The Pacers hold off rebuilding for another year

¹²³ · Jul 13, 2009

By Kelly Dwyer

Year after year, summer after summer, it becomes less and less clear just what the Indiana Pacers are up to.
They're not rebuilding, I don't think, but shouldn't they be rebuilding? When you haven't made the playoffs in what has been the weaker of the two conferences since 2006, and you barely made it that year and the year previous, shouldn't you have a rebuilding plan in place that goes beyond "sign Al Harrington?"

It doesn't mean all of Pacer jefe Larry Bird's moves have been bad moves, they've just been dull moves. Moves meant to pull 45 wins if everything goes right. And nothing has gone right.

The latest move has been the push to pay Dahntay Jones through his prime kicking and pushing years. It's an awful contract, even at the cheap price of four years and $11 million, because what Jones does is so utterly replaceable.

He gets the reputation as a defensive stopper, but last year's Nuggets were actually better defensively with him off the floor (and way better offensively). George Karl just liked the idea of starting the tough guy over the mercurial J.R. Smith, so he kept up the charade.

And Jones is yet another Pacer who is essentially in his prime, alongside Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Troy Murphy. T.J. Ford is 25, he's a little way off, as is Danny Granger, but these next two years are pretty much it.

Maybe that's what Bird is going for.

The Pacers are packed in with tons of salary for the next two seasons, but beyond 2011-12, they have only Granger, Jones, Brandon Rush, Roy Hibbert and Tyler Hansbrough on the books. And the last three will be on rookie deals. That's around $20 million in contracts, and even with the Incredibly Shrinking Cap in place, that's still a fair amount of cap space to work with in the summer of 2012.

But until then? Maybe add a Rasho Nesterovic? Maybe not get your hopes up too high?

All last year I clamored for fans to pay attention to this team. They were truly fun to watch, they worked hard, and they lost (and won) a ton of close games. But I don't think fair-weather Pacer fans are declining to come out to see the Pacers because of what Stephen Jackson did in a parking lot, or what Ron Artest did in a lower-level bowl.

No, I think fans aren't coming out to see this team because they're broke, mostly, but also because they probably know better. And "a fun time out" is probably taking a back seat to "Murphy sort of looks like my brother-in-law, but I don't really think he's a cornerstone worth paying for."

As good as Murphy was last year, and he was great, even fair-weather fans can sniff mediocrity a mile away.

And the entertainment factor, if I'm honest, is dulled quite a bit by the non-stop pounding you get from the Conseco Fieldhouse entertainment division. Annoying DJs, MCs, ear-splitting music, canned noise, the works. All bouncing off of what might be the nicest building in the NBA.

I wouldn't be shocked for a second if the Pacers did peel off 45 wins, or more, this season. Granger is that good, the surrounding parts can play, and Jones will help defensively if he's used properly.

It's just that, if the rebuilding plan really is for 2012, then it is coming about seven years too late. And in a business, to say nothing of a competitive league where windows are slim, this is way too late.
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MikeDC · Jul 29, 2009

The Pacers don't really have the option to rebuild this year. I certainly agree that Dahntay Jones' signing sucked and I don't see the logic behind Hansbrough (instead of say, his teammate Ty Lawson, who would have made perfect sense).

But here's the issue. Most of the Pacers players are guys that I don't think they can get rid of. To rebuild, you'd have to trade some of these guys for expiring contracts, and how's that gonna happen.

Murphy is maybe tradeable for an expiring, but I can't think of any obvious suitors for him.
Ford potentially is, but while I'm not a big fan of him, he's only 25 and he's not totally unreasonably signed.
Dunleavy is coming off a potentially career ending injury and nobody knows if he can play again.
Tinsley... the Pacers would have traded him for a kick in the groin, but they couldn't even get that. So they bought him out and are now paying him $10.7M that's on the cap this season and next no matter what.

All of this comes down to the fact that even if you managed to trade the tradeable guys, you'd get what exactly? Really shitty expiring contracts that wouldn't get you under the cap because of the guys you can't move.

This team needs truly inspired draft picks, and some really good luck with Dunleavy returning to health and TJ staying there.

So far, I'm not seeing it.

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