You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

[trekfan]

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

Let’s hope Parker can stay healthy.... he will make a fun duo down low it’s turner.

Fuller is gonna be a stud

Agreed, Parker's heath is a concern -- gotta make sure his minutes stay in tha that range in order to mitigate his risk.

But I've just gotten done with the opening game and MY GOD it's a beautiful thing. That recap to come soon.

As for Fuller, the kid is an instant franchise player -- that draft has a few gems in it, but Fuller is ready from day 1 to contribute. Everyone will be watching to see where the Kings pick land ... if it goes 1st overall, Sacramento gets it back. If it's anywhere else, it's Boston's (according to real GM) so I'm going to monitor it.

Every bad team could use a Fuller -- some might even have to trade away previous picks to make room for him, but they'll happily do that for a guy projected to be an All-Star at the very least.

[trekfan]

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

---

Ch. 21

The 2018-19 regular season arrived and the whole team was looking forward to getting back to the court. I had spent the entire offseason working with our guys — me and Myles Turner, VO, Mudiay, Sabonis, and GROB were altogether. When Jabari was added to the team, we brought him too; all of us knew that we had to improve upon what we did the year before in order to better guarantee ourselves a chance at success.

Gramps and the front office hired a new assistant coach to help us out in that, CJ Wolfe — he was half Japanese, had played over in the China League after college, and he was a guy who was a firm believer in the “you put 10,000 hours into something, you get damn good at it” theory (and it was a good theory). We ran scrimmages at the practice facility, felt each other out on the court, and started to learn exactly how this team was going to function.

I hated seeing Faried go — we all did — but Jabari was no slouch. Our training staff was top notch and, with a full offseason together, we all came into the regular season ready to rock the *uck out.

We were determined to make sure our previous season wasn’t seen as a fluke … we wanted it to be a foundational season, a season that people would look back on and say “And that’s when the Pacers really started to get good.” Indiana’s franchise history was rife with good teams that disappointed the next year … since the turn of the century, they hadn’t had back-to-back 50 win squads.

I wanted to change that. But first, we had to get through a much tougher East. Our first game of the season was against the darling 76ers and Joel Embiid; if there was another team in the conference I looked at as a reflection, it was those Embiid Sixers squads. We were pretty close in terms of talent, in terms of age, and definitely in aspirations. We were looking to build something special.

Embiid, like he did, was talking before the season started. “Yeah, great team, nice team, but they don’t have the FEDS. Gonna be a fight, gonna do my best to make sure they lose. #TrustTheProcess.”

I couldn’t let that stand — when I saw his little post on SportsCenter, I sent out a shot of my own.

“Looking forward to battling the Philadelphia Tankers … whoops, I mean the 76ers. They are a team again, right? #PacersPower.”

The Philly sports media hated that. It was a nice set of friendly trash talk — I had a healthy respect for the players and the talent on Philly, but how they got there was just bull*hit.

That night, we dressed up in our Statement uniforms and premiered our new starting five … and I got to show off my new hairstyle. I had let it grow out in the summer and it felt good to be able to comb my hair again.

The game started off with the 76ers winning the tip and immediately rushing down the court. The ball went to Embiid, who sucked in our defenders, then he passed out to Fultz who nailed a triple coming off a screen (I stupidly let him get off). Bucket. We were down 3-0 within the first ten seconds.

Not to be outdone, I took the ball back up the court, drove inside, and had a good look at the hoop — so I took the shot. It didn’t go in, though — the first would be a slow quarter for me, but I’d pick it up after that. Jabari got his first bucket in a Pacers uniform on the putback in a *uckton of traffic.

We got a stop the next possession, then I took the ball in and dished it out to waiting Turner — BANG, triple in Embiid’s face. The threat of the three was there in the corners all game for us and Embiid, forced to guard Turner on the outside, couldn’t protect the paint as well as he wanted to. With my shot not falling in that first quarter, I drove in and dished off — either inside or outside, whomever was open. Our passes were crisp, our offense balanced, and GROB cut beautifully to the rim for a slam over Ben Simmons, and got the foul too.

He ended up missing the shot, but our whole team was feeling energized. The buzz in the air was real, our energy was high, and the bench was kicking *ss. At halftime, the score didn’t look like a regular season opener so much as preseason scrimmage.

We were passing the ball beautifully — guys were dishing off, looking for the open man, and were taking quality looks. Mudiay and Lance were both running the second unit well, and we could pass from virtually any position on the court. In the second half, with only 11 points, I turned on the jets and wanted to make sure the 76ers wouldn’t mount a comeback — with Embiid, Fultz, and Simmons, no lead was safe.

I went right at the Process and made sure he knew it.

We ran away with the game, won almost every quarter, and absolutely stomped the 76ers into oblivion. We were a team on a mission.

Our next game was against the Bulls, which we won in the fourth quarter.

Our third game was against the Wizards and we had a score to settle.

[georgiafan]

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

Nice win and a good way to start the year

[trekfan]

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



Ch. 22

The Wizards were coming to our house, our building, and they weren’t afraid of us. Why would they be? They took us to Game 7 in Round 2, beat us on our home floor, and went all the way to the Finals (where they were demolished, but still). We were a young squad, a team that had lost a leading veteran in Faried, but had gained a new edge in Jabari. As long as he was out on the floor, we were a different team — he opened up the offense in ways we couldn’t have imagined.



We had to prove ourselves again to the Wizards before the league could take us seriously. If we wanted to be seen as more than just some upstart squad that got lucky, we needed to make a statement.



Early in the game, it looked like that statement was going to be “Here we go again.” Washington came out behind John Wall and dictated the pace. They forced us to guard Wall and Beal through screen after screen, running us into the ground. We barely got a two point lead at the end of one, leading 28-26, and that was only because of a late triple from Oladipo before the quarter ended. We weren’t leading because we were good, we were leading because we were lucky.



The huddle between quarters was tense. Guys were tight — I had made only one shot, missed three others, and felt like the team was in a hole because I couldn’t find the *ucking basket. Jabari was picking up the slack — he had 11 points at the end of the first — but I wasn’t sure that would be enough. It wasn’t fair to rely on him to save us … everyone else on the roster was part of the loss in the playoffs. The responsibility was ours.



“Gentlemen, it’s time to buck up or *uck up,” McHale said to us without an ounce of sarcasm. “We’re hesitating out there, overthinking things; get out of your heads and play.” He locked his eyes with me. “I need you to take shots. If they go in, all the better, but you have to threaten them with your shots — you go silent and they’ll ease off you and lock down everyone else.”



“Shoot, got it,” I told him. I resolved to do just that — make or miss, I was going to be aggressive.



I didn’t miss a shot the rest of the game. McHale said shoot, so I shot, and by God I was getting some of the luckiest *ss rolls I’d every gotten on a set of rims. Layups swirled around, shots got glass and had just enough touch to go in, and my dunks were true. I was on FIRE and the Wizards got sucked in by my shooting — they gravitated to me anytime I touched the ball.



And that unlocked the rest of our offense, particularly Myles Turner. Myles had been trying to stretch out the Wizards with his shot, but it wasn’t falling from behind the arc — but it was falling just inside it. Rather than step back, Myles stepped into the arc, launching long two after long two from the baseline and getting nothing but net. If he missed, he just went inside and got it back.







At halftime, we had scratched out a nine point lead and the Wizards looked flustered. The ball was moving all over the place — we didn’t just pass once, we passed twice, sometimes three or four times, and the defense couldn’t keep up. In the third, our bench came in and carried the torch — Mudiay, in particular, showed no fear as he went at the defense.







The Wizards tried to mount a comeback, but Myles set the tone with a hard foul on Wall and he gave no *ucks about hiding it. He was pissed and he was going to make sure that everyone that came into the lane got hit.







The Wizards folded in the third. They just couldn’t stay us and, five minutes into the fourth, we were up by 21 and that was all McHale needed to see. He benched the starters and sent Mudiay, Valentine, Leaf, Ike Anigbogu, and Sabonis in to finish it up. It was a huge substitution — he wasn’t going with the regular bench, he was heading for the deep bench. Ike, in particular, hadn’t seen a single minute of NBA action — he had been sent down to the G-League the year before (and he hated that, a lot) before being recalled right before the playoffs. All summer he had been pushing himself to prove he belonged on the court, not in the G-League, and he was finally rewarded with action.



He scored seven points in seven minutes of gametime. The deep bench kept our lead and played well-enough to keep the Wizards, still playing their regular starters, at bay and down by 20.



We kicked their *ss and it felt good.

[georgiafan]

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

Nice revenge win some of the young guys played well in garbage time

[trekfan]

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

Nice revenge win some of the young guys played well in garbage time

It was a sweet revenge win. Very happy with the way Mudiay is playing, and Ike Anigbogu is just a surprise -- the kid HUSTLES and I love that. We have quite a lot of young talent towards the end of the bench and I'm thinking we might be able to move some guys to shore up my last weakness -- my starting SF.

Glenn Robinson III is a nice, complimentary piece, but I feel his ultimate fate is that of a sixth-man. Starting wise, his production isn't great and though I was hoping Valentine would develop, he's just not. I would like to upgrade that spot and I have the ammo to do it, the problem is finding a realistic/feasible trade.

I spent the last hour and a half sorting through various trade proposals, some ridiculous (the Suns offered me Josh Jackson for Mudiay, Valentine and a 2019 1st -- utterly insane, Jackson is doing well for them and is the perfect defensive compliment to Booker) and others ... interesting.

I hate the idea of trading any of my young guys, "The Pit Crew" as I call them -- that bench depth and youth is very advantageous for me as an organization, but there's no point in having a collection of young talent unless you're willing to play them. Frankly, I don't have enough minutes to go around right now ... I think that might change next year as I expect certain guys not to re-sign in free agency.

But am I willing to pay for likely expensive extensions for Mudiay? That's a question I'm not sure about yet. The season is young, so we'll see what happens, but I am definitely looking around for potential deals if the right offer is made.

[georgiafan]

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

Yea I think I would make a move for a starting SF also maybe someone that’s a shooter

[trekfan]

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



Ch. 23

The win against the Wizards was B-I-G. We felt like we had exacted a good amount of revenge against a team we really hated. We didn’t hate them more than the Pistons, though — we saw them the next game, two days later, and they were already 0-2. Their losses were close, but you could sense that the team was beginning to look around at each other, going “Are we doing this?”



The Pistons came into our building looking for a win. They left still looking for that first win.



It was a throwback night, to the late 90s, so we suited up in our classic FloJos while the Pistons went with their teal unis, derided as they were. It was a bad choice for Detroit — they played like the late 90s Pistons, which is to say they played like teal trash. They were slow on their rotations, they were lethargic on defense, and Victor had his way with them in the first quarter — he pulling up from mid-range like he was prime Kobe.







In the second, with the Pistons trailing by seven, we turned on the jets — we went for the kill. McHale was clear that he wanted to bury Detroit before halftime, and we joyously complied. I got to set some fun screen for Jabari and it felt good to knock some Pistons around.







Toward the end of the first half, GROB caught fire — he came up with a steal and a dunk on the other end that absolutely deflated Detroit.







But then Victor one-upped him by forcing the Pistons into a turnover and then, on the inbounds (with just 1.1 seconds on the clock for the half), he drilled a clutch triple that sent the arena into a frenzy and had the announcers drooling over themselves. Victor, statistically, just stuffed the stat sheet and did a little bit of everything; a true example of fundamental Indiana basketball.







Halftime arrived and it was a slaughter — the team let me run free on offense and we were off to the cases.







In the third, we made a concerted effort to get it to Myles — he was being pushed around by Drummond (as Drummond is want to do) and we needed him to stretch the floor, so we let him play a bit of the four to get him on their four. Between Leur and Boban, Detroit had no answers for MT.







We left the building with a fun win … not the best showing for us defensively (we fell apart a bit in the second half), but we left our mark on them.

[Jogo]

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

Free Denzel Valentine!!

Dude's career is just wasting away on your bench He played 1 minute?

He should at least be a role player, hell maybe even a starter on some team like the Nets or so. You should trade or release him, give him an honest chance to revamp his career again with another team.


Nice win though! Big numbers from your main guys. The team is looking as dangerous as ever.

I can only imagine what that feels like

[trekfan]

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

Free Denzel Valentine!!

Dude's career is just wasting away on your bench He played 1 minute?

He should at least be a role player, hell maybe even a starter on some team like the Nets or so. You should trade or release him, give him an honest chance to revamp his career again with another team.


Nice win though! Big numbers from your main guys. The team is looking as dangerous as ever.

I can only imagine what that feels like

I agree, Denzel needs to go. I really wanted to give Valentine a chance, but he just doesn't work for me. I'm working on trying to find a move for him, I've got a few ideas, but they also involve shipping out other players ... and I'm not sure if I can pull the trigger.

There are a few trades I have worked up, one in particular I like ... but it's tough. Story post to come to explain the options I (currently) have on the table.

As for the team, definitely dangerous, but just as much because of the East's weakened state (there are about 6 teams above .500 7 games into the season and the rest of the conference is treading water fast) as it is about the players.

The West is a bloodbath, though -- the Suns are sitting 0-7 out there and Booker is making noise about wanting to look around for some options. If they don't improve, the Suns might have to trade Booker in order to not risk him taking the qualifying offer in free agency and bolting in the summer of 2020. It's bad in Phoenix right now.

[trekfan]

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



Ch. 24

In early November, Gramps called me into his office during an off day. We were sitting pretty at 6-1 -- our lone loss a fluke one against the Grizzlies (surprisingly, they started off at 4-3 in their first seven). We were feeling confident and had just torched the Raptors two days before, before getting a bit of a break.

Gramps wasn't usually one for out of the way pleasantries. He had a strict work schedule -- Monday through Friday was his work week and the weekend is when he unwound. He called me in on a Tuesday, before a monster Wednesday night matchup against the Cavs.

Knowing that going in, I wasn't surprised he called me up to talk about work.

I was surprised about why, though.

"You were pretty steamed at the Faried trade," he reminded me as he sat at his desk, chewing away at a stick of Big Red. I could smell the cinnamon in the air as he smacked at it.

"I was," I confirmed. It wasn't a *ucking secret, he was right there in the room with me.

"Well, I've got offers on the table for a few of our guys. Rosas has fielding a few phone calls from interested parties and he thinks we should pull the trigger on one." He spit his gum into the trash can, about three feet away, and it went in perfectly. "I agree with him; we need to shore up some weaknesses."

I took a deep breath, preparing to argue that we, in fact, didn't need to do anything.

But he cut me off. "And I'm placing the call on which offer we accept with you."

That stopped me in my tracks. "Me?"

"You," Gramps confirmed, a wicked grin on his face. "What? Surprised? Why?"

"I'm ... Gramps, I'm a player. I can't be the GM too, you know?"

"Tell that to LeBron," he countered. He leaned back in his chair and put his boots on the desk. "Boy, you're a great player -- plenty of greatness left ahead of you to accomplish -- but you won't always be a player. Eventually, you'll get old like we all do. And I want to make sure you develop a set of skills that don't rely on your ability to shoot."

I was staggered. The idea of my NBA career ending, ever, seemed like a myth ... I was just one year into it. "I'm just 19, Gramps."

"Soon to be 20 -- Bill Gates wasn't much older than you when he founded Microsoft. Hell, I was only a few years older than you when I began." The older man leaned forward and winked. "You can do it; I know you got an eye for things, I've listened to you when we watched all those games."

"But I work with these guys, I play with them ... I can't decide who stays and who leaves!"

"In any venture, you have to make choices, Jack." Gramps took on a kinder tone. "Look, I'm not going to lie; this will be hard. But you need to learn to make this choice, now, so you don't hesitate later in life. You're the star of this operation we're trying to build, whether you like it or not, and being the star, you have responsibilities others don't."

"It's my responsibility to send guys packing?"

"It's your responsibility to guide the front office and ownership with your input," Gramps stated with determination. "You're out on the court. You see the guys in practice. You see them outside it. You know them better than we do, point-blank. That knowledge can help this team win or it can sit there and do nothing." Gramps leaned back in his chair, hand on his monitor. "What's it going to be? You want to choose or have someone choose for you?"

Looking back on it, decades removed from that moment, I absolutely understand what my grandfather was forcing me to do: he was forcing me to understand that the NBA was as much my passion as it was my job. He was giving me a chance to develop skills that would serve me well after my playing career ended. He was hammering home the point that I was a professional and that meant I had to make tough choices.

As a 19-year-old kid, though, I thought he was putting me into a corner. And I hated it.

"*uck you," I told him angrily.

He only raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

After wrestling with it for a long minute, I heaved a sigh and nodded. "Show me. Let's ... let's just get it over with."

Gramps nodded back. "Good lad. Take a look at what we've got." He flipped his monitor around.

Three trades were outlined on the screen.

The first was to Detroit. The Pistons were offering us Stanley Johnson and Luke Kennard for Denzel Valentine and Mudiay, plus our 2019 1st.

The second trade was a three-way with the Kings and Wizards. We'd send the Kings Mudiay and Valentine, the Kings would send us Bogdanovic and Malachi Richardson, and the Wizards would send the Kings Gortat plus their 2020 1st (with protection) for Willey Cauley-Stein.

The third was to the Mavericks. Dallas would send us Harrison Barnes and Yogi Ferrell for Mudiay and Valentine.

I looked over all of them for a few seconds before I immediately came to a few conclusions.

"You want to upgrade the SF spot, Glenn's spot."

Gramps grunted in affirmation. "Glenn is a true competitor, boy, but he's not giving us more than eight or nine points a night as a starter. That simply won't cut it, especially in light of his average defense."

"He's a no-muss, no-fuss guy, Gramps; he doesn't complain about the shots he doesn't get, he just loves to be out on the floor," I found myself saying. I agreed with him, Glenn could do more, but I wasn't about to sell Glenn out.

"If we get into a series with LeBron or Boston, can we stop their threes from hurting us?" Gramps countered.

Reluctantly, I could only shake my head. "I hate the idea of helping the Pistons ... let them lose. I don't want to play against Mudiay or Valentine for years anyway."

"And the Kings trade?"

"Let the Wizards lose, too -- Bogdanovic isn't that much better than Glenn, Gramps. Richardson might be something, I don't know, but he sure hasn't done much where he is. Sending guys to Sacramento isn't a good look anyway."

Gramps came around his desk and sat in the chair beside me. "Rosas and I liked the Kings trade. He's high on Bogdanovic."

"Dallas is better, for a lot of reasons."

Gramps crossed his arms and looked unconvinced.

I let out another long sigh. "Look, just from what I know -- and it isn't a lot -- Barnes is wasting away on a Mavericks team that sure as hell ain't making the playoffs, which means they're going to be in the lottery. Mudiay, he spent some time in Dallas growing up ... he basically came from Texas once he got to America and Emmanuel loves it there. He talks about it a lot. Sending him there, to backup up Smith or start over Curry, it would be a good move. Barnes is a glue guy, Gramps -- he's got a ring from being that with the Warriors, but he can't carry a team. I think, with him here, he'd be good."

"And Ferrell?"

"Hey, anytime we can get a Hoosier, you won't hear a complaint from me," I told him.

"Rosas doesn't like the Mavericks -- he and Cuban didn't get along," Gramps said with a shrug. "But ... he wasn't much against the deal they offered either. Barnes wants a contract extension before he agrees to any trade, according to what his agent said, so we'll have to commit to him for at least two more years."

"You're trading Mudiay to avoid that, right? You know he's gonna want big money this summer."

Gramps nodded. "I don't mind giving him the money, but he plays two positions we're already strong on, Jack; the one and the two. I don't see why we need to tie up twenty million for a sixth man, that's not fair to him or us ... you're right, he deserves a chance to start. So Dallas it is, unless you got another bright idea?"

"No, no other ideas," I said with sigh. "*hit, I don't like this. We're just now getting on a roll, Gramps -- we could sabotage the season!"

"We're seven games into an 82 game schedule." Gramps took out two pieces of gum and handed me one. "Relax; we'll work it out. It'll take a few days to process the paperwork, so we'll have the team together till then."

I reluctantly chewed my gum and left the office to go work out on the court.

I had just traded a teammate and a friend to a *hitty team, the closest thing he had to a hometown squad, but still ... I felt like an *ss.

It was going to be a rough couple of days.

[georgiafan]

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

Interesting to see what happens I like the Barnes fit

[trekfan]

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

Interesting to see what happens I like the Barnes fit

I do, too. I feel like he'll be the missing piece to getting my team consistently good in the regular season and prepping our squad to be a regular staple of the postseason.

I got the Cavs and another team (forgetting what it is) on a back-to-back at home, then I'll make the trade and we'll see how badly it hurts the team ... I fear we might sabotage ourselves, but the deal the Mavericks is presenting is just good across the board for everyone.

They get youth and cap space for the summer, they unload Barnes, and the team can tank for a draft pick. Barnes will not be part of the next, great Dallas team, but Mudiay and Valentine are young enough that they can be.

[georgiafan]

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

I do, too. I feel like he'll be the missing piece to getting my team consistently good in the regular season and prepping our squad to be a regular staple of the postseason.

I got the Cavs and another team (forgetting what it is) on a back-to-back at home, then I'll make the trade and we'll see how badly it hurts the team ... I fear we might sabotage ourselves, but the deal the Mavericks is presenting is just good across the board for everyone.

They get youth and cap space for the summer, they unload Barnes, and the team can tank for a draft pick. Barnes will not be part of the next, great Dallas am, but Mudiay and Valentine are young enough that they can be.

Yea Barnes best fit is as a #3 option on a good team definitely not a #1 option. I think it works for everyone.

[trekfan]

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




Ch. 25

The Cavs came into our house at 5-2, we were 6-1, and Cleveland looked like the best damn team in the conference by a mile. Bledsoe, Wade, LeBron, Carmelo, Thompson, Crowder, Rose, Speights, and Osman were a deadly lineup. Just enough three point shooting to stretch the floor (especially with Speights and Crowder on the floor) and having the freight train that was LeBron gave them an advantage.

But we came out and showed no fear. LeBron wanted to run? We stopped that dead — we got up on the boards, we grabbed every loose rebound, and we pounded them inside. If we got doubled, we passed to an open man on the wing, who could shoot. Early on, it was a duel between me and Melo, and Melo was making us look silly.

But every pull up Melo made, I answered right back. I set the tone early with a dunk on LeBron that I’m sure he’s probably forgotten, but I haven't.

We hustled on defense, we jumped the passing lanes, and we made them fear making the extra pass; if they did, it would only increase their chances of turning it over. VO was flying all over the court, deflecting balls left and right.

At the end of one, we were up huge — 35-23, and we felt like we were going to pound the Cavs into the pavement for the rest of the game. My God, were we wrong. Cleveland came out in the second refocused and angry — they chipped away at our lead, outplayed us the whole quarter, and abused the weakness Gramps had pointed out: Glenn Robinson. He was getting matched up on Melo and LeBron, and he was getting torched by both.

At halftime, we barely held onto a four-point lead.

In the third, it got worse. Our bench went ice cold from the field and we struggled to get anything going; the Cavs bench was, frankly, quite talented and stocked with veterans. They knew not to get too high or too low, but we didn’t; our youth, normally an advantage, wasn’t here. The Cavs chipped away at our lead, outscoring us 46-45 in the quarter, and we only had a three-point lead heading into the fourth.

And that’s when LeBron put the hammer down. He had played light minutes in the third, but in the fourth he came out and went into full LeTank mode; he blitzed us on defense, he brutalized us on offense, and we couldn’t stop him. We switched Jabari on him and Jabari couldn’t slow him down, either.

LeBron was in rhythm and he was on fire. He shut us down and we only made the score a little more respectable with some garbage time shots.

We lost and it was a bad loss … our defense didn’t show up, our bench was MIA, and we got abused anytime the Cavs put one of their guys on GROB. It was sobering. It was sickening.

It was exactly the type of game Gramps said we couldn’t win, and he was right. We needed more.

The next day we played the Heat and we amazingly won the game, 136-114; our defense, yet again, was not stellar but we did what we had to. Friday morning, the news came down that there was a trade … I was expecting that. I thought I was prepared.

I wasn’t.

The trade had gone through and Harrison Barnes was ours, him and a two-year contract extension (with a team option on year three). But I didn’t expect ROLO to be tossed into the trade, it wasn’t part of the deal I chose. I marched up to Gramps office to give him an earful, but he met me halfway there.

He was on his way to talk to me and he looked just as unhappy as I felt.

“It was the only way to make the numbers work, Jack,” Gramps told me right after we stepped inside an unused conference room. “We thought the league would let the trade go through as I proposed it, but the number didn’t work; we tried to get them to take other players back for salary purposes, but we would have had to gut the bench. ROLO’s contract was coming off the books anyway —”

“Did you lie to me? Did you *ucking lie to me?” I asked — well, more yelled — at him.

“No,” he answered without hesitation. “I’m sorry, really, I didn’t want to trade Lopez. But, let’s be honest, he wasn’t going to stay here anyway. His agent wasn’t too displeased that he was heading to Dallas — Texas has no income tax, and it’s not like the organization is a flaming pile of *hit. They play in the West, boy … it’s tough sledding.”

We sat there and talked it out for the next two hours … what happened, why it happened. I got an education on the salary cap, the various rules of the CBA, and came away not as pissed. The fact remained that both Mudiay and Valentine would have a chance to prove themselves in Dallas … Mudiay wasn’t stuck there either, if he hated it he could take his qualifying offer and bolt in 2020.

At least, that’s what I told myself. Part of me felt like I had sold out my teammates and failed them. What kind of leader does that?

“LeBron. Kobe. Jordan. Bird. Magic. Do you know how many of the greats saw teammates come and go? You think they just watched, had no input?” Gramps had told me.

He was right … but I wasn’t sure I could deal with the guilt. What if Mudiay suffered a career ending injury in Dallas? Was that on me?

My head was swirling and there was still another 73 games to go in the regular season.