Jeff Foster said it best when he told the Indianapolis Star, "It was tough because Jermaine really didn't want to be here the last couple of years. It was tough to become a team when your best player did not want to be on the team."
Once a franchise player and dominating big man, O'Neal's injuries and unhappiness during the last two seasons made him a distraction on a team that was desperately trying to rebuild. On paper, acquiring T.J. Ford from Toronto for O'Neal is getting 50 cents on the dollar, but O'Neal had no future with the Pacers. Cutting their losses was the right thing to do.
They stayed committed to Jim O'Brien.
It sounds strange to compliment a team on sticking with a coach for more than one season, but these days patience is not a virtue shared by many front offices. Indiana was an atrocious defensive team last season, giving up 105.4 points per game. But O'Brien has always been a defensive coach, and once he a) gets better players and b) convinces the remaining players to play defense, Indiana, which averaged 104.0 points per game, could get better in a hurry.
What went wrong:
They couldn't unload their bad contracts.
And Indy has lots of them. Starting with Jamaal Tinsley (who GM Larry Bird would likely trade for the rights to Joe Kleine right now), the Pacers have been actively shopping the bulk of their roster. Power forward Troy Murphy (who has three years and $33.1 million remaining on his contract), swingman Mike Dunleavy (three years, $29.3 million) and Tinsley (three years, $21.4 million) would probably all be elsewhere if Pacers management had its druthers, but Indiana didn't get many offers this summer. Tinsley is still likely to be bought out, but the Pacers' first step on the road back has to be cleaning up their salary cap mess.
I think we deserve an A++ if we trade Tinsley and Quis for Harrington.
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Quote:
Granger: Yeah, GRANGERMAN. I'd be GRANGERMAN. I have dreams about [being a superhero]. I have dreams [where] I'll be flying sometimes, it's kind of weird.
Is it out of the question for Indy to just cut Tinsley? I mean, the entire league knows they're trying to trade him and really don't want him on the roster come training camp. How much could they realistically get in a trade?
Indiana Pacers Summer Report Card
Indiana Pacers Summer Report Card
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