Next Season

writerman · Post #1 » by **writerman** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 2:29 am

I know we have some financially-driven decisions to make about next year's roster, but It seems to me, when healthy, we have all the pieces to become a contender pretty quickly--except the post presence.

We're solid and deep at PG with Ford, Denier, and Jack.

We're solid and deep at both SF and SG with Granger, Dunleavy, Daniels, Jack, Rush, and Graham.

We're solid at PF with Murphy, Foster, Baston et al. I think McRoberts could contribute too, if given minutes.

It's at the five we need to have that post presence. Hibbert has shown flashes. I think It's very important that Hibbert work his butt off to improve over the offseason.

I really think we can be a solid playoff team next year. We've shown what we can do despite injuries to key players.

But Hibbert is the key IMO.

Comments?

MillerTime101 · Post #2 » by **MillerTime101** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 2:56 am

Completely agree, HIbbert can be both the post presents and the defensive presents that we need but that is a very tall order for what will be a second year player. Most likely he wont be able to handle the load so I think that will be our target area for FA, draft and possibly a trade.

cjacobs2007 · Post #3 » by **cjacobs2007** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 3:41 am

I agree with you, I think we are just one or two players away from really competing. We really need a dominant center right now, and maybe Hibbert can develop into that player we need.

Post #4 » by **PR07** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 3:46 am

PG, we're solid assuming we can re-sign Jack and Ford maintains relatively healthy. Diener's an excellent 3rd PG.

At SG, we're okay. I think there's room for improvement there. Who knows if Dunleavy can return/and be the player he once was? Even then, he's not really a SG. Daniels probably won't be back. A lot of it depends on Rush and whether he continues to improve to become the player the Pacers thought they were getting when they selected him.

At SF, we're gravy. It doesn't get much better than Danny Granger. Rush, Graham, and Dunleavy are all adequate backups.

At PF, Murphy is solid holding down the fort. However, ideally, I'd like to see the Pacers draft a big and physical enough presence to give us a lot of minutes here, and enable Murphy to slide and get some of the center minutes. Someone like Jordan Hill (I know he's projected to go higher than our pick) and Greg Monroe would fit the bill. Foster is a solid backup here for some of the minues and McRoberts can give you some energy minutes.

At C, Hibbert should be the starter next year, for better or for worse. Hibbert can give us some of the low post game we lack, and some of the shotblocking, but I don't envision him as the answer to some of our glaring frontcourt weaknesses. Nevertheless, he's looked pretty good when given the minutes, and should be able to beat out Feisty for the starting spot. Feisty is one of the league's top backup centers.

Next year:

Ford-Jack-Diener
Dunleavy?-Rush
Granger-Graham
Murphy-Rookie- Foster-McRoberts
Hibbert-Foster-McRoberts

Ideally, long-term:

Ford/Jack
Rush
Granger
Hill/Monroe
Hibbert

Post #5 » by **Miller4ever** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 4:40 am

I think the team seriously needs upgrades in the SG spot (Dunleavy is an okay starting SG option) and the middle (Roy Hibbert is not ready to be a full-time starter, but he could split minutes with somebody). TJ Ford needs to work on his consistency and Granger needs to be healthy. A contending team is has all the pieces. A championship team is one that can still succeed even without all their pieces for parts of the season.

bballpacen · Post #6 » by **bballpacen** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:52 am

I think that first we need to address the PG spot, as to me that is what will decide how to proceed in the offseason... Do we/are we gonna be able to resign Jack... If we are unable to, then we need to address the backup PG situation... Either draft a PG or sign Sessions... If we sign him, then we can address the PF spot either through the draft or via trade... TJ or Daniels(if retained) would probably be the most likely candidates... If we could, say TJ for a young PG/PF and a pick to use on the other, would we be interested... Or could we even swing a S&T with JJ for either a PG or PF and draft with our pick the other...

Personally, if I were making the decisions... I would resign JJ, and try to trade away TJ... Not b/c I dislike him, but he would be the most valuable trading asset that we would consider trading... But I dont see to many deals that I would be interested in for TJ, and in that case, I would be willing to roll next year with the Thunder and Lightening again... Then if Monroe is not on the board when it comes time to pick, I think I am looking to move the Tinsley with the pick as sweetener... And hope that some team is enamored with a player still available... Would Atlanta S&T Marvin Williams for Tinsley and our pick... In my mind anyways the answer is a resounding YES!!

MillerTime101 · Post #7 » by **MillerTime101** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 7:34 am

Im not sure if your aware or your just using the term "resign" when it comes to Jarrett Jack he is signed next year, he is just an RFA. At worse we will have to match an offer. Not sure if that effects your thinking just wanted to clear that up.

Jordin HIll would be a great fit, we could even slide Foster or Murphy to center to get Hill some extra minutes. If we dont land a player like Hill in the draft I wouldnt be apposed to using most of if not all of our MLE to get a Brandon Bass type player, I think we are one or two rotation players away from being a top 4 team in the East.

cdash · Post #8 » by **cdash** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 7:43 am

MillerTime101 wrote:Im not sure if your aware or your just using the term "resign" when it comes to Jarrett Jack he is signed next year, he is just an RFA. At worse we will have to match an offer. Not sure if that effects your thinking just wanted to clear that up.

Jordin HIll would be a great fit, we could even slide Foster or Murphy to center to get Hill some extra minutes. If we dont land a player like Hill in the draft I wouldnt be apposed to using most of if not all of our MLE to get a Brandon Bass type player, I think we are one or two rotation players away from being a top 4 team in the East.

Huh? He is not signed next year. Restricted free agent still means he is a free agent. It just gives us the leverage of being able to match any offer made to him.

Post #9 » by **PR07** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 7:53 am

I've said this before, and this is no disrespect to Murphy, but if he's the best player in our frontcourt, we aren't a contender. The team needs to get a bigtime player in the frontcourt to complement Granger. That player could be a Jordan Hill or Greg Monroe.

I think a platoon of sorts of Ford and Jack is good enough to win a title with assuming all of the other positions are championship calibre, but could this position be upgraded? Yes, it will just be difficult.

At SG, hopefully Rush ends up being the answer because I don't think Dunleavy is.

chatard5 · Post #10 » by **chatard5** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 8:02 am

I like the optimism. I need to go eat some optimism-beans before I talk about being the 4th best team in the East. M4E needs to go drink some kool-aid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBeUGqeYsQg

I think cdash made that commercial after he lived it during a crazy night at IU.

That whole optimism-beans is pretty horrible, I need a little help on that one.

cdash · Post #11 » by **cdash** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 8:44 am

If only I had a big Kool-Aid man costume, then it absolutely would have been me. On a related note, I have barreled through a fence not unlike our friend in the video. I bet he didn't have to pay for it though :/

Boneman2 · Post #12 » by **Boneman2** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 2:38 pm

Well not to be sugar-free koolaid, but the playoff push we're experiencing is the difference between adding the skills of EJ as opposed to Rush, or Bayless for that matter. Oh well, these players have definitely earned my respect with their tremendous effort.

I'd prefer to throw games like all the other low-life organizations out there because Stern's policy allows teams to cheat in this manner. Why shouldn't we get a crack at Lebron or Dwight or CP etc...... Basically it is okay to throw a game to improve draft positioning, but illegal if it involves insiders and bookies. It's all the same.

Regardless, it's not like Obie hasn't played the rookies; coupled with the injuries and new faces it is really quite remarkable where this team is at. They represent themselves well.

Since we won't get a crack at Hill, Monroe or any other offensive low-post presence we should consider drafting Blair to strictly be a hitman on anyone that abuses our players.

bballpacen · Post #13 » by **bballpacen** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 3:35 pm

MillerTime101 wrote:Im not sure if your aware or your just using the term "resign" when it comes to Jarrett Jack he is signed next year, he is just an RFA. At worse we will have to match an offer. Not sure if that effects your thinking just wanted to clear that up.

Jordin HIll would be a great fit, we could even slide Foster or Murphy to center to get Hill some extra minutes. If we dont land a player like Hill in the draft I wouldnt be apposed to using most of if not all of our MLE to get a Brandon Bass type player, I think we are one or two rotation players away from being a top 4 team in the East.

No, he is definitely NOT under contract for next year... And the fact that he is a RFA is not as meaningful as it would be for MOST teams, MOST years... Next year, with our salary number already running up to the projected Luxury Tax Threshold... RFA means we have the ability to match up to 3-5M, depends on what the Simons think about Jack...

As for help via FA, I dont think that will happen... Unless we let JJ and Daniels go, and even still we more than likely will not use the entire MLE...

greenway84 · Post #14 » by **greenway84** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:02 pm

think we could do ford for sessions, 1st. i think having the 10th, 15th, 41st, and 50th pick in this years draft. As well as having Daniels EXP. I think we could land Chandler and still pick up either Greg Monroe, Al-Farouq Aminu, or DeJaun Blair.

Sessions/Jack/Deiner
Dunleavy/Graham
Granger/Rush
Chandler/Murphy/McRoberts
Hibbert/Foster

Plus or Rookie depending on who we pick up. This off the top of my head and I have NO IDEA if this is probable.

greenway84 · Post #15 » by **greenway84** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:06 pm

also I was wondering. with all the player options in 2010 any chance some of them wait an extra year to become a free agent. if so we could have a good chance. Murphy, Dunleavy, Tinsley, Ford, and Foster all end that year.

Post #16 » by **Miller4ever** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:21 pm

chatard5 wrote:I like the optimism. I need to go eat some optimism-beans before I talk about being the 4th best team in the East. M4E needs to go drink some kool-aid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBeUGqeYsQg

I think cdash made that commercial after he lived it during a crazy night at IU.

That whole optimism-beans is pretty horrible, I need a little help on that one.

Optimism beans don't go down very well, and then it turns into disappointment diarrhea. Kool-aid tastes good, though.

MillerTime101 · Post #17 » by **MillerTime101** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:21 pm

bballpacen wrote:
MillerTime101 wrote:Im not sure if your aware or your just using the term "resign" when it comes to Jarrett Jack he is signed next year, he is just an RFA. At worse we will have to match an offer. Not sure if that effects your thinking just wanted to clear that up.

Jordin HIll would be a great fit, we could even slide Foster or Murphy to center to get Hill some extra minutes. If we dont land a player like Hill in the draft I wouldnt be apposed to using most of if not all of our MLE to get a Brandon Bass type player, I think we are one or two rotation players away from being a top 4 team in the East.
No, he is definitely NOT under contract for next year... And the fact that he is a RFA is not as meaningful as it would be for MOST teams, MOST years... Next year, with our salary number already running up to the projected Luxury Tax Threshold... RFA means we have the ability to match up to 3-5M, depends on what the Simons think about Jack...

As for help via FA, I dont think that will happen... Unless we let JJ and Daniels go, and even still we more than likely will not use the entire MLE...

Actually by definition he is signed next year, if no one makes an offer he is under contract with us next year. There is no way we can just not sign him, he is under contract unless someone else steps in.

Post #18 » by **count55** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:23 pm

greenway84 wrote:think we could do ford for sessions, 1st. i think having the 10th, 15th, 41st, and 50th pick in this years draft. As well as having Daniels EXP. I think we could land Chandler and still pick up either Greg Monroe, Al-Farouq Aminu, or DeJaun Blair.

Sessions/Jack/Deiner
Dunleavy/Graham
Granger/Rush
Chandler/Murphy/McRoberts
Hibbert/Foster

Plus or Rookie depending on who we pick up. This off the top of my head and I have NO IDEA if this is probable.

Milwaukee is concerned about luxury tax, and would not take Ford's salary, let alone throw in a 1st rounder along with Sessions.

We only have one 2nd round pick: Dallas'. Our second round pick went to Miami in exchange for Stanko Barac.

Dunleavy will miss at least half of next year, more likely the entire season.

I have no idea what package your putting together to get Chandler, but just doing the math, it looks like it's Daniels straight up. First, that doesn't work under the salary cap. Second, that would send us skyrocketing over the luxury tax for the next two years, likely threatening the very future of the Pacers in Indianapolis.

Other than that, I don't see any problems.

Post #19 » by **count55** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:31 pm

MillerTime101 wrote:Actually by definition he is signed next year, if no one makes an offer he is under contract with us next year. There is no way we can just not sign him, he is under contract unless someone else steps in.

No, he's not.

He is a free agent. If we tender at least the one-year qualifying offer, then that will make him a Restricted Free Agent. That will only allow us right of first refusal, meaning we can match any offer made to him.

The only way he will be back with the Pacers next year is if he (a) signs a contract with us (either a multi-year or the one-year tender) or (b) we match any offer sheet he signs with another NBA team.

The scenarios in which he would no longer be with the team include: (a) signing an offer sheet with another team that we don't match, (b) the Pacers renouncing his rights and not making an offer (as they did with David Harrison), (c) him declining to sign the one-year tender and leaving basketball (extremely unlikely), or (d) he could sign with a team overseas (as Josh Childress did last season). (All of these exclude trades.)

bballpacen · Post #20 » by **bballpacen** » Mon Mar 9, 2009 5:39 pm

MillerTime101 wrote:
bballpacen wrote:Actually by definition he is signed next year, if no one makes an offer he is under contract with us next year. There is no way we can just not sign him, he is under contract unless someone else steps in.

Does Josh Childress ring a bell??