Larry Bird Out in Indiana

PG OUT TO FOLLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Good decision by Bird.

New GM should first fire McMillan and then determine if PG will stay long term.

 

No surprise. Not only has he not done that great a job, but did you see the look on his face in Games 3 and 4 in Indiana? I've seen people at funerals who didn't look that depressed.

 

on the 1st day of training camp all indy players should just tear out the preface introduction of pritchard's playbook

 

What are your thoughts on this @DonatasFanboy ?

He has recently made some boneheaded dumb moves Imo.

Swapped hill for teague and signed that young because he wanted to push pace and play uptempo.

Follows that by hiring grind it out McMillan.

Should have took the grandfather offer that was rumored to been on the table from Boston.

 

Pacers going to be tanking next few years

 

They're going to regret passing up on the Boston offer for Paul George. That was a perfect opportunity to rebuild. Also, Nate McMillan was a terrible hire.....especially in this NBA.

 

Paul George out of Indiana and in Houston soon to follow

 

botched the Hibbert situation too.

he made smart draft picks though, i'll miss it. he also generally was mister cautious, steady and calculating, which isn't a bad thing. our owner was cheap for many years, strongly anti-tanking and pro-mediocrity, and few GMs could've built (semi-)contenders under such owners like Bird (and before him Walsh) has.
but it felt like that changed and Bird maybe became emotional and frustrated over the last 3-4 years, and it affected his decisions and how he handled things.
also the way the NBA is right now (full of cash), our owners can afford to spend comparably to other owners now, so we can afford a bolder style of management - what Pritchard is known for.

i feel like it might be an end to an era. Bird was extention of Walsh. taken together, over 3 decades, they built multiple semi-contenders on the cheap, without ever tanking. also both were sort of old school nice-guys as GMs go. for example, Pacers trying to sign someone else's restricted free agent - very rare. Under Walsh, maybe that never happened. Walsh considered it bad taste, didn't want to damage relationships.
Pritchard was known as an entirely different type of manager in Portland. Also, of our two owners-brothers, one of them is dead (RIP), and the other one is over 80. Pacers as I know it might be gone soon, new territory for me.

 

He's never liked Danny Ainge. Ainge would have to be off'd first.

 

Welcome home PG13.

You will now be rated R, for extreme violence on the offensive and defensive side for the city of Houston. You shall change your number to whatever you feel comfortable as 13 is for Dr. Beard.

Thank you.

 

Do you think they go more progressive and analytical? You hearing anything?

I did like birds drafting but most everything else seemed off. Again that could be because of cost and trying to keep expenses down because of owner.

I guess this probably had a lot to do with it. Which is probably further proof he needed to step down.

 

A deal with Boston can still be made.

 

Actually I am shocked about this news.
Because unless it was health related, people like Bird don't usually just resign. Not that he shouldn't have, he should, because his decisions lately were questionable and his interviews to the press showed that he had fallen too much behind the modern age.

Do you think that he resigned as protest behind the scenes for refusing to trade PG13? (to the lakers) Right about this time teams should also know who made the all nba teams. If PG13 hasn't, then there goes the huge extension.

 

I think he resigned because he felt defeated. He realized his window had closed and accepted his failures. Just a hunch.

 

Yes, but I don't think the offer is going to be as strong now. Boston was probably willing to pay a little extra if it meant having George on their roster for a deep playoff run this season. Now, there will still be doubts as to whether he'll sign an extension with them.

 

i don't know, but I remember Pritchard taking part in analytics conferences.

Bird wasn't somehow anti-stats though. He was someone who delegates heavily. He gave a lot of power to lieutenants, and some of them, like Pritchard or Vogel, seemed very pro-analytics. Especially Vogel, he built that team around newest advanced stats ideas of that time.

Bird also never drafted a player that Pacers doctors didn't greenlight. There are folks on Pacers forums who are ex-coach, scout and such, know people within the organization and used to say how Bird passed on some guys he loved because of what other members of the staff thought.
My opinion of Bird, generally, is that he's the opposite of stubborn or closed-minded.
Although he did seem more hands-on than usual in the last couple of years. Maybe that's what burnt him out. Or maybe it's his health again, he's had serious issues for years, he quit because of it before. Maybe he'll rest and be back, who knows, wouldn't be the first time.

 

Maybe, maybe not. If the Pacers now decide to trade PG, several other teams can line up with the Celts and they can decide on the best offer.

I can't really blame Bird for not pulling the trigger in the heat of the trade deadline.

 

We should also consider that Ainge "probably" low balled him (and Forman for Butler)