http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...ion.deck/1.htmlFor all those angry Indiana Pacers fans who consider their team's 37-win pace to be an outright embarrassment this season, understand this: It really isn't much of a drop-off from what you should have expected. If you had higher expectations going into the season, then you were misguided.Just like the Pacers' brain trust.Really, this run of bad news started last summer, when Pacers brass (including CEO Donnie Walsh and president Larry Bird) decided to give the group it had assembled another chance even after an uninspiring 41-win season in 2005-06. The real mistakes started when Bird and Walsh passed on adding salary with Peja Stojajovic coming off the books (turning a trade exception acquired in his sign-and-trade deal into Al Harrington), and continued when they apparently didn't press hard for trades involving Stephen Jackson, Jamaal Tinsley, Sarunas Jasikevicius and Jermaine O'Neal.The last name seems an odd one to throw around, especially with the paucity of skilled big men bounding about this league, but O'Neal has done nothing over the last few years to prove that he's anything more than a second- or third-tier superstar making first-tier money. Not his fault, he just doesn't have the skill set to take over a team.The others? Observing them was outright drudgery -- whether it came in the form of Jackson's poor defense and insistence on firing outside shots, the out-of-shape Tinsley's half-hearted activity level or Jasikevicius' bouts of moping. The whole thing should have been blown apart.Now, those Pacers lost more than their fair share of close games last season (usually those even out to .500, no matter how good or bad the team), and one can always bank on a deserved run of good health after years of injury-tinged misfortune, but what could Walsh and Bird have possibly been expecting this season? A few wins tacked on to that .500 record? In that division? And though the Pacers were awfully active as it was last offseason, most of the pursuits seemed dubious at the outset.In the 2006 draft, the team passed on UConn guard Marcus Williams and instead added Memphis' Shawne Williams with the 17th pick. Williams is a brilliant athlete, but he's the latest in a series of Indiana wing players with strong hops and questionable jump shots -- easily the NBA's most replaceable skill set. Marcus Williams is hardly a panacea, but on a team full of so-so offensive players who struggle to create a (low-percentage) shot every time down court, wouldn't the addition of another creative point guard ease things around the office a bit? And if Indiana passed on Marcus Williams to make a point about Tinsley's permanence, well, we already know how the 29-year-old lead guard responded to the commitment.As for trading Austin Croshere's expiring contract to Dallas for Marquis Daniels, the Pacers received the sort of all-around talent who can turn around an offense. But Daniels has declined precipitously since a darn good rookie campaign.It would appear that the only good move the Pacers have made over the last 12 months was the one most maligned when it was announced: sending Anthony Johnson to Dallas for Darrell Armstrong and spare, non-playing or since-traded parts. Johnson was considered a locker-room irritant with Indiana (and Dallas, apparently), and while Armstrong shoots too much from three-point range for someone who hasn't cracked the 35 percent mark in seven years, his per-minute numbers have nearly doubled since last season. Pity that improved locker-room disposition and competent reserve point guard play haven't made much mark in the standings.Indiana did well in dumping Jackson and Jasikevicius in January, but it was far too late. And though the trade with Golden State did bring in solid low-post scorer Ike Diogu (who continues to play well in far-too-limited minutes), the Pacers had to take on Troy Murphy (who, and we're not joking, has never looked slower), and Mike Dunleavy (a purported shooter who has made 29.4 percent of his long-range looks as a Pacer). By now you have a team that is running more than ever (ninth most possessions in the NBA, up from 30th two seasons ago), but is also the league's least efficient offense.Which brings us back to O'Neal. He is a good post player who can consistently get you 20 and 10, but he has to shoot a lot to break the 20-point barrier on most nights (he's hitting 44 percent this season, 46 percent for his career). O'Neal just doesn't convert enough to make it worth a good team's while to keep going to him offensively. And don't think coach Rick Carlisle hasn't tried: O'Neal was an inefficient shooter when he paced the league's slowest offense with non-scorer Jeff Foster at his side, and he's struggled in the newly up-tempo turn with Murphy spreading the floor within the frontcourt.O'Neal is still a monster defensively (2.7 blocks per game), but things have to change. If the Pacers don't blow up things this summer, or if they aren't able to unload O'Neal, they at least need to develop an offense that isn't based solely around O'Neal holding the ball for 10 seconds at a time in the triple-threat position. It's a damn near impossible situation: The team has proved that it can't win, even in the East, but the only way it'll probably be able to unload Tinsley, Daniels, Dunleavy or Murphy at this point is to include O'Neal in any blockbuster deal.The Pacers probably don't have enough to make the playoffs -- through Monday they were 1? games behind eighth-seeded Orlando with six to play -- and they might miss out on a lower-rung lottery pick. Currently slated to draft 12th, if Indiana's pick strays below 10, it goes to Atlanta as part of the Harrington sign-and-trade from last August.This guy is completely right. It's time for the Pacers to blow up. Hopefully we can make up for the disastorous Golden State trade by pulling off a great Jermaine O'neal trade.
