Bird asks for patience

[Grang33r]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4905746

INDIANAPOLIS -- Pacers president Larry Bird is urging fans to remain patient through the team's struggles.

Indiana enters the All-Star break with an 18-34 record, well out of the playoff race after missing the postseason for the past three seasons. Last month, some players were openly wondering if their "weak-minded" defense could be righted and attendance woes have been a problem now for years, along with assorted off-the-court issues.

Yet Bird says the rebuilding phase that began when the Pacers traded Ron Artest in 2006 is on target, and will move into high gear after next season when the team gets salary cap space.

"We knew that we had to clean it out and rebuild it, and we knew we were going to go through some tough times," Bird told The Associated Press this week. "Nobody likes to lose, and everybody wants to be a part of a winner. We think we're on the right track to get there."

Bird also took the pressure off coach Jim O'Brien, who is in his third year after back-to-back 36-46 seasons. O'Brien signed a one-year extension last September to coach through the end of next season, and Bird said he is in no danger of being replaced.

"The one thing Jimmy bought into when he came here was that we were going to rebuild, and we were going to struggle at times," Bird said. "I always say the losses are on me because I want him to work these guys hard, develop the young guys we have and keep moving forward with what we have."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4905746

With a move or two and a semi-decent draft pick, i really could see Bird's "future" plans coming true for us. Is that me being an idiot or does anyone else agree?

[Dunthreevy]

The only move I disagree with Bird on so far was giving O'Brien another year and his refusal to admit that O'Brien isn't doing a good job. Not only with putting a competitive game plan together, but he isn't even trying to develop the young guys through our struggles.

Personnel moves in regards to player signings and draft picks, I don't disagree with Bird's decisions too much.

[Miller4ever]

^^I'm willing to bet Bird doesn't enjoy Obie's performance, but he can't badmouth his own coach publicly.

[macblank]

He definitely deserves patience on building the team because it's heading in the right direction. Obie on the other hand

[Dunthreevy]

^^I'm willing to bet Bird doesn't enjoy Obie's performance, but he can't badmouth his own coach publicly.

I wouldn't expect him to publicly bad mouth O'Brien but I would expect him to act accordingly considering everyone under the sun knows that O'Brien has been downright laughable as our coach. I don't want Bird to bad mouth O'Brien. I want him to take the proper actions to correct O'Brien's ineffectiveness as a coach.

[Sid the Squid]

No matter who the coach was during these down years, he was going to be the scapegoat. Happens EVERY SINGLE TIME a franchise starts to rebuild.

[MNPacersfan]

Once the big Free Agents are gone next summer the Pacers will be players in the trade market. All the teams that struck out in 2010 will look to clear more space in 2011 and the Pacers will have a lot of 2011 $$ expiring. Fall of 2010 could be a very exciting time for the Pacers and us!

[blueandgold]

Predict two scenarios:

1. They trade Murphy for expiring this year. (Two year plan)
"What position and Who do they pick up in FA 2011 and what position do they draft?"
"What position and Who do they pick up in FA 2012?"

2. They wait it out until 2012. (Only a draft pick plan)
"What position and who do they pick up in FA 2012 and what position do they draft 2011?"

[celtspacers]

The fans have been patient enough already. Now it's time for Bird to show us he knows what he's doing, He has to be smart and get the team some future assets, and nows the time. I hate to say this but Granger needs to go, to get them. The Pacers need to be build around Hibbert not Granger, Danny's to selfish. Minnisota is the team he needs to be dealing with Jefferson and Rubio would be the best options. Rubio will be a Steve Nash type point guard. if Jefferson doesn't work out, he'll make good trade bait for the future.

[Charcoal Filtered]

If we have been rebuilding since the Artest trade, when is it going to end?

[mizzoupacers]

^ Not until the team gets past the bad contracts it's been stuck with ever since Artest & Co. crapped the bed.

I'll start losing patience if Bird doesn't show signs of putting a good team together in 2011-2012.

[Charcoal Filtered]

Now that the trade deadline has passed, I can again voice my displeasure with the way Bird is going about this rebuild. For our cap space this offseason, we got a team that is once again in the mid to low lottery. For taking on JJ's contract, Houston gets a lottery pick plus two more protected #1's.

[DWCP2]

He gave the extension to O'Brien for one reason only: LAME DUCK!

If we didn't sign him and he did succeed, the chances are that some other team would offer him far more money then the Pacers could to remain the head coach.

A one year extension was an either way safe bet: Win and you can negotiate a better deal, didn't happen. Lose and your only out one year's salary and you keep your coach from being a lame duck and likely quitting before the end of the season or worse.

If a coaching change does happen it will happen this summer to a lot of teams. With a pending 2011 lockout, you want security in the front office for your team once they make it out to the other side, and a lot of that security does reside in your head coach.

The biggest thing is can the Pacers surpass Minnesota and New Jersey for the top two picks in the draft. Pass one and your guaranteed Evan Turner. Pass both and you get John Wall.

[Scoot McGroot]

Now that the trade deadline has passed, I can again voice my displeasure with the way Bird is going about this rebuild. For our cap space this offseason, we got a team that is once again in the mid to low lottery. For taking on JJ's contract, Houston gets a lottery pick plus two more protected #1's.

We didn't have an expiring contract to trade for Jared Jeffries.

[pacersrule08]

yes but now we wait for the draft. Right now i think we pick fifth with and 8.8% chance to get first so hopefully sacramento gets more wins bu there is no way we r going to get less wins than nets warriors or timberwolves then if we get fourth we have a 11.9 %. Lets just pray for john wall

If we get the number one pick its time to

[Gremz]

I'm hardly surprised no moves were made. Mot that I'm happy, but it didn't seem that we had pieces in extremely high demand. Even Murphy was considered a backup plan for most teams. Let's wait and see what the off season brings for trades. We'll have some pretty nifty bargaining chips.

[pacersrule08]

ok so i did chad fords mock draft 100 times and here is what i got.

1st-8 times John Wall
2nd-12 times Evan Turner
3rd- 12 times Demarcus Cousins
4th-none bc there is no possible way we get 4th
5th- 34 times Demarcus Cousins or Ed Davis
6th- 26 times Ed Davis
7th 8 times Al Farouq Aminu

[Charcoal Filtered]

We didn't have an expiring contract to trade for Jared Jeffries.

And why is that? We extend Foster and sign Watson/Jones instead of using cap space creatively. Players not good enough to make this a playoff team in the weak East. Good enough to keep us from getting a good pick though.

I look for this team to start winning games to close out the season. We cannot even tank right.

[Scoot McGroot]

We didn't have an expiring contract to trade for Jared Jeffries.

And why is that? We extend Foster and sign Watson/Jones instead of using cap space creatively. Players not good enough to make this a playoff team in the weak East. Good enough to keep us from getting a good pick though.

I look for this team to start winning games to close out the season. We cannot even tank right.

If we didn't extend Foster, he wouldn't have been under contract at all this season. He would've expired before this season. Not signing Watson/Jones wouldn't have given us cap space to absorb any contracts, let alone JJ. Unless we signed somebody to an MLE contract with only the 1st year guaranteed, we still wouldn't have had an expiring contract large enough to work with.


Believe me, I would've loved for it to work, as Hill and 2 1sts for taking on Jared Jeffries would be a sweet package that I could live with. If Ford were an expiring, I would've made that move in a second. However, it just wasn't meant to be. This next offseason/draft/season is where we'll see what Bird can do as a GM. He made some decent first steps in moving JO for immediate cap relief and Hibbert. That's a good start. If he could've pulled off the Ford/Rush for Augustin/Henderson/Nazr deal, I would have more faith, but I'm not too disappointed yet. This roster was set up for the season of 2010/summer of 2011, so we'll see.

[Charcoal Filtered]

We had more than the MLE even with extending Foster. Subtract Foster, Jones, and Watson. That was plenty of money to absorb JJ by just using cap space.