Pacers Odds and Ends during Shutdown

[Scoot McGroot]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/04/13/what-pacers-big-man-says-month-away-nba-has-taught-him/2983767001/

Myles' father recovered from his own bout from the coronavirus, and Myles has kept up with his yoga during the shutdown.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/03/23/pacers-well-positioned-deal-any-salary-cap-impact-coronavirus/2902441001/?csp=apple-news

Pacers received a nearly $10m payout from the league's insurance provider for Victor Oladipo's quad injury from last year. It didn't kick in coverage until this year (a player must miss 41 games before it starts to payout, and he was injured in game 47 last year). So, 80% of his salary of the nearly first 47 games he missed this season before his return was covered by insurance. This won't affect the salary cap calculations, but is money right back into the owners pockets that should help weather this downturn.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/04/13/if-nba-returns-pacers-could-benefit-healthy-backcourt/2980888001/

The league shutdown could help aid Oladipo, McDermott, and Brogdon in their recoveries from their injuries.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/03/28/indiana-pacers-center-rik-smits-hosts-q-pacer-fans/2929069001/

A Rik Smits Q&A.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/03/19/former-pacers-employee-jumps-into-action-against-coronavirus/2872251001/
https://theathletic.com/1692083/2020/03/24/from-ball-boy-to-vp-donnie-stracks-career-prepped-him-for-covid-19-response/

Former Pacers ballboy Donnie Strack played a huge role in the immediacy of the league shutdown as a member of the OKC Thunder staff.

https://theathletic.com/1726529/2020/04/07/who-is-pacers-gm-chad-buchanan-and-why-is-he-staying-with-indiana/

Assistant GM Chad Buchanan was invited to interview for Bulls personnel job and turned down the opportunity.




See anything random that may not cause discussion? Feel free to throw it in here until we have some actual game changing news..

[Scoot McGroot]

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Technically, he retires from the NBA as a Pacer

[Gremz]

I'm too lazy to post individual links, but for those interested this is my go to for whatever remnants of sports info I can scrounge:

https://www.chatsports.com/indiana-pacers/

[Topofthekey]

This is a little whimsical, but it just occurred to me what a great duo Domas and Reggie would be if they played together

Reggie was excellent at moving without the ball, and Domas is excellent at finding his teammates

It's basically a bit like Domas and Doug, but times ten

[Scoot McGroot]

This is a little whimsical, but it just occurred to me what a great duo Domas and Reggie would be if they played together

Reggie was excellent at moving without the ball, and Domas is excellent at finding his teammates

It's basically a bit like Domas and Doug, but times ten

And Domas being a vicious screener wouldn’t hurt too.

In all honesty, Sabonis so far plays a lot like Rik Smits, though he’s more mobile than Rik ever was with his early foot issues. But in terms of a high post master that could swing passes, direct offense, grab some rebounds around the rim, and have a super soft touch on their shot with some awesome post moves? Very much like Rik. Though Rik was much better at defending big men. A lot to like I comparing the two.

[Scoot McGroot]

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While The Last Dance is all the rage, Zach Lowe wrote an article about the game 7 matchup of Bulls/Pacers in the 1998 ECF. Pretty enjoyable, other than the game ending

[Topofthekey]

So there's a thread going on in the General board about all time top 10 SGs. I chipped in over there, and provided two of what I consider to be very interesting videos to support my argument

I just thought I'd share the videos here as well, because the maker of the video did a really good job on two topics, player movement on offense, and the biggest risers and fallers when it comes to the playoffs. Reggie features very prominently in both videos, and I think it's something that Pacer fans would enjoy watching. You truly get a sense of how special/elite Reggie was as a player

Enjoy

On movement:

Watch on YouTube

On playoffs performance:

Watch on YouTube

[Topofthekey]

Question: does it make sense to hire Reggie as a coach?

His game seems tailor made for the current era of NBA

Given how uninspired the Pacers offense can be at times, seems like it's an obvious fit

Myles in particular will probably benefit from being coached by a coach who can guide him on how to move effectively on offense to generate open looks and 3-pointers

I mean, Myles is quite agile for a big man, imagine him being able to move purposefully on offense and shoot with confidence

[pacers33granger]

Question: does it make sense to hire Reggie as a coach?

He may not want to coach, though I know he said in the past he wouldn't rule it out. He seems to enjoy doing broadcasting. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have someone else working with players on the offense.

[Scoot McGroot]

Yeah, there’s never once been a rumbling in any way that Reggie has looked into coaching, as opposed to guys like Kerr, Ewing, Jackson, etc. I think that’s probably pretty telling of his wishes.

[Grang33r]

Does the time off between games and the covid playoffs help the Pacers out? When the season went dark, Oladipo was rusty and quite frankly not playing good basketball. He's now had three months to keep working on his game and while that isn't a true translation to real games, but nobody else is playing games either and Vic will now also get a handful of preseason games before he plays the final 8 regular season games. I think that could be huge for the Pacers.

[Scoot McGroot]

Assorted Pacers readings. Obviously, some of these may have some politically touchy subjects to some, but please, don't steer the thread down a bad road. There's some really useful and usable notes throughout the pieces.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/06/09/insider-race-perceptions-matter-free-agents-looking-pacers/3162617001/
Couple notes from the piece:

West declined a role with the Pacers, a league source told IndyStar last year. West said there wasn't any serious consideration on his part because he has other interests and doesn’t want a job that ties him down day-to-day.
_____________
Temple sees Pritchard's comments Friday as a way to eventually convince black players who would not have considered the Pacers to sign with them.

“The people that are socially conscious in this league, black men, if you have a choice between Indiana and maybe Milwaukee, two small-market teams in that region, having a president who has expressed how he feels about these things in the manner he has has to mean something,” Temple said.
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The Pacers' promise of unconditional support to players who are leaders in their communities, be it Brogdon and his hometown of Atlanta or with the city of Indianapolis, is welcomed.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2020/06/05/pacers-president-kevin-pritchard-talks-emotionally-george-floyd/3158725001/


And this last one is actually an article that Malcolm Brogdon himself guest wrote for USA Today and its affiliated papers.
https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/06/05/pacers-malcolm-brogdon-guest-column-george-floyd-racial-injustice/3147741001/

[Jake0890]

Love Brogdon taking an active leadership role. He was marching with Jaylen Brown in ATL (?) and wants to host something in Indy as well, I believe.

[Scoot McGroot]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2020/06/17/indiana-pacers-could-without-justin-holiday-because-coronavirus-social-justice/3211118001/

Justin Holiday is listed as the only potential Pacers holdout from the possible playoffs bubble in Orlando. It makes sense to me, as he's really the only guy hitting free agency this year that has a lot to lose if he gets sick and has lung issues going forward.

[Scoot McGroot]

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[Scoot McGroot]

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[boomershadow]

Oladipo to evaluate his quad before deciding o whether to return for the rest of the season.

[Scoot McGroot]

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[Tom White]

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I know you posted that for the Reggie bit, but when I scrolled on down and saw the clips of Yogi Ferrell it made me stop and watch. Man, I loved watching Yogi at IU. In some ways, he reminded me of Victor - and that's always a good thing.