When you lose by 20+ points its not the refs. there were times last night when lebron got hacked and they didn't call anything.
"second-highest turnover percentage in the league" is something that I do not think the Pacers fix entirely by just having players celebrate more birthdays, or by the current players working on their handles. I am now in the camp of needing a floor general type point guard who can get them into an offense, drive and dish, and that can make post entry passes. George Hill is never going to be that guy. The assets we need to get him? It would have to be some combination among Danny Granger, George Hill, and Lance Stephenson. I don't hate any of them and would love to solve the point guard turnover and offensive slog problems while keeping all 3, but that seems unrealistic. I'd prefer to keep George Hill, among those 3, as a starting 2 & backup 1. I love Lance's potential & defensive intensity but on O they are never going to be a transition offense oriented team and make use of what he can do best, so I wonder if some team who does have that style would offer up trade assets for him. He's ultra fast and 22. Streaky shooter, obviously. But he needs to run the court rather than play off of the Hbbert/West low post-oriented half court game
Yall should look to trade for a dead eye shooter...someone like Novak... ie..The Knicks are looking for another scorer, so yall should trade for picks and Novak..if at all possible..
Granger for Novak and some late picks would be yuck. Rather stick with Granger and make a run next year.
The Refs had nothing to do with yesterday's beat down...I thought the magic number that the Pacers had to get to was 6 at the break...that didnt happen, and instead they were down by 15...i figured the game was over...and lo and behold it was... The stats were too daunting and you are playing the best player in the NBA who is in his prime...really hard odds...Pacers have a solid future and should be more of a legit threat next season...The Pacers really do need a true PG...A guy like Rondo can be of great value, but Granger, picks plus fillers would be needed for such a trade...but realistically Boston can field much better options...
The lost it in the 3 minutes and 9 seconds early in the second quarter when Hibbert and George went to the bench at the same time. Then you go from a 28-25 game to a 39-29 game and it's never close again. Sure, before that they were throwing the ball away, but they were getting stops and getting decent shots when they didn't throw the ball away. The horrid bench threw the ball away, didn't get stops, and didn't get decent shots even when they didn't throw the ball away- lots of forced shots to beat the clock or 24 second violations. The bench is a train wreck. They needed to stagger the Hibbert and George rests so one got the last few minutes of the first off, plus the quarter break, and the other got the quarter break plus the first few minutes of the 2nd off. at 28-25 I knew it was going to get out of hand in matter of minutes, given that lineup (Mahinmi, Hansbrough, Young, Stephenson, and either Hill or Augustin, I forget which.)
and I have no problem with the refs. One person on a Pacers forum complained about the refs and was just ridiculed for his ridiculous stance, so I think I can say in general that the huge overwhelming majority of Pacer fans have no beef with last night's officiating.
They should either use Danny Granger as a scorer off the bench and sign a point guard that can run that offense a bit better (maybe Pablo Prigioni?), or trade for a better guy.
If Granger is healthy, and they get a better starting point guard, as well as improving their bench, they are more than capable of beating the Heat next year. I'd imagine the Heat will make some trades since they struggle against big teams. Not sure who they could get though..
