Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh was thought to be one of the brightest minds in the NBA. He was quoted in papers from coast to coast, and had an outstanding relationship in the media. This is just conjecture, but Walsh was so media savvy, that when NBA columnists needed 'source' comments, they'd go to Walsh, ostensibly in return for positive remarks about his Pacers. Which brings us to this absolute disaster of a deal the Pacers pulled off with the Warriors Wednesday. My compadres have already mentioned the particulars, so I'll get to the nuts and bolts: No matter what this John Hollinger fellow tells you, this trade is unbelievably bad for Indiana, and pretty spectacular for ol' Don Nelson. So much so, that I will personally guarantee you that the Warriors will reach the playoffs*.
Let's get this out of the way - yes, Ike Diogu has the potential to be a nice player. Like him. Like him a lot. But when your starting power forward is a hustle machine Jeff Foster (23rd in the league with 8.9 rebounds per game), and your new backup is Troy Murphy, a man saddled with a contract so bad not even Isiah Thomas would take him, where do you play Diogu? He cannot play center in the NBA. That is a fact. His offensive game does not stretch outside of 10 feet, so you can rule out small forward. Wake me when you come up with something logical.
The third piece for Indiana is Mike Dunleavy ... who isn't going to unseat rapidly-rising 2nd year player Danny Granger anytime soon. I suppose perhaps the former Dukie could attempt to play shooting guard, but that doesn't seem like an experiment that will end well.
Golden State filled three immediate needs: Backcourt depth, a replacement for injured guard Jason Richardson, and a bullish, offensive-minded post player. By my scorecard, that's 3-1, with Indiana only getting on the board because it had image issues due to Stephen Jackson's fondness for guns.
(Photo: Ron Hoskins, Getty Images)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-18-2007 @ 8:42AM
marlon said...
I dont know whats on larry and donnies mind, you give up so much to bring Al Harrington back. Al Harrington is a solid player who is giving you 15 points per game. To me the Pacers are back in the rebbuilding stage again, they were one player away from being a power house in the east, this year they will be a "out house" thats out of the play offs....
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1-18-2007 @ 8:52AM
marlon said...
I think Larry Bird is still a Boston Celtics fan under neath....Hurting the Pacers for Boston can have a better chance. The Pacers just blew Boston out the other day.....
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1-18-2007 @ 1:42PM
Eric Neely said...
Also, I've seen Jasikevicius play, like, 1 time. I just love that Nellie went out and got another Sarunas.
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1-18-2007 @ 2:52PM
Eric Neely said...
All I've gotta say: Nellie's got his modern day Sarunas Marciulionis in Sarunas Jasikevicius. Sarunas is gonna blow up in Golden State... Just watch.
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1-18-2007 @ 2:53PM
Dutch said...
Wait, you get about +5 points for substracting a player that has the potential to kill someone one night soon. Considering Murphy and Diogu are probably solid starters in the East, I don't really think this is that bad of a deal. I'm not sure there are many GM's that really want Stephen Jackson on their team these days (bad shot selection+insane+bad contract). Sure Dunleavy and Murphy's contracts suck, but it just seems like a lot better deal than you make it out to be here.
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1-18-2007 @ 4:14PM
Chris said...
We Warriors fans love the trade moslty because its a great win for us and we all think that Dunleavy plays like he will perish if he goes to the whole. If he adds a toughness to his game he can do something but if not his jumper alone won't keep him afloat.
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1-18-2007 @ 6:39PM
The Big Picture said...
walsh knows that murphy is white, right? and dunleavy too? and they are both white and have bad contracts? i don't know if he knew they were white.
and stephen jackson, in oakland, is just what the warriors need. c'mon, it's oakland! his fondess for fireamrs will fit right in.
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1-19-2007 @ 7:49AM
Butch Hulse said...
Let’s look seriously at the numbers: We gain 32.8 points per game, but lose 39.1. That’s down 6.3 points per game from where we were a day ago. We gain 15.3 boards per game and lose 14.6. So, we gain .7 boards per game. We lose all of the “mesh” time the players had with the team, so we can get a half of a rebound more per game, and score 6 points less per game, when we already had a team that did not shoot really well. McLeod’s free throw shooting replaces Sarunas ability, his defense MUST be better, and his long range shooting is better, but I doubt he’ll play much at 5.3 points per game. Murphy is a big guy, but this year he’s always hurt. Dunleavy is a hard worker, but he scores 2.7 less points per game than Jack, and 4.5 points less than Al. These guys ALL better be able to play some serious defense, or it’s a really bad trade…
Other than a team image remake by losing jack, where is the advantage going to be? Team chemistry… when you lose a guy like Big Al in the locker room? They all looked like there was no chemistry problem to me. That lousy schedule was a problem, with all of the road games. Teams are usually lucky if they win 2 out of 3 games over an entire season, overall. Why would anyone expect this revamped team to be any higher than two games above .500 at this point? If the Pacers suddenly start to win in the next few games, it’s the home games, folks, not the new players. After the big home-stretch advantage ends we will see if there is really any genius in this trade come March. I don’t think there is any. We shall see…
You must have athletes to win NBA games. We lost athletic ability in this trade. We lost points, and we only gained a half board…
I disagreed with the first shakeup, that lost our foul shooters and 3-point guys, and I will go out on a limb and say that this one is going to be even worse. We have 5 players left of last years team - 5. This looks like a camouflage of the “start over” that I mentioned earlier in my posts, rather than the “Tune-up” we have been told was going to occur this year. If you don’t think that I am pragmatic in my thinking, think about this: you could have traded earlier for Allen Iverson, and some stop-loss role players from Philly, for the rebound problems with an earlier deal such as this latest one. I know people say A.I. is a thug, but he produces, and he’s really nowhere near the thug Jack has turned out to be. Look what he has done since his arrival at Denver.
I hope this works. I want my team to win, and be happy in the locker room. But if it doesn’t work, and as much as I love Larry Bird, I doubt that he’ll be here next year for a third strike. I think behind the scenes, this is his project to win or lose.
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