Are The Pacers Doomed Until 2012?
Being a Celtics fan, you have to love Larry Bird.
Living in Indiana, you can only get frustrated by him.
As a Pacer fan, if picking another Danny Granger at the 10th spot didn't light your fires, the fact that the Pacers can do almost nothing during the most important free agency in the last 10 years most certainly will.
It isn't news that the Pacers are hurting for a point guard to lead this team. It is apparent that after five years, Danny Granger cannot handle things alone. Earl Watson is not going to be the man to bring this team back to the playoffs, and neither are a pair of point guards that may or may not get the minutes they need to develop.
No matter how much you want to wish that AJ Price or Lance Stephenson are Derrick Rose, they aren't—and the Pacers need someone that knows what they're doing.
Unfortunately, the Pacers are just plagued with (and stuck with) a lot of players that nobody wants or needs. For a team that has been claiming to build around All-Star forward Danny Granger for the last four years, they have done a poor job of it.
I guess you could call it a combination of bad luck and terrible decisions. The Pacers had the right idea when picking up TJ Ford, banking on the fact that he was healthy, fast, and a pass-first point guard, but not on the fact that he would become a whiner for minutes and ultimately be on Jim O'Brien's you-know-what list.
Roy Hibbert is a promising young center and should be given the chance to become something. Troy Murphy could possibly be the most underrated Power Forward in the league. Brandon Rush is young and explosive. Dahntay Jones is a defensive specialist that can't shoot, but could be great trade bait. Who knows what Tyler Hansbrough will bring to the table.
The Pacers have half of a playoff team—almost.
But then you've got the other half. The half that is eating up years of cap-room, almost no minutes, and for the ones that do get the minutes, no points to go with them. Mike Dunleavy basically gets paid to sit on the bench and do nothing (much like his father did in LA) due to the amount of injuries he has.
When was the last time Josh McRoberts and Solomon Jones (who?) got more than five minutes of playing time?
Jeff Foster gets paid quite a bit to be a cheerleader that can't cheer (bad back), and the plethora of guards they have can't run a team. The downsides to all these players is that they are all under contract until after 2011, and no one wants injured, defiant, and old rickety players.
So what can they do?
There isn't much to do. They can deal TJ Ford (since he won't opt out of his contract), and a couple others for a decent point guard (Kirk Hinrich, Raymond Felton, Darren Collison?). Or possibly stick with Watson and deal Rush or Ford for a decent scoring and defensive 2 guard (Michael Redd?).
Whatever they do, they better do it soon to get the financial ball rolling again, because there will be a lot of unhappy NBA fans if the Indiana Pacers become the Kansas City/Las Vegas Pacers.
We can be certain that Reggie Miller won't be happy.
