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I just wanted to list a few points why, I for one, am excited about next year.

1. We should be a little better just on the fact alone it's the teams 2nd year with O'Brien
2. We no longer have to talk about when will JO return
3. We added, in my opinon, a top 10 PG
4. We are more athletic at the wing position
5. We finally have 2 real centers (Hibbert and Rasho)
6. There is finally no doubt who is in charge : Bird
7. David Morey (sp?) is a great help to Bird ( PR, Finance, negotiating, etc.)
8. We are much better Financially now then last year
9. We have stability at the point we have not had since Jackson/Best
10. We have a group of guys that can truly gel as a team
11. Granger will be an all-star. I love the fact OB had him work all summer on beating people off the dribble
12. O'Brien had direct input on the draft, selecting the players he wanted
13. Outside of Philly ( and arguably Toronto) , no one got better in the east
14. I think it finaly hit home at the end of last year, put out a good product or your attendence will be equivelent to a Carmel vs North Central game
15. There are still a couple moves that can be made to improve the team before training camp.

Thats off the top of the head, but for the first time in years we actually have excitment and realistic expectations.

Would love to hear your guys opinon

Thanks

Great post!

I disagree with 13 a bit, I think Rose and Beasley will greatly improve their teams but you are right about everything else, bring on october!

thanks!

I forgot about Miami. I agree they will be much better, considering how bad they were last year, and how they did their Spurs impression circa Duncan 98. Rose, I am not so sure about. Not that he wont be a good player, but with a new coach and either losing Gordon/Deng, or having another bitter year from them, I don't expect much from them this year.

I disagree with 14 a lot. there was a good product last year but no one saw it because they were down on the team for off court reasons. lets hope that's behind us.

I'm excited looking at the Hibbert pictures. he looks much leaner than the guy I remember playing for Georgetown. unless my eyes are deceiving me, he's done some serious training after the college season ended. of course there is this little thing to hold our attention between now and preseason ... Colts games.

I'm excited looking at the Hibbert pictures. he looks much leaner than the guy I remember playing for Georgetown.

I noticed that too. Part of me thinks Hibbert could be the biggest suprise of all the new Pacers

Wizop wrote:I disagree with 14 a lot. there was a good product last year but no one saw it because they were down on the team for off court reasons. lets hope that's behind us.

I'm excited looking at the Hibbert pictures. he looks much leaner than the guy I remember playing for Georgetown. unless my eyes are deceiving me, he's done some serious training after the college season ended. of course there is this little thing to hold our attention between now and preseason ... Colts games.

That was not a good product last year. At all.

Even though we had a losing season, it was still a better game to watch last year under OB's system than any year post-brawl of Carlisle's. You could see some sparks of things to come with Dunleavy, Granger, and even Murphy. I enjoyed going to the games last year but not the year before it.

GO PACERS!

I'm always excited for a new Pacers season, but I'm a little more excited this time around. I don't know how good this team is going to be, but it's a relief to be going in a new direction...the baggage we'd been carrying since the Brawl had gotten pretty heavy.

So many new guys on the team...I hope they will play good ball and be class acts.

Carlisile's system was painful to watch, but at least we made an effort on the defensive end. Its funny how , now he is with Dallas, he says that the team he had at Indiana, dictated his coaching style

HicksvsKnicks08 wrote:Carlisile's system was painful to watch, but at least we made an effort on the defensive end. Its funny how , now he is with Dallas, he says that the team he had at Indiana, dictated his coaching style

Haha we will see how true that is when he coaches the Mavs. He cant be worse then Avery who took the ball out of J-Kid's hands and made him a spot up shooter.

I actually liked Carlise as a coach, clearly his time here ran out but he did alot of good things for us and im glad to see hes back in the NBA.

You know what else belongs on this list? When NBA 2k9 comes out we wont have one of the lowest rated teams to play online with

Was anyone else so excited that they went bought season tickets for the first time? I DID and I couldn't be happier about it. I've dreamed of having Pacers season tickets since I was about 10 years old and now I finally do.

Was anyone else so excited that they went bought season tickets for the first time? I DID

Way to put your money where your mouth is! Just curious, did you good excellent seats at agood price?

I have not lived in Naptown since the early 90's but I have , and will continue to, ordered the NBA league pass just to watch the Pacers.

If we suck again on 2K 9 , I will be heated! Dont want to be a homer but it seemed every year our pllayers were severly underated. Granger better be rated in the 90's

Man I used to dominate on 2k8 with JO but now he's gone. They better rate Hibbert nicely or people are just gonna post up all game online. Even though we were rated low last year we could still match up pretty well with most teams. I just used JO to guard the other teams best big and Danny the wings. I play Quisy at PG a lot too. Probably won't need to now since we have a strong PG in Jack.

HicksvsKnicks, that League Pass really is the best. I had to get it too but I hate when the Pacers are on the road and having to listen to the other teams commentators.

HicksvsKnicks08 wrote:I just wanted to list a few points why, I for one, am excited about next year.

1. We should be a little better just on the fact alone it's the teams 2nd year with O'Brien
6. There is finally no doubt who is in charge : Bird
8. We are much better Financially now then last year
9. We have stability at the point we have not had since Jackson/Best
10. We have a group of guys that can truly gel as a team
11. Granger will be an all-star. I love the fact OB had him work all summer on beating people off the dribble
12. O'Brien had direct input on the draft, selecting the players he wanted
13. Outside of Philly ( and arguably Toronto) , no one got better in the east

1. I don't expect much difference in the win-loss column. We have a boatload of new players and have not dramatically improved in many areas on paper. In reality, we have added guys who I expect to stay pretty healthy and while some are downgrades to who we had, those guys were always injured. The league revolves around star players as well. I would expect anywhere from a couple more wins to a couple more losses.

6. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Morway has some say so in matters. Either way, I'm not all that confident in Larry and his abilities as a GM. In my book, he is 1 dumb signing/trade away from losing his position.

8. Not only are we better financially in a salary sense, I believe we are better in other financial areas. Ticket sale wise and all around fan support wise are both financial areas I could see improvement over last season. I'm not sure how the money gets distributed for apparel but I could the sales in that area improving as well. With better fan support and new players therefore new jerseys, I could see some improvement.

9. I am quite excited about the new PG situation. By the time Best came along to be a backup, Mark was no longer playing his best ball if my knowledge serves me correctly. I could see this years rotation being stronger than Jackson/Best if Ford can stay healthy.

10. I don't understand how you get that we have guys who can truly gel as a team. That usually requires a few seasons and I don't see how anyone could arrive to a conclusion that this team can gel together before even observing them on a court. Don't get me wrong, I hope that we do but I think it is a bit premature to come to this observation.

11. As good as Danny is, I can't see him as an All Star this season. He will have guys like James, Marion, Prince, Carter, Jefferson, J. Smith, G. Wallace, Iguadala C. Butler, Deng, R. Lewis, and Turkoglu competing at SF/SG. Some will probably end up playing SG such as Vince but the real important factor here is the fan vote. Fan vote ends up voting the popular players in regardless of whether deserving. Don't get me wrong here either, I am absolutely sure that Danny is better than some of these guys (if not most) but he will have some very stiff competition.

12. I am confident JOB can recognize talent but I am not so sure he will be here beyond this season. If that is the case, perhaps his eye for talent along Birds will no longer be of significance. I hope the eyes were right on getting rid of Bayless for Rush and a guy who has no business being anything other than a backup.

13. I expect definite improvement from Miami and Atlanta. I could see some improvement from New Jersey, Orlando, Charlotte, and Milwaukee as well. In fact, I believe they will show improvement but not as easily recognized as Miami, Toronto, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

With all that said, I am quite excited to see our new product on the court. The team should be a bit more exciting and fun to watch. That is good enough for me after a the disaster of a season this past year.

I had to get it too but I hate when the Pacers are on the road and having to listen to the other teams commentators

No doubt. Altought I guess it's only right, because when I get the Pacers announcers Quinn Buckner is the Ultimate homer. You know what pissd me off when I first got the league pass? I also, had the sports pacxkage which included Fox Sports in all parts of the country. Every game I saw on league pass I could have watched on Fox with very little exceptions. I called and beefed about this , and next year they blocked out the games on Fox. Dumb move in hindsight. lol

I would hope on 2K9 that Granger, Dunleavy, Ford > 90. Rush and Hibbert > 83

First off greaat post!

" I don't understand how you get that we have guys who can truly gel as a team"

I ment this because they have a lot of new players now , not clicks like before.

"As good as Danny is, I can't see him as an All Star this season"

My bad, I ment Danny will raise his play to the all-star calibur level. Your right about the politics.

"I hope the eyes were right on getting rid of Bayless for Rush"

Don't get me started on that!, lol Ipray your not correct

Yeah I had the Sports Package before the League Pass. I thought I would be able to see the games on the FSNs but every game said it was blacked out and couldn't be seen in my area. So then I was forced to get League Pass or not watch the games. I had a little arguement with Directv about the blackouts as well.

I think Ford will be a 90. Granger might be 85-88 and Dunleavy around 85. I agree with Hibbert and Rush though.

2K8 must be awfully generous with their ratings. I am a NBA Live fan myself, and their ratings are not quite so favorable...

2K8 must be awfully generous with their ratings. I am a NBA Live fan myself, and their ratings are not quite so favorable...

Thats what we hopefor. I used to play live up untill 0'3 .

I used to be a Live fan as well, then it just became a dunk fest and too arcade. 2k9 is probably the last of the series though, so it looks like it's back to Live for all of us in 2010.