Hoosierhoopster

Well I couldn't disagree with you more, and frankly you can't name a single NBA player, let alone star, who would put up with that complete BS. Frankly Scott, your thinking is exactly the kind of thinking that turns players off from the Pacers. That's kind of the point here. If you want to build a team to compete at for a championship, you can't have a player-unfriendly attitude. That's a a problem.

You didn't answer any of my questions Scott. Why aren't you looking at what the P's owners, front office and management are doing? Why would stars come to the Pacers? What is ownership et al doing to get stars to stay with and join the P's? What are they doing to make stars think twice?

Yogi left Dallas after Dallas treated him great and he was loved there, for more money in Sacto. He may have killed his career doing so. Pretty obvious he would, he already did, with Dallas. Cody? Who knows. Again, you're not considering the management side issues. No one is questioning the P's front office, owners / management. That's my point.

Yes, good points. My question here, a step removed -- I'm a long-time Pacers fan, but not as much as a P's fan as I was when they had Reggie, and then the PG years. Bird's moves with the P's toward the end really made me take a step back on my P's fandom. Love the work Pritch has put in, in building the team back and see it headed generally in the right direction -- but here's my "but" -- Isn't it fair to question why top flight players leave/want to leave the Pacers? Isn't it fair at some point to stop simply bad-mouthing players? That this thread is now actually bad mouthing Vic just blows me away. Bad mouthing Vic???? What the hell???? The guy is a Hoosier LEGEND. He has been as strong a Hoosier supporter, during his IU career and throughout his pro career, as ANYONE. He has also been a GREAT Pacer. He came to the P's with all kinds of questions, after a seriously underwhelming time in OKC, and had most on here saying the P's got the better end of the PG trade. He became a top 20 player in one year. He was fantastic in his last playoffs, actually pretty much outplayed LBJ. Then he suffers a serious leg injury, misses all kinds of time, comes back and is clearly not fully healthy / back to his prior form, goes through NORMAL contract negotiations, gets questioned about his future, and now is on the way out. Why doesn't anyone actually look at the Pacers brass/ownership. The owners of the P's are cheap. Seriously, they always have been. That's part of the problem. It has always been part of the problem. There's other things going on in the way they treat / handle their stars. From Bird's absolutely moronic public ridiculing of PG for not agreeing to play power forward immediately after his season-long almost career ending injury -- please name another coach or president of basketball operations who publicly ridicules the team's star/superstar? NO ONE. No one is that stupid and pig headed, except Bird, and ownership was right there with him, they did nothing. I don't mean to dwell on the PG thing (here we go, oh HH you just love you your PG, lol), I'm referencing it for what it reflected as to how ownership and the front office treat / handle their stars. Please name a top flight NBA player who would WANT to come to Indiana while Bird was ridiculing PG publicly for not playing the 4 -- obviously, out of position -- and after his almost career ending season-long injury? Please name a star who would have any interest putting up with a front office that allows that, and doesn't pay at the same level as the stars get elsewhere? Why aren't people here questioning the P's management?

It’s a really odd move especially considering Doc didn’t have a healthy or complete team all year and for most of the playoffs, and it was their first year together. This sounds like a knee-jerk reaction to the Clips coming up really short. They did, but there are so many obvious “buts” there that firing Doc after 1 season with the new stars is just, well, odd

The thing with dreaming up trades is that people tend to look at who they / their team want, and then consider trades that the other team would simply never do. It has to work both ways. The Boston trade thought would be dead at the starting line, it just isn’t remotely good value for Boston. The Kings deal is more realistic, not sure the Kings would do it — it would favor them if Vic returns fully healthy, and Hield has been coming off the bench lately, but he’s a real scorer right now and Vic’s health is uncertain. Love the idea of Yogi returning to IN, and the chance to play for a non joke of an organization agsin.

My partners just got tired of the pandemic — and declining associate billables.... — so the shareholder vote was we re-open on October 5. We’re staggering work days, an A and B schedule, for staff who are not in offices and sit close to other staff, but otherwise we’re returning to the office. Time to get used to commuting again — ugh. Houston actually sounds somewhat similar to what you’re experiencing. In public, outside, people aren’t wearing masks, but inside they mostly are, though in restaurants once seated they take off their masks (which, to me, defeats the purpose, but well they’re there to eat). I continue to think we’ll see a gradual return to more normalcy, but that has to be tempered with continuing social distancing, mask wearing, etc. while the Virus remains here and active.

Beal? Dream on

Couldn’t agree more on point 2. The healthy GS team would crush them. They’re 2 great players and a lot of meh. They’re one of the weakest presumed finals champs I can think of

Someone would just say they made “adjustments” 😁 - great explanation, and that’s how a series can change. Now we’ll see what Spoel does

It will be interesting to look back at the above at the end of next year's playoffs. Also relevant, teams like Golden State (with Steph and Klay healthy) and the Nets (with KD healthy) will be back in the mix. Boston will be better. The Clips will have a full year (probably) healthy together. You could have Greek Freak jumping to LA -- I don't think he will -- or maybe to Miami (which would make that team immediately the favorite, imo). No disrespect to LBJ, but I don't think he wins another one after this year.

I do think he’s still one of the 2 best players in the NBA. But it’s age man and he is starting to slow. Next year he’s 36. Then in 2 he’s 37. That’s too old to be the same dominant force, and the dude carries a large physique. He will slow again next year. No way he’s playing at the same level at 37.

Yes good point. I’m neither a LeBron hater nor a LeBron fan. There is no question that he’s one of the best ever. But I see him slowing particularly on D, he’s not the consistent offensive force he was either, but he absolutely gets the best out of others around him and yes it’s possible they add a better player or 2 and win again. Still he can’t go forever, the end is not far off

I see it, others see it, he’s 35 and next year will be 36. He’s one of the all time greats. No one can fight Father Time forever.

Assuming he/the Lakers win the title, I think this year is LBJ's last title. He's amazing, but you can't fight Father Time forever.

Really don’t get your refusal to recognize basic chemistry/ the need for a team to practice and play together to win on the playoffs. You just ignore that to insist it’s poor roster construction, ok,I’ll just disagree this is circular. On PG, the only reason he hasn’t “bought himself some slack” (golly, just finishing last year in the top 3 for both overall MVP and defensive MVP gets no slack) is because the same people here want to rip him. Beyond tiresome.

This is pretty much over the top. PG had a bad game - a bad shooting game. Both Kawhi and Lou W had worse games, they were awful. I guess we should talk smack about Kawhi to make people feel good. The Clips were seriously out of Sync, that was obvious. Equally obvious and still ignored or worse dismissed so people can take silly little pot shots at George, when a team plays a whopping 13 or so games as a complete unit the entire season and enters the bubble Without 3 key players, who are either injured — their starting point and motivator and perimeter defender - along with Harrel and Williams, as in 2 six men of the League, and add to that PG’s admitted bout with depression, again ignored so people can take silly little pot shots at him, the team is unlikely to be able to compete well deep in the playoffs. The writing was very much on the wall, but dismissed. I thought they’d have enough gas in the tank to win up 3-1 — they were the better team, but you can’t play iso ball and completely out of sync and win for long. that is what happened, not some idiotic PG blaming bs, that’s just either brain dead or reflecting people didn’t actually watch and just came in to gloat. Have at it, it’s silly, it’s a waste of time to respond to, and this is a wasted breath. Now the bought and paid for Lakers will probably prevail, the officiating is just painfully obviously slanted,and that in the end hurts the NBA,imo, but it is what it is. At this point I’m rooting for either Boston to turn the corner, or for the Heat, who are seriously impressive and playing wonderfully, as a complete team

I am doing my best to ignore the moronic piling on stupidity. Same BS, it gets old.

Boston-Miami is going to be a real dogfight. I have no idea at this point who will win that one. I tend to think Boston will pull it out, on their D as mentioned, but this should be even better than the Toronto series imo

I disagree about it not being well put together. It’s about playing together. When they’ve been in sync they destroy teams, like that 150-plus beat down of Dallas. Learning how to play together does not happen over night. It’s a major hurdle for them and I said as much at the start of the playoffs. Btw with their complete roster entering the playoffs they’d only lost 1 game - but that was the regular season and a long time ago. Beverly, Harrel and Lou were all out for much the bubble play. Then PG had his depression issues. Man, if they overcome and win it all it will be a real accomplishment, the talent has not gelled. They are the deepest team in the league, they are the best defensive team (yes, they are), and they are a top 3-5 scoring team, with two monster 2-way wings, a killer defensive point guard, and 2 6-men of the nba coming off the bench.

The something is time. They've only everyone together something like 15 games. They've had constant injuries and then the bubble, that's been their issue the whole season. They are top to bottom the best team in the League, but winning when in the playoffs when you've barely played together is a tall order -- they are still developing chemistry and understanding on the floor. That said, I really doubt they lose Game 7 but we'll see.

Miami was 3d in 3P% in regular season, definitely a good outside shooting team. How that Boston D stacks up is going to be key imo

Boston’s going to have to bring their A-game defense. I don’t know who will be favored but this is going to be a hard series for sure. Boston’s D though is tougher than what the Heat have faced, and It’s the best team Miami will have dealt with - the P’s were nowhere near full strength and man the Bucks team got exposed, I thought going in the Bucks would prevail, based on the reg season, but they were a lot thinner around Giannis than I realized. All that said, the Heat are definitely legit - I think the C’s are deeper and will pull it out, but the C’s bench has struggled and it’s probably going to be another 7-game series

Yeah difficult to address, but it was obvious. He knew exactly what he was doing. In my book, and I think in most people’s, that was way out of line for a coach and a form of cheating. What happened to sportsmanship? If you value winning over everything else, that’s the kind of BS you get. Solution? Not sure, but there’s a wa to limit what a coach does on the sideline and this should be addressed.

I don't know if he broke a rule, it's such a weird thing to do it's probably not in a rule. That's like writing a rule not to put on an opposing team's jersey, lol.