Worst Fears Starting To Happen

cubsflan24 · Post #1 » by **cubsflan24** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:57 am

Last thing I wanted to see the Pacers do this year was finish 9th or 10th in the East this year. Miss the playoffs and get a crappy pick. Starting to look like that could be the case. Was pumped about how good we were doing a few weeks ago and was looking like we might even get to the 6th spot to avoid the Hawks or Cavs, but not might miss everything.

Post #2 » by **pacers33granger** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:36 pm

Yeah it's not the ideal situation at all, but I'm trying to take solace in the fact that if we stay somewhere around 9-11 in the draft then there's a chance one of the second tier prospects drop to us. And if not, then we make the playoffs. Would be nice if we could get some lotto luck though if we do miss the playoffs. Would love to grab one of the top 4 guys in this draft.

Post #3 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:45 pm

cubsflan24 wrote:Last thing I wanted to see the Pacers do this year was finish 9th or 10th in the East this year. Miss the playoffs and get a crappy pick. Starting to look like that could be the case. Was pumped about how good we were doing a few weeks ago and was looking like we might even get to the 6th spot to avoid the Hawks or Cavs, but not might miss everything.

Why is this a bad thing? If we miss the playoffs, we're still likely to add a top 10 pick to a returning Paul George and West/Hibbert.

Or, that we couldn't trade down from 10 to 14 with Houston and pick up the 31 & 38 in this draft? Adding Kaminsky and RJ Hunter would be a nice thing.

We are working our butt off, and we have a team that didn't throw in the towel. I'm happy with this team no matter how it turns these last couple weeks.

pacers33 · Post #4 » by **pacers33** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:32 pm

Yeah, I can't be upset with the team. They worked hard. I don't think this season will be very long lasting in our memories. Hopefully we get a piece in the draft that can contribute right away.

cubsflan24 · Post #5 » by **cubsflan24** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:10 am

I'm not upset with this team at all, wasn't saying that but I just don't want to see us finish like 9th. Rather just been farther down below and maybe get lucky in the lotto. But ya, adding Frank Kaminsky and RJ Hunter would be nice additions to this team.

pacers33 · Post #6 » by **pacers33** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:56 am

Kaminsky would be a nice pickup for us. Not a high ceiling, but will produce right off the bat IMO. Low risk move...I can't see hm busting, if he does, he'll still be a solid bench player at the least.

chube · Post #7 » by **chube** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:05 pm

Remember though, finishing 9th or 10th in the East still gets us close to top 10. If the season ended today, we'd have the 10th worst record in the league. And brooklyn could still overtake us only a half game back

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Post #8 » by **Jake0890** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:44 am

With Hill's amazing last shot (drive?), the Pacers took down the Wiz tonight and that's huge for getting into the playoffs. Still on the outside looking in and there's a pretty big chance we won't make it, but still.

pacers33 · Post #9 » by **pacers33** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:57 am

It's still possible, unlikely, but possible. I've come to terms with the fact we're most likely 9th seed, so this would be a major boost for us. We'd be getting the same pick pretty much either way.

Post #10 » by **Miller4ever** » Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:35 am

Whatever happens at the end of this season, many things have exceeded my expectations.

George Hill-I expected him to be good after his offseason training, even after his injury issues. Instead, he has been fantastic.

Rodney Stuckey-Can we re-sign him? Please? We got a 45-38-82 player with 12.9 ppg for less than 800k. Great sparkplug if we can keep him. Also, him and Damjan (listed below) have been putting in the work together: http://www.nba.com/pacers/news/overtime ... ckey-rudez

Solomon Hill-Worth the less than 2 mil we'd be paying him if we pick up his option.

Damjan Rudez-He looked out of his league at the beginning of the season but has justified replacing Cope in the lineup. His TS% is .581! (Ray Allen's CAREER TS% is .580!). Granted, it's on a small volume of shots, but it means he's making the most of his opportunity.

Backup PG's-Both have expiring contracts, but we only really need to keep one.

Post #11 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:35 am

Miller4ever wrote:Whatever happens at the end of this season, many things have exceeded my expectations.

George Hill-I expected him to be good after his offseason training, even after his injury issues. Instead, he has been fantastic.

Yup. He's been great. Shown that he's truly a piece that gets this team going, offensively and defensively.

Miller4ever wrote:Rodney Stuckey-Can we re-sign him? Please? We got a 45-38-82 player with 12.9 ppg for less than 800k. Great sparkplug if we can keep him.

We won't have any Bird Rights on him, so we'd have to use our MLE to keep him. If Bird is willing to use a good part of the MLE, or even up to the full MLE depending on his offers, then we can probably keep him. It would mean not replacing Scola with a younger backup PF in free agency, though.

Miller4ever wrote:Solomon Hill-Worth the less than 2 mil we'd be paying him if we pick up his option.

His option for next year was already picked up before the season. We have to decide on his 4th year by Oct. 31. At only $2.3m for that year, I'm sure he's shown more than enough to have that picked up.

Miller4ever wrote:
Damjan Rudez-He looked out of his league at the beginning of the season but has justified replacing Cope in the lineup. His TS% is .581! (Ray Allen's CAREER TS% is .580!). Granted, it's on a small volume of shots, but it means he's making the most of his opportunity.

Agreed. Shown that he's a useful end of bench, situational piece at worst thus far. He's BARELY paid over the minimum, so it's definitely not worth dumping him and replacing him for around $200k in savings, at most.

Miller4ever wrote:Backup PG's-Both have expiring contracts, but we only really need to keep one.

Maybe we keep one, or maybe we use the Bi-Annual Exception (up to around $2.2m in year one, on a 2 year deal only) to sign one. That's the mechanism we used to sign Watson 2 years ago. However, we have early bird rights on Watson and Sloan, so we'd likely be able to keep one or both, and save the BAE for using elsewhere?

Post #12 » by **Miller4ever** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 2:26 am

We also have a draft pick.

How're you enjoying our Irish in this tourney, eh?

Post #13 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 2:23 pm

Miller4ever wrote:We also have a draft pick.

How're you enjoying our Irish in this tourney, eh?

I got to see 'em last night. They're damn good this year. Grant, Jackson, and Connaughton would all look good on this Pacers roster. And Brey is doing his best coaching job of his career, thus far. Hard not to root for the guy after he lost his mother and powered through.

Post #14 » by **Nuntius** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 1:03 am

Eh, it doesn't make a big difference. EC teams get **** up by the lottery system every single year anyway. If the FO decides that the difference between the 10th and the 14th picks is so big then we can always trade up.

Wizop · Post #15 » by **Wizop** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 1:55 am

Looking more and more like eleven. And brad Stevens has Turner getting triple double when we couldn't get anything out of him.

jowglenn · Post #16 » by **jowglenn** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 3:02 am

If we do really bad down the stretch here (say, 2-5) then theoretically the Pistons & Nuggets could finish with better records than us and we could have the 7th pick - now that's a spot that can jump into top 3.

Bout time for some guys to get some 'injuries' if you know what I mean.

If we lose to Charlotte & Miami, then I say go full unashamed tank. Nobody would hate on us for it.

cubsflan24 · Post #17 » by **cubsflan24** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 3:05 am

Yep, we are done. Hate saying it but we had to at least spilt against the Nets and Celtics but we didn't. End up doing a lot better then I thought with tons and tons of injuries but I agree with Jowglenn, time to hopefully lose rest the games and if we can get in the 7th or 8th spot, we can maybe pull something out and get into top 3. Even we don't, we should be able to find a solid player in the 7th-10th spot.

Post #18 » by **pacers33granger** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 3:44 am

If we don't somehow luck into a top 3 pick (which would be incredible), then I'd think hard about trying to trade down a bit and grab another asset. It looks like the majority of guys who will be in the second tier will be wings. As much as I'd like to grab someone like Johnson, Oubre, Hezonja, etc. we just don't have the room for another wing right now really. We're pretty set for a bit with PG, Hill, and Miles. Could end up with WCS though and then maybe we could move Ian for something.

jowglenn · Post #19 » by **jowglenn** » Thu Apr 2, 2015 3:49 am

The really positive news is that the Pacers do great with these picks generally - we've snagged PG, Hibbert, Granger, Reggie, Dale Davis all in the 10-17 range.

We haven't had a top 9 pick in 25 years (we traded AD for Bender, so that doesn't count) and we have still been one of the most successful franchises around.

I am sure that this will end up working out quite well in the long run for the Pacers. This season was somewhat competitive, as the team did get some wins and was in the hunt til the end here, but we fall short. Good development year for Solomon Hill, great leadership year for George Hill.

Draft a top 10 guy, bring back PG, roll out Hill/Miles/PG/West/Hibbert with Solo, Mahinmi, Rudez, draft pick, MLE guy (stuckey?) and leftovers (2nd rounder, fliers, vet mins, maybe scola on a cheap deal) and that's a damn solid team.

Post #20 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Apr 3, 2015 6:27 pm

Wizop wrote:Looking more and more like eleven. And brad Stevens has Turner getting triple double when we couldn't get anything out of him.

2 things about Evan Turner.

1) Seems he needed a little humility, and to recognize that he isn't "all that". He got that in his short stay in Indy, and the fact he was ignored completely in free agency.

2) His numbers are good, but he's still not a tremendous help to that team overall. Still a little empty stats kind of thing.