Thursday, June 26, 2008

Larry Bird makes his move

Huge, huge, huge trade. The Pacers send their eleventh pick, Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu to the Portland Trailblazers for Brandon Rush (drafted 13th), guard Jaret Jack (10 ppg, 4 apg) and local boy Josh McRoberts (Carmel, IN).

I'm dizzy. I think everyone was pretty psyched about getting Bayless at #11, but on the bright side Rush is 6' - 6" and has the body to play a long time in the NBA. I'm assuming Jack will compete for the backup point guard position. Josh McRoberts (drafted 37th last year) may not even be an NBA caliber player (D-leaguer most of last year), but it's a nice publicity throw-in. The guy is the latest in a long time of punk losers who leave the state to go play for the likes of Duke. Dude's an a-hole.

I guess what strikes me about this trade is that Indiana has picked up four players with pretty high name-recognition. This doesn't count for anything in reality, but maybe it will placate some of us surly Pacer fans for awhile. I'm witholding judgment on this trade. Just like with the JO trade, I'm just happy they did something. And as a bonus: It should be awesomely awkward watching Brandon Rush compete for pt with his brother.

11 comments:

Joel said...

I was almost prophetic, saying we'd take Augustin at 11 and Hibbert at 17...I never expected Bayless to still be on the board. Too bad we traded him. I don't get that trade at all. At BEST, Jack for Bayless was a wash, and Bayless had a lot more upside. I'm not sure where Rush fits, with Dunleavy playing the 2, unless we go small ball with Granger at the 4. But then we're up a creek defensively, particularly if Hibbert's on the floor. This is just such a weird roster now. Four mediocre point guards, 6 wings, 1 PF, and 3 really different centers (one of whom is the black, poor man's Rik Smits). Such a weird team.

Anonymous said...

Frankenstein's Team, mirite?!

Demond Sanders said...

Totally agree. After staring at the new roster for awhile I just kept thinking:

1.) Wow. The Pacers roster sucks.

2.) This is a really weird team right now. It might take a long time to build something out of these random parts.

It really does make you appreciate what they built in the '90s.

shake'n'bake said...

I was all ready to say mean things about McRoberts after seeing his name, but you beat me to it. F Dook.

Josh Brown said...

Teams just don't rebuild overnight. It took the Pacers almost a decade to get where they were in the late 90's. We can't pull a Boston and get three All-Stars. I doubt the trading is over, and some of these guys will not be here in 2 years when their contracts are up. Since Dunleavy was 3rd overall pick, he is entitled to a massive contract, and unless he becomes an All-Star, he won't be around. Murphy will probably not be resigned when his contract is up because he is overpaid now as it is. This rebuilding is a long process and will take at least 5 years. The roster look so weird and awful now, but lets see how it looks in a couple years. If it is still messed up, then we can all agree this draft sucked.

Anonymous said...

J. Roberts lost me when he declined to play in the Indiana/Kentucky all star games because he was not Mr. Basketball. His lack of pro success is karma biting back.

Joel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joel said...

So what will our rotation look like? Who starts at the point? Is Dunleavy going to keep playing the 2?

Potential depth chart:

PG - Ford, Jack, Tinsley
SG - Dunleavy, B Rush, K Rush
SF - Granger, Williams
PF - Murphy, Harrison
C - Foster, Nesterovic, Hibbert

Man. That is one weird roster. That seems to be the only word that appropriately describes it: weird.

(deleted old comment to edit the roster down to 13)

Josh Brown said...

I'ld be willing to bet that Williams, Tinsley, or Harrison will not be here come August.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where tinsly is going. No one wants him and cutting him seems like a terrible idea since eventually his expiring contract will have value

Anonymous said...

Could we demote him to the NBDL, just to keep him out of our hair?