Pacers set to bid on Elton Brand???

[DWCP2]

Reading on it through hoopshype, citing Ken Berger of CBSSports via Twitter.

It's interesting on a few fronts.

Hibbert replacement?

3rd big upgrade?

Opening salary? (Bring in Brand for cheap, Trade an expiring West for roster improvements.)

[SmashMouthRod]

I think Brand could be a nice pickup for the vets minimum. I dont think he can replace Hibbert as he no longer defends the rim like he did when he was young. It may be his knees. But he can be nice off the pine for 8 to 10 pts a game.


Hill/Collison
George/????/Stephenson/O.Johnson
Granger/????/D.Jones/O.Johnson
West/Brand/Psycho T
Hibbert/Plumlee

[basketballwacko2]

Well he did play for Duke! If he cheap enough I'm ok with Brand.

[Crowman]

Sign me the hell up because Hans sucks

[jowglenn]

Oh god yes.

Cheap brand is a big upgrade over hansbrough

[Scoot McGroot]

I'd love him as the backup PF, but I'm not sure we can bid on him. Only teams that are under the salary cap can bid, and this would take place after we would have re-signed George Hill and matched Roy Hibbert. I believe we could hold off on re-signing George Hill and make a bid, though. It would, however, impact any possible free agency signing of a swingman, though.

[Moooose]

I'd love to have Brand because he can play center, it would still allow playing time for our pure PF's in David West and Hansbrough. But i think i'd rather see us focusing on Mayo first.

[tocooks]

Is he really that much of an upgrade over Tyler? I think we have bigger areas to look at upgrading then our backup PF. Im with Moooose, save it for Mayo.

[Crowman]

Is he really that much of an upgrade over Tyler? I think we have bigger areas to look at upgrading then our backup PF. Im with Moooose, save it for Mayo.

Yes he is a huge uprgade Tyler sucks and FO knows it too

[tocooks]

Is he really that much of an upgrade over Tyler? I think we have bigger areas to look at upgrading then our backup PF. Im with Moooose, save it for Mayo.

Yes he is a huge uprgade Tyler sucks and FO knows it too

I think we can all agree Mayo over stephenson would be a much bigger upgrade.

[Indy2thaWindy]

Is he really that much of an upgrade over Tyler? I think we have bigger areas to look at upgrading then our backup PF. Im with Moooose, save it for Mayo.

Yes he is a huge uprgade Tyler sucks and FO knows it too

I think we can all agree Mayo over stephenson would be a much bigger upgrade.

Lance doesn't get consistent playing time, so it's hard for him to get a defined role and play it well. Hansbrough plays every game and sucks every game. Hansbrough will also be a free agent and will probably get paid $5 million per year. He's worth about $1 million per year. Hopefully he's traded and we can get some kind of value for him, if he has any at all, before he gets overpaid by some other team.

[tocooks]

You also have to consider Barbosa leaving, which sounds like a done deal. Unless you want stephenson and Jones coming off the bench a wing scorer is a top priority. I honestly dont think Hansbrough is that bad and I know management is high on him so I highly doubt we make the move for Brand.

[Boneman2]

Indy2tw will always hate one of our players with extreme passion, first it was DC and now Tyler.

Regardless, Tyler plays well if he has someone in the blocks with him taller than 6'9". Prior to last season he always played with someone over 6'9" (Roy 7'2", McRoberts 6'10", Foster 6'11", even Solo 6'10").

Because I believe Tyler is material enough to be our backup for the next decade, I will reserve judgement on him until he proves himself with someone other than Lou as his running mate. Not that Lou was bad, but he and Tyler together are recyclical, and were very ineffective in the playoffs.

The Plumlee pick makes sense from that standpoint. Maybe Hibbert was right when he stated what area the Pacers should address before the draft, saying "We should draft a b/u to him."

My thought is that if Plumlee is such a rebounding machine, as our f/o claims, then he should be able to mask one of Hansbrough's primary weaknesses as a post player. The fact Plumlee hardly shoots also works well with Hansbrough, nobody can deny that.
I guess one could bring into question how effective they will be defensively, but at 7', with a 40+" vert., Miles better be able to alter some shots atleast.

I think Hansbrough deserves a chance until further notice.

[Reginald Wayne]

Indy2thawindy hates on him for a reason..because he sucks. So does Collison.

[frizzledizzle]

Hansbrough does pretty much suck cause he's a black hole that's only good when he draws contact in the paint.

Collison on the other hand does not suck. Helped lead the Pacers to the 5th best record in the NBA as one of the starters and I don't know if you watched the playoffs but he kind of kicked ass.

I don't think it's so much that Windy hates our guys(except Collison, maybe Granger too), it's just that he loves Stephenson so much that he'll bash everyone else in an attempt to make Stephenson seem more viable.

But yeah.... if our top back up shooting guard and small forward are Dahntay Jones and Lance Stephenson, we have a 0% chance of winning anything. Odds don't favor us to anyways but that might be the worst shooting bench in the history of the NBA. At least Dahntay Jones learned to stand in the corner and practice making wide open 3's. He's a slasher that resorted to learn how to spot up shooting 3's in the corn. Stephenson couldn't do that even if you offered him 5 mil a year.

We definitely need a shooter off the bench because Collison is 10 times better than either one and he's not that great at shooting(unless he dribbles in a few feet and pulls up). So unless you want him to play SG or SF.... it's that or send Hill back to the bench.

[frizzledizzle]

Indy2thawindy hates on him for a reason..because he sucks. So does Collison.

Completely invalid if you don't believe Stephenson sucks too then.

5* talent that fell to the 2nd round and is a SG that can't shoot.

Collison started on a winning team. Stephenson can't even get playing time.

Just making sure you're not in on this "Stephenson is so much better" bullcrap because he's worse than Collison.

[Indy2thaWindy]

Collison on the other hand does not suck. Helped lead the Pacers to the 5th best record in the NBA as one of the starters and I don't know if you watched the playoffs but he kind of kicked ass.

Collison's +/-'s in the playoffs.

-6
-10
0
+13
+11
-8
-8
-2
-10
-12
-25

he kind of kicked ass.

*sucked

[Boneman2]

Collison on the other hand does not suck. Helped lead the Pacers to the 5th best record in the NBA as one of the starters and I don't know if you watched the playoffs but he kind of kicked ass.

Collison's +/-'s in the playoffs.

-6
-10
0
+13
+11
-8
-8
-2
-10
-12
-25

he kind of kicked ass.

*sucked

Completely invalid measure that was affected by the unit he played with. Collison himself had some very good games. Overall, he averaged 18 mpg to go along with 9 pts/ 3 assts/ & 1 stl.. He also shot over 36% from three and 50% from the field in the playoffs.

Per 48 minutes he was better than Hill in almost every statistical category. Why not use that stat?

Did you watch the playoffs?

[Indy2thaWindy]

Yeah, went to some too. He's a bad basketball player. You don't want to see it so I'm not gonna try to convince you. He just sucks at basketball.

[tocooks]

Collison on the other hand does not suck. Helped lead the Pacers to the 5th best record in the NBA as one of the starters and I don't know if you watched the playoffs but he kind of kicked ass.

Collison's +/-'s in the playoffs.

-6
-10
0
+13
+11
-8
-8
-2
-10
-12
-25

he kind of kicked ass.

*sucked

Wow, really? The guy single handily closed out the magic and was our only threat off the bench all playoffs. I dont get how players that act like professionals and contribute to the team get over looked for immature players with potential that dont step on the court most nights.