You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

[Jogo]

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

Jack and "his posse" (as Phil Jackson would say) sure have their way in Indiana!

He takes the league by storm out of nowhere, wins ROY, ...
And now he's acting like a 20 year old player-GM, screwing people over, possibly ruining teammates' careers. Not to mention he's taking barely 1 mill per year so he can surround himself with loads of talent in pursuit of a ring ...

I think I'm starting to become a Tate h8ter. But haters just want to be you, I guess.

Winning a chip usually shuts them up ...

[trekfan]

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

Jack and "his posse" (as Phil Jackson would say) sure have their way in Indiana!

He takes the league by storm out of nowhere, wins ROY, ...
And now he's acting like a 20 year old player-GM, screwing people over, possibly ruining teammates' careers. Not to mention he's taking barely 1 mill per year so he can surround himself with loads of talent in pursuit of a ring ...

I think I'm starting to become a Tate h8ter. But haters just want to be you, I guess.

Winning a chip usually shuts them up ...

Yeah, he's definitely got the run of the Pacers -- that's what happens when your grandfather owns the team.

But, he's definitely all-in for a title and willing to get paid pennies for it. He's taking what Durant did for the Warriors (by taking a paycut to sign with the, essentially) to its logical extreme; if you want to have the best team, you need the best players, and you need to pay them like it.

Jack doesn't need the money -- he's rich -- but he'll gladly pull a Duncan/Dirk who, in their later years, took contracts that paid them like, 5-7M a year. Why not just do that your whole career? It's not like you'll be hurting for money with all the endorsement deals you'll get (and your shoe deals).

The title is the goal. Get the Pacers a title, restore them to the glory of their ABA days (where they were nearly annual participants in the ABA title game) and go down a legend. Ideally, I want the Pacers to be Spurs East (the Hawks had that title, but the losing they've done the last few years IRL strips them of it I think).

The Spurs are constantly in the playoffs, always have a shot, and have the talent/smarts to make players better. That's the model organization in the NBA -- we'll see if I can get there.

[trekfan]

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




Ch. 26

The trade for Harrison Barnes rocked the team. Guys were a bit blindsided by it, but McHale held us all together — he listed a few occasions where his Celtics squads from the 80s did similar deals early in the season, and went on to be a force in the playoffs, if not winning a title. It calmed things down, but it was still sad to see Mudiay, ROLO, Valentine, and Moore go.

What we got back, though, wasn’t a set of scrubs. Barnes arrived and immediately sought out GROB, who had already been informed by McHale that he had lost his starting spot. Glenn took it very well — he was a *ucking professional if there ever was one and a true team player. Barnes didn’t come in a diva, he came in knowing that he was being given a chance to be on a playoff team again, maybe even a title contender if things broke our way.

He spoke with Glenn, told him he was changing his number to 7 (the number he wore in USA Basketball), so GROB didn’t have to worry about that, and told the team that he was thankful he was back in the Midwest. Barnes came from Iowa, so he was close to his old stomping grounds and was a guy who appreciated the basketball culture in our parts.

HB was a cool guy, chill — he fit in well in terms of our mindsets. On the court, though, the rest of the month of November was a bit *ucked up. Topsy turvy *hit, you know? Some games we played together like we had been on the same team for years. Other games we played together like we had just met that day and didn’t even know each other’s names.

We went 5-5 for the rest of the month, losing three straight once HB arrived, then going 5-2 the rest of the way — we won the last two of the month, then rolled into December with two more wins over the struggling Celtics and Hornets (both teams four games under .500 and causing their fanbases to question existence itself).

We were, somehow, at the top of the conference with a 14-7 record. The East was putridly bad early on … it was like teams couldn’t keep win streaks going. Out West, things were pretty even, but in the East you basically had four solid to good teams, and then a bunch of garbage.

Our matchup on December 6th was against the 11-9 Magic — coached by former Pacers’ HC Frank Vogel. I loved Vogel, I thought he got a raw deal from Larry Bird, and I was glad to see him doing all-right in Orlando. The man had the respect of multiple players around the league. But on that night, we outplayed the Magic from beginning to end.

And it was our defense that set the tone. That isn’t something I expected when we traded for Barnes, but over the 12 games we had him, we were ranked fourth in the league defensively. Our offense wasn’t the only thing carrying us now, which was nice … we needed the balance.

HB’s fit in our offense was still being determined. Since he arrived, I had been trying to figure out the best way to feed him — did he like it in the post? High post? Beyond the arc? Rolling to the rim? Transition? I had to learn him and he had to learn me. Early in the Magic game, we weren’t on the same page for most of it, but we had a few plays.

More than anything, Barnes was a beast do-everything defender. He made life easier for us and that opened up passing lanes, which allowed us to get our favorite type of shot: the corner three.

We were up 32-14 at the end of the first. In the second, the Magic mounted a mini-comeback and tried to climb back into it. But Lance took over the game and kept them from getting too close — he was just punking the Magic left in right, grabbing boards, altering shots, and slamming home dunks over fools.

At the half, we were dominating the boards and the pace of play. But we knew we couldn’t let off the gas. HB was 5-14 at halftime, not a good look at all, but a lot of that was on me; I wasn’t leading him to spots he could work in. I was trying to find him out there, I was looking for him, but it wasn’t working. At the half, assistant coach CJ Wolfe pulled me aside from the main huddle and told me to ease up trying to feed Barnes.

“I want you to let him run the floor a bit, let him feel the ball … he’s used to being the top guy, he needs the ball in his hands some to really get locked in with you guys,” Wolfe told me.

As a point guard, letting someone else run the floor wasn’t exactly natural, but I did it for Victor, I did it for Lance, and I knew I could do it for HB. So, in the second-half I laid off some and let Barnes get a feel for the game.

Wolfe was right on the money. Barnes found life in the second half as a ball-handler and once he warmed up, the Magic got BURIED. We shoveled dirt on their grave in the third and fourth quarters, outscoring them 73-47 in the second half. Our deep bench guys got into the game with 5:22 left and did a good job preserving the lead and scoring some on their own.

It was a life-affirming victory in a way … we had our doubts that we really could figure it out, but that game helped quell them: we were on a five game win streak and it was much needed.

[georgiafan]

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

Looks like Barnes is starting to play well

[trekfan]

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

Looks like Barnes is starting to play well

He's done better than I thought he would so far -- the team is coming together. We'll see how we do continuing through the season.

[milldaddy35]

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

I like the Barnes fit, but I can not play with him this year for the life of me. He can't shoot, and I can no longer get to the rim with him. Also, his defense is underwhelming.

[trekfan]

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




Ch. 27

The team was coming together. Through December 19th of 2018, we were well, having gone 8-2 in our last ten. Barnes was integrating, our defense wasn’t abysmal, and we were pulling ahead in the conference. That was due to a few injuries as much as anything, but I wasn’t complaining.

In the East, we were leading the pack — an injury to LeBron had knocked him out of the starting lineup for nearly ten days and the Cavs kinda fell apart without him, as one would expect. Toronto and us were leading the pack, but it was a mess after the top three — Orlando, Washington, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Brooklyn were all fighting for playoff position. By the time the trade deadline came around, someone in that mix would have to call it quits for the year … the Hornets were just on the outside looking in at 10th place and Kemba Walker looked about ready to leave. The Dwight Effect maybe.

At the bottom of the conference, you had the Hawks — no shock there — but just before them was the Celtics. That was a shock. The whole league couldn’t believe what was happening in Boston, as the magic mix they achieved the year before had seemingly been upset. Was it bringing in Javelle McGee that did it? Re-signing Marcus Smart instead of letting Brown take his spot? Something was off in Boston, for sure, and Stevens had resorted to moving Horford to the four and letting McGee start at the five in order to help. Boston had responded by winning two straight, but that meant nothing in the long-run; they had a hole to climb out of.

Out West, the Pelicans were taking the West by the balls and crushing them; that’s the only way to describe the experience of Boogie and the Brow. Both were averaging over 22 PPG, had good help from the bench (with both Ian Clark and Al Jefferson pitching in over 11 PPG) and finally looked to be putting it all together. Thad Young and Jrue Holiday were perfect complimentary pieces and the team was, without a doubt, on its way up.

The defending champs were in third, and right ahead of Houston in second were the Warriors — who seemed to be lying in wait. Golden State had a bit of drama around it, as Klay Thompson had yet to agree to a contract extension and was making noise that he might be moving on. The end of the dynasty was in sight if he left. The rest of the West was a jumbled mess, like the East — surprisingly, the Kings (yes, those Kings!) were over .500 and possibly in the playoffs … it was something no one believed would last, but it was the first legitimate ray of hope those poor Kings fans had seen in years.

At the bottom of the West sat two teams we’d knew would suck: the Suns and Grizzlies. But the T’Wolves were right there with them in a shock of shocks … it appeared there was locker-room drama between the camps of Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler, as Butler was less than pleased with Wigggins defensive commitment and Wiggins wasn’t having it. It was possible something might transpire before the deadline, but no one was sure what would happen; Butler was likely to test free agency in the summer and, with his first taste of freedom, would he come back to the T’Wolves if Wigggins was still there? Would Thibs trade Wiggins to keep Butler? Would he let Butler walk to keep Wiggins? There were lots of questions being asked in Minnesota.

But we weren’t really paying attention to anyone in the West … except the Warriors. Because we had them in our house December 20th and, with Barnes on our roster, we had a bit of a score to settle.

[trekfan]

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




Ch. 28

The Warriors. A team that put a fear into the NBA not seen since the days of the Jordan era Bulls. Golden State was the pinnacle of the pace and space era, the blueprint every other team wanted to emulate in their constructions. We were no different — every move we made was made with the idea that we had to take on the best in the league and the best in the league (the Warriors, Thunder, Rockets, Pelicans, Cavs, and Celtics) played a variation of the pace and space.

We went out and signed Jabari Parker, despite potential health issues. We traded for Barnes despite knowing he would never be a 20 PPG guy. We stocked up on wings who could defend bigger than their size and bigs who could shoot like they were wings. The Indiana Pacers were being built to fight against the best in the NBA, and the Warriors were the mark, the bar that you had to clear if you wanted a chance at a title.

December 20th, 2018, they came to our place and the tickets were sold out. The stands were packed. The night felt like we were in a do-or-die playoff game.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” McHale told us before the game. “They know they have a target on their back every night. They have some of the best guys in our game playing for them and their bench, it ain’t a joke. We have to play our game; don’t let them dictate the pace, don’t get sucked into chucking threes because I guarantee you, they will make more than us — play inside out. Make the extra pass. Don’t be afraid to take it into the paint and hammer away at them. They cannot protect the paint and the arc, so you make them choose and when they do, you do the opposite.”

It wasn’t exactly a rousing speech, but McHale was right — no team could protect both the paint and the arc. They could protect both for most of the shot clock, but a crack would appear and that’s when the pass needed to be made. You make the pass, you make the shot, and you make a lead.

The Warriors were the best at making you work for every possession. We needed to do that to them if we had a chance to win.

Dressed in our mid-2000s throwbacks (us in our pinstripe blues, they in their bright oranges), the first quarter was about one man and one man only: Klay Thompson. He was fire from anywhere on the court, he got VO into early foul trouble (two fouls within four minutes — what bull*hit) and he took advantage of the space to just shoot. And shoot. And shoot.

Thompson was a man on fire on offense and he wasn’t allowing much on defense — we couldn’t slow him down, so we had to keep up and we did that by attacking the Warriors weakest link, Adrian Payne. Payne was signed to be their starting center, a guy who could stretch the floor for them like Mo Speights used to. He was athletic, stretchy, and could score, but he was also foul prone.

So we went right at him inside. He got into foul trouble, had to be pulled, and they shifted Green to the inside. We kept attacking him and VO was leading the charge towards the end of the first, making sure to not back down.

We ended the first up 31-30, in a close *ss match. In the second, we began to scratch out a little lead … the Warriors defense was getting pulled more and more into the paint. We battled there, got physical, made them tired — Thompson was still shooting, but his shot was getting cooler. On our end, we fed one man — Jabari Parker.

Jabari went right at Draymond off the bounce, he didn’t shy from contact, and he scored 12 points in the second after having none in the first. His shooting touch from inside, in the post, as the roll man, and from mid-range helped our lead grow. At the half, we were winning, to the surprise of many I expect.

We expected the Warriors to adjust — they did. They started feeding Durant and letting Green shoot from outside. But we shut down Thompson in that quarter, sticking Lance on him and forcing Klay into tough shots. Lance played like a man on a mission — he got into Klay’s face, jostled him, pushed him, boxed him out, grabbed boards and dished assists. His defense inspired the rest of us, especially when Myles checking in mid-way through the third.

Turner had been unable to get going in the first half, but in the second he came out ready to fight. He grabbed boards but more than that, he blocked shots — and blocked them emphatically.

Curry wasn’t able to get easy shots inside and his shot from outside wasn’t falling either. We barely extended our lead to 8 points entering the final frame.

It was there where, finally, we were able to get some shots from outside to fall. Our first guy to make it? Harrison Barnes. HB had played good defense on Durant and Thompson when switched onto them and he was being efficient — not a lot of bad shots taken at all. In the fourth, his outside shot started to go in and it caused the Warriors defense to stretch back to the arc.

But, after being pounded inside all game, the Warriors legs were tired. Their closeout speed wasn’t as good in the fourth and that allowed Myles Turner to get AFTER IT. He made Payne his little *itch in the fourth, sucking in boards and hitting triples.

He followed that shot above with a block on the other end and a transition triple from a beautiful feed from Jabari. In the span of 30 seconds our lead, which had been precariously only two points after Durant got hot, was back up to 8 points. The Warriors kept playing hard all the way till the end of the game and so did we — Myles wouldn’t let us lose, pulling off shots to keep our lead.

It was a big win on our home turf, and we walked out of there feeling like we had cracked the code — if we could beat the Warriors, we could beat anyone and that was something you couldn’t buy … something you couldn’t train for. It was earned.

[milldaddy35]

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

Wow, fantastic win.

[TimmsSports]

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

Great win vs. GSW, although perhaps its too easy for you? I can't remember seeing you lose a game you have played, what sliders do you use?

[trekfan]

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

Wow, fantastic win.

Thanks, it was a close one -- if GS gets one or two more triples to hit, this game looks radically different. They were playing hard all the way to the final buzzer.

Great win vs. GSW, although perhaps its too easy for you? I can't remember seeing you lose a game you have played, what sliders do you use?

I lost the third game I played in this season to the Cavs in brutal fashion. My sliders are custom, but basically Superstar with some tweaks. I tend to win more games than I lose when I play -- even on HOF (which feels like too much of an advantage for the CPU, so I stay off it).

That's part of the reason why I only play 20-24 regular season games and am only allowed 2 games per playoff series -- this isn't just about my skill as a guy with a controller in his hand, but also my skill in building a team and letting them win without my direct input. Last season, that cost me the 2nd round series against the Wizards as my team lost in 7 to them after I had used my two chances to play them. The sim engine wasn't kind, but that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

[georgiafan]

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

Just catching up good win anxious to see how the trades shake out as we approach the deadline

[trekfan]

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




Ch. 29

Following the big win at the Warriors, we went 2-2 before heading down to LA to play the Lakers on New Year's Eve. It was a big game for us, just as it was for them — both of our squads were outperforming expectations. For the Lakers, they were over .500 despite missing Marc Gasol with yet another injury. League injuries were beginning to pile up as the calendar prepared to flip to 2019, but even without Gasol the Lakers were sitting pretty — and so were we.

Despite everyone calling us a fluke the year before, we were well on our way to putting those doubts to rest. The Lakers game was important to us — it was our chance to beat former franchise star Paul George, now PG11 since he couldn’t have the number 13. George was having a good year, scoring 24.4 PPG on efficient shooting, and looked to be exactly the leader as advertised to the Lakers.

But we wanted him to lose — we had issues with the Lakers (they beat us in our Finals trip way back in 2000).

The first quarter was a battle between both squads. We traded baskets and blows across all areas of the court — mid-range, behind the arc, and in the paint. Watching the Lakers play was like watching us play … they were unafraid to take advantage of our weaknesses and to challenge us. The game quickly became foul-heavy as dunks were traded, fouls were traded, and trash talk was traded. We played them like we had a grudge and they played us exactly the same.

It wasn’t until the end of the first when our subs were in that we began to pull away — largely in part to Lance Stephenson. Lance, bless him, was just the type of player who thrived in a game like this. Shots were hard, fouls were hard, and Lance was showing off — he went into the post and dished out rocket passes to the corners for easy triples. He even nailed a turnaround towards the end of the quarter to put the cherry on top.

The Lakers didn’t take kindly that. Lance showing off pissed them off and in the second they got WAY more physical, particularly Jordan Clarkson. Clarkson — former backup, now a starter and doing well — was absolutely not having any *hit. He dished out not one, not two, but three fouls in the second and his last one laid out GROB on the Staples Center floor.

The Lakers got a big emotional lift from Clarkson and wiped out our lead because of him. It was only because of a late triple from me that we went into the half up at all.

In the third, Paul George tried to end the game. He came alive in that quarter, tried to bury us, but we flustered him just enough. The Lakers deployed their secret weapon, Brandon Ingram, and expected that the duo of Ingram and George would end any threat we presented. Not so fast — Ingram came in and got some nice shots in, but once we stuck Barnes back out there his effectiveness was severely curtailed. We got a big boost from HB when he came in the second half — he wasn’t shy.

We were leading 87-85 heading into the fourth and I figured this was going to be a down-to-the-wire type of game. George wasn’t fooling around and neither was Lonzo Ball. We needed to get Victor and Myles involved more, otherwise the Lakers were going to shut down our offense — Myles was freezing from beyond the arc, so McHale told us to get him the ball inside. Zubac was killing us on cuts and put-backs, so we needed to tire him out on the other end.

We did just that early on and Myles found some confidence — defensively, he came alive, notching a few altered shots and blocks (one really pretty one on George) and with about 7:32 to go he caused a miss from Nance, grabbed the board, and launched it to me on the fast break. I blitzed past Ball, had a wide-open layup, and went up for the points.

But in the air, I got knocked around by Clarkson — no foul — missed the shot and, unbalanced, came down hard on my knee. I instantly felt something was off, I tried hustling back on defense, but Clarkson had already taken the ball and nailed a triple on the other end, giving the Lakers a two-point lead. McHale called a timeout.

The trainers pulled me off the floor and to the locker room to get evaluated. We went down by two, then we were down by six, then eight with under 4:21 to go. It looked like the game would get away from us … and I was trapped in the locker room. The trainers told me I could go back out on the bench but that I couldn’t play, so I limped my *ss out there.

The guys were down. But I could still move and my leg hurt, but not so bad that I was going to hide in the locker room. I implored them to play for the win — I didn’t want to be the reason we lost, I needed them to kick *ss. McHale subbed in Lance, replacing Joseph, and the switch-up helped defensively; Lance did what he did best, which was annoy the *hit out of people.

He hustled on defense, went right at George, Ball, and Clarkson, and was a terror — Barnes took note and did what Lance was doing and I watched as the Lakers fed George on four straight possessions. George missed every shot — two in the paint, one from deep, another mid-range bunny.

George was flustered. We scored on each of the possessions we got, including two and-1s, which gave us a two-point lead with under 1:23 to go. The Lakers turned from George to Clarkson, hoping their foul-prone two-guard would lead them to victory; no dice. VO harassed Clarkson anytime he got the ball. It got to the point where the Lakers fouled us on back-to-back possessions, sending Victor to the line for four shots.

He made every one of them, giving us the close win.

After the game, the trainers informed me that my knee was sprained and that I needed 1-2 weeks off, minimum, in order to heal it up. I wasn’t pleased — I felt like I could play on it, but McHale shut me down. “You see my limp? You see how I walk? That’s because I played through an injury I shouldn’t have. I get it, you want to win, but you’re too damn young to risk the rest of your career on this. You’re riding the bench, period.”

I listened to him, how could I not? He was a living, breathing legend. Had rings. Had stories. Had scars. The man knew his *hit. At least, being injured, I was in good company … certainly plenty of other guys throughout the league who were suffering.

[trekfan]

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

Just catching up good win anxious to see how the trades shake out as we approach the deadline

The deadline is going to be REALLY fascinating this year -- I feel like we're going to see a lot of big moves if teams stay where they are in the standings. Mid-season coach firings are also likely if the standings hold ... some guys are getting their walking papers.

The Heat are the prime candidates to blow up their squad -- they have both their 1st rounders for 2019 and 2020 before not having theirs in 2021 (due to the Dragic trade) and Dragic could be moved (among others). Miami simply can't win enough.

[asvpxhughuet]

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

Really loving this trek! Hopefully the Pacers go a few better this year and make the finals, even if that doesn't end in a ring for Jack. Been following all your dynasties since probably the beginning of my time on OS, and every morning when I come to the site I always check this section to see if you have a new update to the story and I think this one is becoming my favourite!!

Anyway, after becoming such a big follower of yours I wanted to try something you have done with many of your dynasties and that is use the first-person POV for the story and create someone it is based about as well as create some sort of character development. Reading your dynasty has given me inspiration to create one that I can 100% go through on with my favourite team and including characters which might help me so much more. I love your format of not including every game and I have tried many so I don't play all (just simming some and playing others, playing around 10 and Simcasting the rest until the fourth quarter so I can jump in), but I think the best way to do it is to engage myself playing less games to get through more of the calendar. I will start posting soon and I would hope that using yours as a template of sorts doesn't offend you as without your dynasties I probably wouldn't have the initiative to write my own.

But good luck to you and your future Pacers, and the way Jack is going we both know he is only so far away from that big MVP!