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Pacers announce that president Larry Bird and general manager David Morway will return to the team next season.

http://api.twitter.com/#!/MikeWellsNBA/ ... 4719878144

Just as i was typing the Mike Brown post i got these tweets from Mike Wells.

http://www.nba.com/pacers/news/larry_bird_110510.html

Link if anyone needs it.

and here is what they mailed to ticket holders:

As a friend of the franchise, we wanted you to be the first to know that Pacers owner Herb Simon and President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird met today in Los Angeles and have announced that Bird will remain in his position.

"I'm quite pleased with the success we experienced this past season and pleased with the direction our team is going," said Simon. "I'm glad Larry is staying to help us continue in the positive direction we are going."

"The past few months have been the most enjoyable since I took over as President of Basketball Operations," said Bird. "To see our young players develop, to see us make the playoffs and then to see us compete in a hard-fought series with Chicago are indications we are headed in the right direction and it has made me even more determined to help this team improve further and go to the next level.

"I hope we can keep our core basketball group together and one of my first priorities will be to address the coaching situation."

Simon and Bird also announced that David Morway will stay as general manager.

Awesome now its time to lock up Vogel and prepare for free agency where we will have alot of cap space. It's been slow but this team is becoming exciting to watch again

Yeah, with Morway and Bird both returning, i think we can assume two things.

1. Bird has been assured that the Simon will spend as much as possible to finish Bird's rebuilding job, because i honestly don't think Bird would return in a role where he knows his hands were tied down, plus, i do believe his personal life was really tempting him to spend more time with his family, so i don't think he would return unless he was guaranteed a kings ransom for the team.

2. Frank Vogel will return. Bird talked about how improvement and development played a major role in his return, and Vogel needs to get a lot of credit for that.

I guess my only and main concern is, i realize Bird has majority of the power, but, as they say in sports management, it's not that hard to turn a team around from the basement to respectability. However, once you are consistently a respectable team, it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of breaks and luck (risks) to take the team from that mediocre level to the elite, "contender" status.

Does Morway have enough knowledge and ability to be able to pull off such deals and moves? I know he's not the only man in the room when these types of moves happen, but, when it's his turn to voice his opinion, will he make the right choice?

It's gonna be mostly Bird and Morway doing all the talking, unlike having a established coach who would demand to be in the room. I'm guessing Vogel would have slim-to-zero power on player personnel.

Grang33r wrote:Bird has been assured that the Simon will spend as much as possible to finish Bird's rebuilding job

as much as possible? I doubt he has a blank check. maybe as much as he feels prudent. maybe a set amount which Bird feels is reasonable. my guess is what he received was assurance the Larry would need only Herb's approval to spend money and that the business side (Morris) would have no veto power.

Grang33r wrote:It's gonna be mostly Bird and Morway doing all the talking, unlike having a established coach who would demand to be in the room. I'm guessing Vogel would have slim-to-zero power on player personnel.

think Jim Caldwell or Tony Dungy. Vogel will be listened to when the issue is what kind of players do we need. I agree that he'll have little voice in how much to pay them. personally I think the coaches who try to be gm too don't have the time to do both jobs well.

The read on 8p9s was really good: http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2 ... nd-enough/
By 'spend' I think Larry is saying that he wants the ability to spend up to the soft cap and possibly a bit over (so somewhere abouts where we are now) if he can find the right deal. I hope we have some money still available (in addition to Poseys expiring) next offseason to try and find something that another team has to rid themselves of due to a new cap or because of FA (Eric Gordon?).

Wizop wrote:

Grang33r wrote:It's gonna be mostly Bird and Morway doing all the talking, unlike having a established coach who would demand to be in the room. I'm guessing Vogel would have slim-to-zero power on player personnel.

think Jim Caldwell or Tony Dungy. Vogel will be listened to when the issue is what kind of players do we need. I agree that he'll have little voice in how much to pay them. personally I think the coaches who try to be gm too don't have the time to do both jobs well.

I can't imagine that Bird would make a player move without at least asking Vogel (or whomever the head coach is) what they think and how it would affect their team vision. Obviously, Vogel hasn't earned veto power in this league, but I'm sure he'd prefer to see some guys over others.

Wizop wrote:

Grang33r wrote:Bird has been assured that the Simon will spend as much as possible to finish Bird's rebuilding job

as much as possible? I doubt he has a blank check. maybe as much as he feels prudent. maybe a set amount which Bird feels is reasonable. my guess is what he received was assurance the Larry would need only Herb's approval to spend money and that the business side (Morris) would have no veto power.

I didn't mean a blank check when i posted that, although thats my bad for the confusion. I meant he will have the ability to go straight to the soft cap, and if needed, like if theres a deal that we can't refuse, finance will be there on his side if it gets us over the cap. Also, teams "buy" trade picks all the time and i remember i believe last draft or maybe even 2 drafts ago someone said or wrote that it just isn't possible for us because it's not in the budget. Not saying buying a pick is make it or break it for a team by any stretch, but those usually cost $2 million and i have a feeling that's fair game now if Bird and Morway see a player late in the 1st or early 2nd they would really like to get to develop.

DougInOz wrote:The read on 8p9s was really good: http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2 ... nd-enough/
By 'spend' I think Larry is saying that he wants the ability to spend up to the soft cap and possibly a bit over (so somewhere abouts where we are now) if he can find the right deal. I hope we have some money still available (in addition to Poseys expiring) next offseason to try and find something that another team has to rid themselves of due to a new cap or because of FA (Eric Gordon?).

Eh, I don't trust that guy Tim Donahue. Shady guy if you ask me.

^^ Not to start a whole bashing war against that site, but it's a site i read very often, but is there any reason to your comment or just don't agree with his stuff?

Scoot McGroot wrote:

DougInOz wrote:The read on 8p9s was really good: http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2 ... nd-enough/
By 'spend' I think Larry is saying that he wants the ability to spend up to the soft cap and possibly a bit over (so somewhere abouts where we are now) if he can find the right deal. I hope we have some money still available (in addition to Poseys expiring) next offseason to try and find something that another team has to rid themselves of due to a new cap or because of FA (Eric Gordon?).

Eh, I don't trust that guy Tim Donahue. Shady guy if you ask me.

Well whether you agree with him or not ( I don't like some of the things he says, I still found the numbers and data presented interesting, especially as I don't have much of an understanding of how the salary system works.

Grang33r wrote:^^ Not to start a whole bashing war against that site, but it's a site i read very often, but is there any reason to your comment or just don't agree with his stuff?

Haha....Tim used to post here. Still does, occasionally. Good guy, I'm just playing around.

Hello,

Good young team. Your brass did exactly what mine here in Milwaukee did not do. Draft well and stuck by your plan and made shrewd trade to get Collison.
Have some big contracts coming off the books, great draft picks stepping up and coming up no team but the T'Wolves, Clippers, Warriors, and Grizzlies are well suited to make the climb then the Pacers.

GO HIRE KEVIN MCHALE AND after he interviews with Houston and lets go...he can help Hibbert and Tyler a hand full develop as Pro's. That will be an awesome duel moving forward.

If you had gotten OJ mayo at the deadline...wow. You would be looking pretty. Don't overdo it though. The core is there. Collison, Hibbert, Hansborough and George...I would keep Granger too but that is just me....

If I were Bird, there is no need for wholesale trades. You are set. Trades for what...exactly? You can shore up backup Center I guess.

I like AJ Price at backup PG and let Dunleavy and or Posey go and bring back Rush maybe, start George or see if J.R Smith or Mayo can help and it's on.

Other fans on other boards may hate, but deep down I think they are as envious as I am. I might have to make a trip up to Conseco to see some 'real NBA basketball.'

to me a really key line in the story this morning was that Herb's son Stephen was at the meeting. I've been told that David Simon has no interest in the Pacers so it would be really good news if a younger Simon is interested in the success of the team and the city.

DougInOz wrote:The read on 8p9s was really good: http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2 ... nd-enough/

the charts in that story show very well why there need to be changes in the CBA. could be the owners are right and the salaries need to come down or the players are right and the levels need to go up but there is something fundamentally wrong with a system that has the average salaries of the worst teams above what is supposed to be a cap.

Good for Larry, and good for Morway. People from other teams give Bird **** all the time, and rip on the Pacers, and how mediocre we are, bla bla bla. But they don't realize how badly the brawl struck us to our core, and how a complete and utter overhaul of the team would take a few years and require some painful recuperation.

Fact is, a few years ago, we had an incredibly expensive team with some aging veterans and no decent youth except Granger.

Now, we will have a cheap young team with lots of interesting potential and nowhere to go but up. So it's been a success in my eyes, and that success should be rewarded and continue.

DougInOz wrote:
Well whether you agree with him or not ( I don't like some of the things he says, I still found the numbers and data presented interesting, especially as I don't have much of an understanding of how the salary system works.

Tim's really on his game and has a great understanding of the cap system, and how it translates/relates to on court basketball and reality.