Quick Thoughts on the Pacers’ universe
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
Before NBA commissioner David Stern retires in February, will he dare venture through Indiana, where he’s still unpopular?
The Pacers may not play on Christmas, but they do play on the following holidays: New Year’s Day (at Toronto), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (at Golden State) and St. Patrick’s Day (vs. Philadelphia). As usual, the team asked for and received a home date on Black Friday (vs. Washington).
And as always, there are notable returns of familiar faces. Former Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle will come to town on Feb. 12 when the Pacers host the Dallas Mavericks. Metta World Peace – once named Ron Artest – brings back his unique brand of crazy when he returns to Indy with the Knicks on Jan. 16. Pacers fans will get their first look at Jermaine O’Neal wearing a Warriors uniform on March 4.
The Pacers’ longest road trip is five games – at Los Angeles, Portland, Utah, San Antonio and Oklahoma City from Dec. 1-8, and another one at Golden State, Phoenix, Sacramento, Denver and Los Angeles running from Jan. 20-28. They have two road trips that are three games long. Their longest homestand is a four-gamer from Jan. 10-18 against the Wizards, Kings, Knicks and Clippers.
Every other team in the Central Division will have a little bit of a different look to them: Bulls (Derrick Rose, Mike Dunleavy), Pistons (Josh Smith), Cavaliers (Jarrett Jack, Andrew Bynum) and Bucks (O.J. Mayo, Brandon Knight). That should make the Pacers’ 16-game divisional slate more interesting.
Think it’s too late in the summer for anything relevant to happen? Think again. The 2010 Darren Collison-Troy Murphy swap occurred on Aug. 11.
Going from the late 1980s to now, even during the good years, the Pacers have usually finished in the bottom half of the NBA in attendance. Home sellouts have been the exception rather than the norm. At some point, you realize that, while the fan base is very passionate, the market size is still constrictive.
If Reggie Miller left any unbreakable record, it’s probably the 18 seasons. The Celtics dealing franchise legend Paul Pierce was just the latest reminder of how hard it has become for a professional athlete to spend his whole career with one team.
The Pacers are still two players away from a full roster. What they could use most is depth at center. Hamed Haddadi would be a perfect fit because of his size and rebounding. While conditioning has been an issue with Haddadi, that’d be minimized on a team which plays at a slow pace.
The Pacers are paying C.J. Watson $1.5 million less than they were D.J. Augustin. To upgrade and save money at the same time is a rare double play. Of course, part of Augustin’s price tag was his experience as a starter in Charlotte. But let that be a lesson that just because a guy put up some numbers on a bad team doesn’t mean he’ll fit with a contender.
Orlando Johnson played three years of football in high school. David West likes to box in the offseason. Sam Young’s first love was gymnastics. It’s fun to imagine sometimes just how good NBA players could be at other sports. With practice, most would probably find some success elsewhere.
Nearly half the league (14 of 30 teams, to be precise) will open training camp with a different coach than the one that began the 2012-13 season. The truism “hired to be fired” could not be more appropriate.
Built at a cost of $183 million dollars, Bankers Life Fieldhouse could be reconstructed 91,465 times using the amount of money the federal government owes in debt. More fun with numbers: If that many fieldhouses were actually made, they’d cover 567,083 acres in total.
You’ve heard of Mr. Irrelevant in the NFL. Who’s the Pacers’ Mr. Irrelevant? No career meant less than that of Etdrick Bohannon, a forward out of Auburn-Montgomery who signed as a free agent on July 10, 1997. He played 11 minutes in parts of five games, didn’t score a point, missed four shots and was charged with three fouls and three turnovers. A collectible Bohannon trading card currently goes for as low as 39 cents on Amazon.
