You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

well look who the cat drug in

I know, right? I'm not dead. Needed a break from 2K, so switched the Madden the last few months but now that basketball season is nearly over (please, Golden State, put Cleveland out of its misery the next game), I am regenerated and ready to go.



Lots of interesting moves that have happened in this offseason.


And I have a lot of catching up to do with your dynasty thread and a few others (will get to that soon!).


Stay tuned as I have the offseason done (big moves for some teams you wouldn't expect -- the luxury tax is a pain).

[georgiafan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

Taking a break like can really make things fresh so it doesn't get boring. Its nice to you and Jeremy back to close things out until 2k19 drops

I can't wait to read your offseason stuff and even with all the big $ off the books going forward for teams the cap thing wasn't quite as easy as I expected.

Good job on the PTI thing I still watch that show everyday

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

Taking a break like can really make things fresh so it doesn't get boring. Its nice to you and Jeremy back to close things out until 2k19 drops

I can't wait to read your offseason stuff and even with all the big $ off the books going forward for teams the cap thing wasn't quite as easy as I expected.

Good job on the PTI thing I still watch that show everyday

Yeah, the break really helped reinforce how much I like this game. Not sure about 2K19 ... I've been buying the game for three years straight on launch, but man those microtransactions were INSANE this year and I'm really locked into this dynasty (so many future storylines to cover). Really wanting to take a pass unless there's a huge feature in 2K19 or they finally get around to fixing some lingering legacy issues. I can't complain, I've enjoyed each of the last three 2Ks a ton.


As for the team cap stuff, I saw the contract stuff in your 'chise and the game, on default, WAY overvalues contracts for a lot of players. Really only the LeBron/Harden/Curry/Durant/Westbrook types can get the $40M a year type of money, and the game doesn't do a good enough job of the players themselves understanding that if they take that money, they hamstring their team's cap to hell and back and make it hard for other talent to help them.



What I do for most players is switch their position to somewhere were they're weaker -- say a star center (almost all of them demand too much anyway) to a PF or a SF -- or if they're an older center (say, Dwight Howard) who have had a few down years and still think they're worth max money, I change them to a PG and engage in contract talks with them for extensions (in-season) or in free agency. This usually results in the "ring chaser" deal where they sign for the minimum (or much, much less than usual) with a good team to go after a ring (like David West).



Changing their positions during the offseason is harder for free agents, but you can find them as a player in the "All Players" tab of the team rosters in MyLeague (go one past the 76ers) and change them there. Their demands usually become much more reasonable. I tend to wait till after the player progression screen to do most free agent signings anyway as I only send the surefire guys to whatever team they need to go to (and player progression really should be before the draft/free agency anyway so you can properly evaluate your team's talent, but whatever).



ALSO, I figured out why the expansion teams draft automatically -- when you add them to the league, their team control settings are all set to auto even if your global settings for all the other teams are set to manual. I discovered that too with my expansion teams and restarted my offseason because of it (luckily I wasn't far into it) but, yeah, when you add expansion teams you have to set their settings to what you want manually -- they don't inherit the settings you have for anyone else.



And I still watch PTI too -- have been since 2002, LOVE that show. I hope it stays on forever.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

2019 OFFSEASON NEWS

Retirements:













Tate's Take:



Well, so ended the career of Vince Carter, Pau Gasol, and Manu Ginobli. Three guys, three different careers, but every one of them deserving of accolades. Also retiring official was Chris Bosh … *uck man, seeing Bosh’s career get derailed by blood clots (of all things) was something else. Seeing a great get sidelined like that just reinforced how short the career of a player — even in the NBA — was.



Carter and Gasol were sure-fire first ballot hall of famers. The league saw a lot of guys go that summer and with so many veterans retiring, it left the door wide open for young guys to make the rosters.









Expansion News:









Tate's Take



The expansion teams took two different tactics — Seattle wanted to be good immediately while the Aztecs decided to go slow and steady with youth and lots of expiring deals.



But the sweep of the Warriors — at our hands — set off a chain reaction within that locker room. Green and Durant became enemies, as Green blamed Durant’s defense as the reason they lost the series. Durant wanted nothing to do with it and forced his way out of the Warriors, telling them he’d exercise his player option next summer and leave them with nothing.
He wanted to go to Seattle and Golden State, forced to employ a feuding Durant and Green, agreed to trade him. Seattle knew it was coming — their expansion draft proved that, they went after players who could contribute immediately — and Durant was traded for a bounty.


Durant had worked his way back to Seattle and the Warriors, by virtue of that fourth overall pick and the lack of Durant’s salary, had a bit of breathing room. With Green’s extension coming up, they were going to need all the money they could to lock him down.


Durant got to go to a place he always loved and honestly, I was glad for him. The Sonics never should have left and it felt right that Durant got to go back there. Plus, he was no longer on the Warriors and had added another obstacle in their path back to the Finals. Good.






Coaches Fired:



Terry Stotts (POR)


Fred Hoiberg (CHI)


Frank Vogel (ORL)


Mike Budenholzer (ATL)



Coaches Hired:



Mike Budenholzer (POR)


Sam Cassell (CHI)


Terry Stotts (ORL)


Larry Drew (ATL) - Back as HC for a second stint


David Fizdale (MEM) - Re-signed


Pau Gasol — Assistant (MEM)


Monty Williams (SEA) - first HC job since being fired by NOLA


Jeff Horancek (MEX)



Hot Seat 2019-20



Nate McMillian (PHX) - Can the Suns get closer to .500? Progress needs to happen.


Steve Clifford (CHA) - An ECF appearance has bought him a bit of time but an underwhelming year could end him.


Stan Van Gundy (DET) - Another low-seeded playoff appearance and a roster that’s primed to be reshuffled next summer … can SVG survive long enough to oversee that?


Dave Joeger (SAC) - Kings ownership is growing inpatient as Sacramento continues to slowly build its way up.



Draft Lottery Results:










Tate's Take



The Suns got the top overall selection and for all the world looked set to take Fuller, and who could blame them? Enes Kanter wasn’t a long term answer at the five and it didn’t seem Bender was either. The players behind Fuller could be good ones, but there were a lot of question marks … once again, the Magic got slotted into the second spot and with the firing of Vogel and hiring of Stotts, Orlando was prepping for a playoff run or a mass rebuild. Stotts could probably get the most out of Dragic, but did Orlando really want to make the playoffs that bad? It sure seemed like it.



Meanwhile the Knicks got the third pick and they were, of course, trying to trade it for immediate help — ownership was inpatient as hell and after witnessing the Durant trade, New York was convinced they could trade that pick for LeBron (spoiler: they don’t).



The draft was pretty weak outside the top-ten and the Celtics were desperate to unload Marcus Smart to some team for cap relief or a star player. Irving missing nearly 30 games the year before wrecked their season and it was clear that Gordon Hayward couldn’t carry a team by himself — he needed Irving and Irving was a free agent … would he bolt Boston? The Celtics weren’t sure.

[georgiafan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

Thanks for the tip on the previous post about about the contracts going forward. Since this is my first 2k of controlling the CPU teams I am still sort of making it up as I go along. I could never find out to change the positions in the offseason now I know.

Interesting blockbuster trade going forward with the warriors trading Durant. It makes sense as this should allow them to resign Klay as he goes back to the 2nd option. It will be interesting to see what kind of player they nab with the 4th pick. It also should strength the bench something that's a problem going forward with them.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

Thanks for the tip on the previous post about about the contracts going forward. Since this is my first 2k of controlling the CPU teams I am still sort of making it up as I go along. I could never find out to change the positions in the offseason now I know.

Interesting blockbuster trade going forward with the warriors trading Durant. It makes sense as this should allow them to resign Klay as he goes back to the 2nd option. It will be interesting to see what kind of player they nab with the 4th pick. It also should strength the bench something that's a problem going forward with them.

NP.


And, yeah, the Warriors desperately needed some youth and cheaper contracts moving forward -- as much as everyone wants to believe their owner will continue to foot a massive luxury tax bill, you only get about 3-4 seasons deep in cap trouble before the luxury tax cripples you. You've got to structure contracts with that in mind and be able to move on from guys when the time comes.



Every superteam lasts about 3-4 years before the inevitable breakup -- the Kobe/Shaq Lakers, the Big 3 Celtics, the Heatles, now the Warriors, that's the window you got with the contracts. After that, you have to reset.



More trades and such are on the way, as well as the 2019 draft. Stay tuned.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

2018 OFFSEASON NEWS II



Pre-Draft Trades:

















Tate's Take



The Suns moved on from Bender and Knight — and you really couldn’t blame them. Bender had never shot better than 34% from deep and could barely crack the rotation. Knight still had two years left at 15M each on his contract and wasn’t part of the future of that squad. So, the Suns found a willing trade partner in the Wizards — desperate to get out from under the useless contract of Mahnimi (one of the worst free agent signings in recent memory) and get some much needed youth back in Bender, the Wizards made the trade and walked away happy. This all but guaranteed the Suns would take Fuller and the Wizards had, basically, committed to two years left with this core before the team had to be remade.



The next trade was the Heat ... Whiteside had opted out of his deal and was dissatisfied with Miami and losing. He was likely gone. The Heat were still in cap hell thanks to overpaying Tyler Johnson (19M for a combo guard — what were they thinking?) and Winslow was their one, valuable trade chip. They called around and found that Chicago was willing to pick up the tab. The Bulls traded Ruffin, the 2018 3rd overall pick who got buried on the bench behind Bobby Portis and Jahill Okafor — the pick was questionable when it was made, but with Winslow on the squad the Bulls had solved their problems at the three spot. Miami was pretty much committing to growing some youth — Ruffin plus Bam looked appealing.






The Draft:










Tate's Take



Fuller went first overall and it was the “no *hit, Sherlock” choice of the draft. Of course Phoenix took him, he was the best talent — bar none — available in the entire draft. He was the only choice and him anchoring the middle, next to Ulis, Booker, Jackson, and Chriss? That was a young core that would get *hit done if the team could come together. Whether or not Fuller being drafted was enough for Booker to sign long term, that was another question, but the Suns hadn’t screwed up the draft.



The Magic had their choice of anyone else and went with a highly talented — and early number one overall pick favorite in the college season — Simmons, who showed real potential as a go-to-scorer in the league. Could Orlando actually build around him? Everyone assumed they couldn’t. The Knicks went with a SF named Fletcher, who had the best three-point shot in the whole class — lots of favorable comparisons to Ray Allen, but Knicks fans knew better than to put their hopes in a SF who could shoot the ball well. They had done that with ‘Melo and got a heap of disappointment and dysfunction.



At number five, thanks to the Durant trade to Seattle, the Warriors picked up the young SF Cotton. He was well-rounded, fundamentally sound, and was compared by many to be a better Harrison Barnes — certainly not a Durant, but this wasn’t the draft for that and at only 19 there was a lot of time for Cotton to get really good, if the kid put in the work.



The Celtics took a PG in Bradshaw at number 7 — rated by some to be the best PG in the class — then followed that up with taking Kay at number 9, an SG who was like Marcus Smart with less defense and an actual shot. They grabbed the Fowlkes at 12 overall, a PF with limited upside but superb defense.



The Clippers made an interesting pick at 14, grabbing Kenneth Irving — a fourth cousin to Kyrie or something like that — betting that the kid could develop fast into a solid player, if not a starter, but at already 23 people weren’t really sure if he had more room to grow or was exactly what he was.



Way down in the draft order was us -- as world champs we got the last pick of the 1st round and we took a young kid named Doug Person. He was raw as hell — the kid had all the measurables in the world, speed, vertical, quickness, but his basketball skills (like shooting) were pretty much one note. We took him straight out of high school — he had offers from Duke and Kentucky, but passed those up for the pros — and he was going to be a project. I had no idea if he would turn out to be anything, but I liked the pick just for the fact that Person was so damned young. It showed we weren’t afraid of taking the long road if we needed to.



"We can’t just bet on free agents and trades," Gramps told me later. “Sometimes, you got to take them when they can barely walk and help them learn how to run.”



After the draft, the NBA announced one more trade -- Dante Exum was on the move again!

The Sonics wanted to clear the cap space of Exum for a run at a free agent and Philly was having none of Middelton’s contract demands (north of 28M) and so they needed an SG to hold down the fort at an affordable price. Exum was the guy — barely making 10M a year and just 24, he fit “the Process” just right. With the amount of cap space Philly was going to need for Simmons and Saric’s contracts, there was no doubt their ownership was looking to avoid serious cap issues. Their core was young and barely proven … if Philly was going to go into deep cap debt, the 76ers were going to need to really show up next postseason.

[jeremym480]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

KD back in Seattle? Nice.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

KD back in Seattle? Nice.

Total personal wish fulfillment, but yes. KD has his ring, but his heart (I contend) is still in Seattle. If they ever got a team back, I almost guarantee he'd find a way to make it back there and give them a few good years before retiring a Sonic.



It also worked from a story perspective as well -- he had a player option for 2020 and with the way the Warriors had been dealt with in the previous two postseasons, him leaving seemed logical.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

2018 OFFSEASON NEWS III

Trades







Tate's Take



Free agency was pretty active — with so many retirements and so many big trades (Durant going to Seattle had so many aftereffects), NBA teams were looking to restock and reload. The first trade of free agency was the Bucks dumping the contracts of Delladova and Henson on the Aztecs, who had so many one-year contracts on their roster it was crazy. The front office of Mexico City knew getting guys to play in another country would be hard and their strategy was to go for expiring deals, young players, and take advantage of their cap space — they did that, surprisingly. The Bucks needed the cap to go out and get the Greek Freak a legit number two star … Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside practically leapt at the chance to play with the reigning ROY and the marvel that was the Greek Freak. Milwaukee had pushed all their chips into the table for a playoff berth — Whiteside was signed to a lucrative 2+1(TO) deal.



The next deal was the Spurs, in a rare move, moving on from Patty Mills. Mills just wasn’t producing and his contract (2 years left at 23M total) was onerous. Chicago happily picked him up as new coach Sam Cassell wanted the veteran Mills to back up (and potentially start in place of) Kris Dunn, who continued to struggle to establish himself in the NBA (the Jimmy Butler trade was looking like a win for Minny at this point). The Spurs used the cap space to bring back George Hill and sign Dwight *ucking Howard to a veteran minimum. The Spurs, man.



Next up was us — we traded Yogi Ferrell away to a place where he could get real playing time. As much as I hated to see Yogi go, he simply was rotting on the bench and the front office found him a good landing spot. LA was nice, he could pump up his value before free agency, and we got back Thornwell (who looked like … well, a deep bench reserve) and a 2nd round pick.



Finally, the Celtics pulled the trigger on trading one of their guys — and it was Smart. Smart was shipped off to the Grizzlies for Reggie Jackson’s expiring contract and a 2nd rounder. Could Boston have gotten more? Probably, but Irving had agreed to sign back with them for five years at 27M each and the Celtics desperately needed to clear some cap space for next season as Jaylen Brown was up for a new contract — and he was going to be expensive. Boston had one more season of cap hell to get through, but if they started slow rumors were flying they might move Horford for relief.



Notable Signings



Stanely Johnson (MEM), Malcon Brogdon (MIL), Emmanuel Mudiay (DAL) all sign their qualifying offers
Eric Bledsoe back to CLE on 3yr/28M per deal, Melo on 2+1(TO) deal for 19M each.



Hassan Whiteside to MIL on a 2+1(To) for 30M per



Faried to ATL on 3yr/5M per deal, Terrence Ross on 2+1(TO) for 4M per, Cameron Payne for minimum



Kris Middelton to MIA on a 3yr/27M per deal, Nikola Vucevic on a 3yr/9.5M per deal, Noah Vonleh on a 2+1(TO) for 2.5M per



Kemba Walker to CHA on a 4yr+1(TO)/28M per deal



Darren Collison to NYK on a 2+1(TO)/7M per deal, Dwayne Dedmon on a 3yr/2M per deal



Greg Monroe to DAL on a 1yr/12.5M per deal



Mike Muscala to BKY on a 2+1(TO)/3.7M per deal



Trey Lyles to DEN on a 4yr/20.9M per deal



Robin Lopez to IND for the minimum



Terry Rozier to DET for 2+1(TO)/2.6M per, Justin Anderson for 2+1(TO)/2.3M per, Tyson Chandler for minimum



Zach Randolph to TOR for 1yr/3M per



Mario Hezonja to HOU for 3yr+1(TO)/3.9M per, Nikola Mirotic for minimum



George Hill to SA for 2+1(TO)/13.5M per, Dwight Howard for minimum



Devon Booker to PHX for 5yr/25M per, Wesley Matthews for minimum, Markieff Morris for 2+1(TO)/6.7M per



Nate Wolters to OKC for 3yr/2M per, Taj Gibson for minimum



Jamychal Green to MIN for 2+1(TO)/3.2M per



Shaun Livingston to GS for minimum, Jerian Grant for minimum, Adrien Payne for 2+1(TO)/1.7M per



Wayne Ellington to WAS for minimum, Gortat for minimum, Marcus Morris for 3yr/2.2M per, Marjanovic for minimum



Jamal Crawford to SEA for minimum, Jordan Bell for 4yr/18M per



Paul Millsap to MEX for 1yr/23.4M per



Tate's Take



It was a crazy offseason in the NBA. The expansion teams, the upcoming (loaded) 2020 draft, and the knowledge that the path to the Finals was wide open in both conferences emboldened teams. The Warriors had broken up and it was like a divorce — Durant went to Seattle and stole Jordan Bell away with a rich offer that the Warriors just couldn’t match without committing themselves to the worst repeater tax since the Nets with Pierce and Garnett.



The Cavs had brought back the band and were betting year two with Bledsoe would be better … assuming Wade, Melo, Rose, Speights, and the rest of the veterans could stay alive that long. The Heat — with a first rounder in 2020, their last one till 2022, went out and picked up guys they thought could turn into stars like Waiters, like Whiteside. It was a bold move by Riley, who had plenty of money free next summer thanks to expiring contracts, and he was angling to return to the playoffs.



The Celtics got Irving back, but which Irving? The superstar from 2017-18, or the guy who missed 30 games in 2018-19? They were betting big that Irving could stay healthy and get them back to the Finals. The Bucks were betting big on Whiteside, whose Miami tenure ended in inglorious fashion — lots of “anonymous quotes” that called him a petulant child. Would Whiteside be the star that got the Greek Freak into the postseason regularly?



The Hornets got back Kemba and basically rolled back the same team, minus Dwight — addition by subtraction, like the rest of the Dwight teams perhaps. But then the Spurs went out and grabbed him, brought back George Hill (good for George to get to a team that knew how to use him), and had a good, veteran squad with youth in key places (Harry Giles was breathing down Dwight’s neck for the starting job).



The Rockets — mired in cap hell of their own — just eeked out enough space to bring in quality guys … taking a shot on Super Mario (in that offense!) was a mad stroke of genius. Houston had plenty of cap space in 2020 and were positioning themselves to make a run at someone if they needed to. The Suns convinced Booker to sign long-term and were preparing to make a serious run at a playoff spot.



The hated Wizards kept the other Morris twin, brought back Gortat, were going to play Bender at the four, and John Wall was still really good (and still thought he was better than that). He called his team “championship contenders” and I nearly choked on a pretzel, laughing so hard at that BS.



The expansion teams were a tale of two strategies … the Sonics were going to compete right away and likely always would with Durant on their roster. The Aztecs were trying to establish something and brought in plenty of young guys, expiring contracts, and desperate veterans to cobble together a foundation. Millsap was their big signing and you had to feel bad for him … there really wasn’t anywhere else for him to go as teams just shrugged at him. He wasn’t as unique anymore.









Rest of the League







Everyone was preparing for the 2020 draft. Hailed as the deepest draft in three years, if you had a first round pick THIS was the draft you wanted to be in — sure, the top-end talent was nice, but the depth was crazy good and the bad teams were licking their chops at the top-ten.







At the top of the draft, there was a three-way race to see who would be first overall. Firstly, there was Edmund Finley — a classic, all-round center who was a diehard basketball addict and a vocal leader. He had led his high school team to two straight state titles and an undefeated season in his last year, and he was coming straight out of high school as the most hyped center since Dwight — except Dwight didn’t have the shooting touch this kid did. Finley didn’t wait for people to feed him the ball, he grabbed boards, hustled up court, and stuffed it down people’s throats or pulled up for a jumper. The kid was GOOD as hell.



Behind him was Damian Galloway, another high schooler who was rated the number one guard prospect in all the land. He was likely to declare for the draft and Galloway knew how to do one thing very well: get buckets. The kid was from Michigan and was a sensation in that state — some compared him to a shorter Penny Hardaway. Galloway was a bit of a show boater and could have games where he just flat out disappeared, but when he was on he was like a the jet turbine at the back of the Batmobile; en fuego.



Finally, the dark horse candidate for first overall — Gary “Sleepy” Potter. He was from England but had come over to the states and enrolled at St. John’s for the year. Potter was known to be as stoic, as cool-under pressure, as any player there was — the guy just didn’t get bothered by anything. He was 110% committed to basketball and would basically only engage with anyone outside his trusted circle about just basketball. It was hard to pry him open to talk — with the skills of a Kevin Love (with a better defensive upside) and the personality of a Kawhai Leonard, Potter made it look easy — like he was playing in his sleep.

Those were the three guys in the running for first overall and the 2020 draft would be a game changer for anyone in the top-three and maybe the top-ten. That’s how deep it was.

[georgiafan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

Jeremy isn't going to like the Celtics trade lol

The Bucks should contend for the east with that squad

I see my hawks have 16 million in cap space perfect spot to take on a bad contract for a draft pick

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

Jeremy isn't going to like the Celtics trade lol

The Bucks should contend for the east with that squad

I see my hawks have 16 million in cap space perfect spot to take on a bad contract for a draft pick

LOL, yeah, the Celtics had to sacrifice Smart -- they tried to run it back last season but Irving missing 30 games derailed them. Had to move on from Smart, might have to move Horford at the deadline if they stink again.


The Bucks SHOULD contend but damn it all, if it isn't difficult to get them to contend -- if not for the injury to their ROY Charlie Hart last year, they would have made the playoffs. Between Hart, Greek Freak, and Whiteside (with plenty of talent behind them), the team should really be good. We'll see.



And, yeah, the Hawks definitely are hording cap space. They have very movable contracts too, so the ATL could be a landing spot for an ugly contract+ a 1st or could trade for a star. We'll see what the Hawks do ... just one of those teams that don't seem to have a direction.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story





Ch. 51

The offseason was over and it was a whirlwind. For me, I was out of the USA for a month — I didn’t get back until free agency began and even then I stayed back and let the front office do their work. My time in Australia was freeing … driving the open roads, camping out under the stars, and meeting people I never would have otherwise. It was a beautiful country and it also gave me something I desperately needed: perspective.

When I left after the Finals, I was on top of the basketball world. I had fulfilled a lifelong dream of getting the Pacers their first title, of wiping that particular stain off their record. No longer could anyone say the Indiana Pacers were a great franchise but they’ve never won a title. That *hit was gone, up in flames like the Warriors “dynasty.”

Out in Australia, I met a lot of cool people — but none better (or attractive) as a pretty girl named Kristy. Kristy was not a racer, she wasn’t there for that part of the Horizon festival — no, she was a photographer. She was there to take pictures and as small as that seems, *uck, she was good. She was about two years older than me, but had been traveling the world taking pictures for National Geographic since she was 17. She had experience, she had beauty, she had brains, and she pretty much knocked me off my feet the first time I laid eyes on her.

We became involved but neither of us were even close to settling down, but for a month we had a fling for the ages. When I came back to the USA, I had her number and we were a thing … a complicated, sometimes thing, but a thing and having the ability to talk to her was an amazing feeling. We were that for one another, a safe place away from work and the world.

I came back refreshed. I came back ready to defend our title and go for back-to-back championships, not done since the LeBron led Heat in 2012 and 2013.

Training camp was all about refining our game. We took what we did well and got better. We took what we needed to work on and worked harder. McHale didn’t go easy on us — his Celtics had never been able to repeat as champs. It gnawed at him, especially considering the sacrifices he made. He wanted us to have what he never did.

“You don’t want to look back and think you could have done more,” he told us all on the first day of camp. “You don’t want that regret. You don’t want that weighing on you decades from now. Trust me, gentlemen.”

So we trained hard. We listened and read what people were saying about us and we made a wall out of it. “The Whiner’s Wall,” Lance called it. Anyone who called us out, who slighted us, we stuck their words and their face on that wall. It was kind of like a hit list of sorts. We were going to prove them wrong.

No one picked us to repeat. ESPN ranked us tenth likely to win the title.

Tenth. We were the defending champs and they felt nine other teams — including the god-damned Lakers — were better than us. It was infuriating at the lack of respect we got, but we knew we had to earn it. We won the title but people called us flukes.

Winning another title would be twice as hard as the first, easily.

The Grizzlies were our first opponent. They had opened the year beating the Heat by ten and Marcus Smart looked right at home in Memphis — like Tony Allen with a better shot (albeit not much better).

Tip off went to the Grizzles and Myles blocked the shot of sophomore big Terrell Graves. I got the ball, hustled down court, reset, and watched as Graves came back. Myles knew exactly what I wanted and set a screen right above the free throw line, throwing Andrew Harrison to the floor as I drove inside.

Graves was there. Graves wishes he wasn’t.

“I’m going to do that to you all *ucking night,” I told him as I jogged back. I liked to trash talk, always did, but in my third year in the league — with a title and plenty of accolades — I wasn’t holding back anymore. I talked smack at everyone and Graves was my first victim that year. I picked on him all game — triples, pull-ups, drive-bys, layups, dunks — I went and showed him all of it.

Memphis fell behind early in the first and then got buried in the second thanks to hot shooting from Jabari and Victor. At halftime, it was looking like a rout.

Graves already had three fouls at the beginning of the second half and rode the pine for awhile before getting back in. But it was alright, he didn’t do much as Myles put him in the Turner Torture Chamber, and just schooled him. I fed him the ball and the Tate to Turner connection was alive and well.

And I got Graves to foul out with over 4:30 left in the game. Fizdale couldn’t even look at Graves, hell, he wouldn’t look at me. That was how badly we were owning that team.

We pulled away for good after that, the crowd mostly left and those that remained booed the hell out of me every time I touched the ball.

It felt good to be back.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story



Ch. 52

Smashing the Grizzlies was well and good but they weren’t exactly contenders. Hell, they weren’t even playoff hopefuls at that point … they had been losing for years, and it showed. They were not a true test but they were our first game of the year and our next was at home against the Pelicans.



Ring night. You better believe we all had smiles on our faces.















We finally had an NBA championship banner in the rafters. No more “Central Division Champs”, no more “moral victories”, we had something to look up at every night and aspire to. Something to remember.



“Looks lonely up there,” I told the guys before tip-off. They agreed.



The game was close from the tip. NOLA came out and fed their star bigs, Boogie and the Brow, and they didn’t try to get cute; they kept them bigs engaged and let them wreak havoc on the floor. But whereas a lot of teams would shy away from attacking the paint with Cousins and AD there, we saw it as a challenge.



And we extended a big middle finger to that challenge. Victor set the tone early with a dunk-contest level reverse jam all up in the Pelicans business.







We got out of the first quarter with a three point lead and then, in the second, we managed to extend that to a nine-point lead in the middle portion of it thanks to Sabonis taking no *hit from Cousins. DS fought and fought hard — and the man was going to be a good deal richer next offseason as he signed a 3+1(TO) extension, worth 8.74M each. He was gonna get paid to be our best bench big and he was strutting his stuff.







Boogie *itched at the refs about Sabonis though and soon the officials had saddled Jabari with three fouls with over five to go in the second, so to the bench he came and our lead shrunk to just three points at the half.







We’d get the last laugh though. In the third we began to pull away and I got hot — real hot — and NOLA started doubling me anytime I touched the ball. That’s fine, that meant I got to do my favorite thing and pass the damn ball to one of my teammates. Let them score as I laugh in your face.



And Myles took advantage of them. And so did Jabari, and Victor, and just about everyone else.



Boogie just whined.







We were the champs for a reason and we finished them off in the fourth quarter.

[trekfan]

Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story




Ch. 53

Three weeks into the season and the narrative of some teams were already taking shape. That was due in some part because of the flurry of activity in the offseason but injuries — like any year — were also playing a mighty role. Only a few weeks into the year and already guys were suffering.

Blake was injured — again — and the Clippers season was pretty much done. Where was their offense going to come from? DeAndre Jordan? Calls for the Clippers to blow it up were everywhere and LA could only pray that Blake would recover in time to get traded at the deadline.

Out in the ATL, the Hawks lost their center for over two months and in Denver, the wheels were coming off — Trey Lyles looked like a replacement for Millsap off the bench the season before, but he was struggling as a starter and it looked like Denver had made a crucial miscalculation.

As for us, we were rolling. Sitting at 4-1 (our only loss to the league leading Raptors), we were feeling good — we had beaten the Warriors and Knicks in successive games following our Toronto loss and we weren’t fooling around. We came into the season as a fully formed squad and though people were still talking about us as flukes, we were beginning to turn the conversation.

Our next opponent was the newly formed Mexico City Aztecs, who were 4-3 and not the garbage team many thought — Millsap was actually thriving as the clear-cut number one option. The trip down to Mexico was weird … Mexico City at once reminded me of Dallas or Houston, but worse in a some ways … like it was both the cleanest and dirtiest place in the country, the glitz of a city like New York with the grime of New York.

But their arena? That place was nice. They called it “The Palace” and it was extravagant. I loved our place, the Fieldhouse, but you could see that the Aztecs ownership was really serious about the team being a beacon in that city and the NBA.

Unfortunately for the Aztecs, they weren’t there yet. And when the game started, we let the Aztecs have the tip and Etwann Moore (briefly a Pacer) missed a shot. We went on the fast break, Jabari slung a bullet pass to Myles and Millsap was just too slow.

He fouled Myles, Myles sank the shot, and our next trip down Millsap fouled Harrison. Just like that, barely two minutes into the game, Paul Millsap was on the bench.

Things got out hand fast. In the second Millsap came back in and promptly got embarrassed with a Jabari triple.

With that, the Aztecs were down 13 points and they just lost the will to fight. We went on a tear and it got so bad McHale subbed in the deep bench — Julio Cheaney and Thornwell — and Julio, the whitest Hispanic guy I’ve ever known (we gave him so much *hit for that) — absolutely schooled Millsap. It was like watching a unicorn bust out of a barn — who was this guy? Julio had spent most of the last season in the G-League and had performed well there, but he clearly had been working on his game over the summer and it showed.

We sat on the bench, stunned, as he dropped two triples in Millsap’s face and then took the veteran into the post, where he unleashed a beauty of a shot.

We let them play it out till halftime and it was a joke. We were ready to pack it in, the starters were prepping the bench guys for big minutes …

But McHale told us to cut that *hit out.

“I don’t need to see them play, they kicked *ss. The starters flailed around out there like they didn’t know what a basketball looked like,” McHale told us. He was pissed at our play and, frankly, he had a right to be … the starters were pretty trash (especially me, I had only five points in the first half) and McHale played us in the second half like it was a game.

We didn’t mind, it was early in the year, and we finished off the Aztecs without an issue.

Still, watching Julio work was just eye-opening. The guy could play and I was wondering just how much he could offer us.