What Will They Do? (#14 TJ Ford)

[count55]

This is going to be the fourteenth in our series of projections and discussions about all of our players this year. Essentially, we'll go through all 15 Pacers (I'm excluding Droopy) and talk about our expectations. Each poster will cut and paste form below and fill it out, adding their reasoning at the bottom. The reasoning is the most important, as it will help the conversation.

The first five guys will go up today, and they will be the fringe players. Then will come the rotational players, then we'll get to our key players. If you're looking to do a little research on the guys, I'd suggest BBR as the best statistical site.

So, here we start with:

TJ Ford

Games Played:
Games Lost To Injury:
DNP-CD's:
Minutes per Game:
Points per Game:
Rebounds per Game:
Assists per Game:
FG%:
3FG%:
FT%:
Other Key Stats (can be Steals, Blocks, TO's, A/TO ratio, etc.)

Reasoning/Synopsis: Describe why you think this player will provide these numbers. What will his role be? What's his best-case? What's his worst-case?

Lets get started.

[count55]

Games Played: 73
Games Lost To Injury: 9
DNP-CD's: 0
Minutes per Game: 28.0
Points per Game: 13.6
Rebounds per Game: 2.9
Assists per Game: 7.1
FG%: 45%
3FG%: 32%
FT%: 82%
Other Key Stats: Stls 1.5, TO's 2.5

Our key acquisition in the JO trade, I am expecting him to make it through this season without major incident regarding his neck/spinal stenosis issues. I feel more comfortable with the less likely/potentially more severe nature of his injury history than the constant/nagging type injuries of a JT or JO. I do believe he'll be somewhat limited in minutes, to maximize his biggest strength: speed. He won't be the assist guy that JT was (when he was good), but he'll be a better pressure defender and he'll be more consistent. I continue to hope that TJ is the opposite of JT in more than just initials.

[bballpacen]

TJ Ford

Games Played: 70
Games Lost To Injury: 12
DNP-CD's:0
Minutes per Game: 30
Points per Game: 15.6
Rebounds per Game: 3.5
Assists per Game: 6.2
FG%: 48
3FG%: 35
FT%: 80
Other Key Stats (can be Steals, Blocks, TO's, A/TO ratio, etc.) 1.3 steals, 3-1 a/to ratio

Reasoning/Synopsis: I think that Ford will flourish in this system, but with the lack of a great big man, I expect the assists to be down... But I still expect him to have a good season, maybe with a slow start, and a strong second half...

[Bucky O'Hare]

Games Played: 79
Games Lost To Injury: 3
DNP-CD's: 0
Minutes per Game: 34
Points per Game: 15.3
Rebounds per Game: 3.8
Assists per Game: 9.1
FG%: 45%
3FG%: 31%
FT%: 86%
Other Key Stats (can be Steals, Blocks, TO's, A/TO ratio, etc.) 1.9 spg, triple-doubles

Some may think my production is a little high, but fits with what he's delivered the past two seasons, just more minutes each game. I think he'll be our #3 scorer behind Danny and Mike, and just ahead of Troy.

[freeman]

Games Played: 75
Games Lost To Injury: 7
DNP-CD's: 0
Minutes per Game: 32
Points per Game: 14.5
Rebounds per Game: 3.0
Assists per Game: 8.0
FG%: 45%
3FG%: 33%
FT%: 88%
Steals per Game: 1.4
Blocks per Game: 0.1

I can see TJ will fit in well in Obie's run and gun system. His quickness can be contagious and can dictate the offensive tempo, which can give him a good number of dishes. Majority of his assists would come from kick-out passes to spot-up shooters like Dunleavy, Granger, Williams, Rush, and the other guys, Murphy included. It'll be interesting to see how will the guys play in TJ's tempo.

[joeshmoe]

TJ Ford

Games Played: 75
Games Lost To Injury: 7
DNP-CD's: 0
Minutes per Game: 34
Points per Game: 18.4
Rebounds per Game: 4
Assists per Game: 9
FG%: 48.7
3FG%: 30
FT%: 89

I extrapolated based on his per 34 minute stats his first four years.
03-04 MIL 9.0 pts 8.2 asts 38.4%FG
05-06 MIL 11.7 pts 6.3 asts 41.6%
06-07 TOR 15.9 pts 9.0 asts 43.6%
07-08 TOR 17.5 pts 9.0 asts 47.0%
08-09 IND 18.4 pts 9.0 asts 48.7%