdon thinks Indy has great building blocks in Vic/Sabonis/Myles Brogdons agent wanted him to go to Indy when he entered the draft. Felt this was his best location and best fit Brogdon said during his workout with Pacers prior to his predraft workout that he wanted to come to Indy due to best fit Nate envisioned the PG spot the most critical spot to fill in free agency this offseason Nate raves about Vic and Brogdon backcourt together Brogdon checks all the boxes that the Pacers expect as a player Brogdon has won Rookie of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the year and ACC player of the year When Nate found out Brogdon was coming to Indy, Nate yelled and screamed excitement as he exited an airplane lol(Most excited Pritchard has seen Nate since he's been here) Brogdon very very big into community work, especially 3rd world countries like Africa. Wants to move into non-profit sector after NBA Hoops 2.0 foundation which Brogdon has created to help fund less privileged Brogdon looks as Indiana as the original basketball state, mentions Bob Knight and IU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wants to help the community as much as possible The draft picks were a must to get Brogdon, those extra 2nd round picks we traded for were enough to get the deal sealed Pritchard views Brogdon as another foundational player to go along with Victor/Myles/Sabonis Pritchard has been proud of last two years, more excited about this upcoming season than past two years Nicknamed "The President" Brogdon feels PG is his best position to influence decisions on the floor and lead. Views his primary strength is high IQ and versatility Vic reached out to Brogdon right after deal was completed. Brogdon wants to help Vic be an all star every year, make him a superstar. Brogdons goal is to give the teammates for freedom and help them reach their potential Once they determined they had Brogdon, it allowed them to sign Lamb. Warren trade enabled this them to deal for Brogdon. Trickle affect for later moves(Lamb and McConnell) This guy will flourish here with the Pacers. Very excited to have him here for 4 seasons and hopefully more.

Brogdon nailed the welcome press conference this morning. Wants to make everyone around him better, Brogdon mentioned how he wanted to play for the Indiana Pacers, wanted to play for Nate, wants to make Victor, Sabonis, Myles all better and wanted to be apart of a culture that isn't about I, but about WE as a TEAM. Brogdon stated that he wanted to sign with Indiana during free agency, so the interest was there from both sides. Mentioned he's going to Vegas to train and workout with Victor as he had very high praise for Victor. I cannot wait to watch these two play side by side. Also mentioned how much he is involved in the community and plans to be involved here in Indy. Pacers have engaged Sabonis and his agent about a contract extension.

If anybody should have known what Harden was capable of it was OKC. They had him of course it’s their fault. They should have moved Ibaka and other expensive pieces and built around the 3 stars with vet minimums etc. That is why I hare people saying oh we have to trade Myles or Sabonis. You keep your stars when you are small market and build around them. Too hard to acquire them. This was before the time of guys forcing their way out. Worst case scenario is you move Westbrook...they just didn’t have the vision that say GSW had...who held on to their shooters no matter what. GS had to pay the same tax that OKC has...they just got more bang for their buck and spent wisely. OKC was signing guys like Ibaka and Adams to huge contracts instead of putting that money to winning basketball. Everyone could see Harden was special...certainly Houston could. He was being misused as a 6th man because Westbrook was so ball dominant. Rico probably would even say keep the shooter playmaker in Harden and move Westbrook and he would be right....because even Durant had issues with Westbrook leading to him moving on and now so did Paul George. Stars think they want to play with him...then they realize the ball doesn’t move in OKC. Westbrook is the problem.

Put him with Jimmy Butler and they could burn down a franchise...

Ken Burns does a tremendous job of bringing history to life. I have the dvd of Civil War and Baseball and have watched them both many many times. His Statue of Liberty doc is also very good. I love history. People who are indifferent or not curious about history.... I don't much like those folks very much. Another of my favorites is the HBO 7-part John Adams series. Very good.

We're not really in much disagreement, though I don't agree that what people are saying is all hindsight. People didn't think Harden was going to be a future MVP, I said that exact thing in my post, but he was projected at that time as a potential future all-star. It was commonly held belief even at that time that Harden was going to be a star and that the system (coming off the bench to play behind Durant and Westbrook) was holding him back. The view on Harden at the time was that almost anywhere else he'd be a featured player, not just a solid 17 ppg player Sixth Man. That's why he was commanding the max as a bench player, and while OKC did offer him $52M, other teams were already lining up to offer him the max. OKC basically had to pick three of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden, and they chose the first three. Again, maybe not the wrong move given that Durant, Westbrook and Harden all need the ball and there's only so much to go around, but I do wonder if the Thunder were in the same situation today (in the super team era) if they maybe choose to try and move Ibaka and another contract and just roll the dice with the three stars.

You're not completely wrong here by any means, but I gotta go with Rico and dgambill on this one. Nobody thought Harden was going to be an MVP level player, but even at that time many thought he had a chance to be an all-star caliber player, and OKC did too. The only real reason his scoring was under 17 PPG was because he wasn't getting the time/touches behind Durant and Westbrook, and they didn't really try to play them all together very much. OKC went with bringing Harden off the bench so he could 'run' the second team, but everyone knew at the time that Harden was a stud. OKC was hamstrung by the Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka contracts, and they chose balance (Ibaka being a forward) and trade market (Harden fetching more on the market compared to Ibaka) over keeping the three best players and just figuring the rest out later. I'm not sure it was a terrible move though. While the super team thing is hot right now, there hasn't been a ton of success with that model when you have three extremely ball dominant guys (Durant, Westbrook and Harden) together. I don't really see how those three could have coexisted long term. You could argue they should have traded Westbrook maybe.

My DVR is 67% full of things I've been meaning to watch

"Umm" applies to what I am thinking. OKC had 3 superstars. They got rid of the wrong one. Hmmmmmmm.

I love all the Ken Burns documentaries, Civil War is my favorite. Not Burns but the 12 part mini series America: The Story of Us is top notch.

WWII in Color on Netflix is VERY good.

I use this "cliche" all the time...but to me Westbrook is a cancer. Appears to me that OKC kept the wrong "star".

Trading for Westbrook would be such a Knick's things to do. Let's trade for a star player that most other stars don't want to play with, tie up our cap space and win 44 games the next 3 years and lose in the first round every year. It would be like Carmelo deal part II.