By: Dustin Chapman

Andrew Perna of RealGM.com reports that the Indiana Pacers do not anticipate forward Jermaine O’Neal to opt out of his contract this summer.

The Pacers have no reason to believe that franchise forward/center Jermaine O’Neal will exercise the early-termination option in his contract this summer.

“Jermaine hasn’t given us any indication that he will opt out,” David Morway, Indiana’s new General Manager, told RealGM in an exclusive interview on Tuesday night.

“We don’t anticipate that he will, but we also feel as though he’d give us notice. It would have a huge impact on what we do in free agency, if only because of the amount of money that would be freed up.”

O’Neal is owed nearly $20 million next season.

O’Neal, a 12-year NBA veteran, did not put together a strong season in his injury plagued 2007-2008 campaign. The five-time All-Star appeared in just 42 of Indiana’s 81 games, a product of a severe left knee injury he has battled for over a year’s time. In just under 29 minutes per game, O’Neal held underwhelming averages of 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per outing, marking his lowest numbers since becoming a Pacer in the summer of 2000.

At this stage of his career, which appears to be initiating its downfall, it may be borderline insane for O’Neal to turn down the approximate $44.4 million that is owed to him over the course of the next two years. The unreliable soon-to-be 30-year-old inevitably will not find a franchise willing to match those figures. Finding a team willing to match even 50% of that salary would be brutally astonishing.

Indiana’s front office should not be feeling anything short of a convincing aura of regret regarding the Jermaine O’Neal situation. Executive Director of Basketball Operations Larry Bird has annually been reluctant to part ways with his 6′11” star via trade, and it looks as though he has waited far too long. Instead of shipping O’Neal to another organization and bringing in pieces necessary to begin a much-needed rebuilding operation, Bird and Donnie Walsh, who recently left Indiana for New York, has remained loyal to a fault and it has come back to haunt them. Here we are, beginning the offseason of 2008, with a banged up Jermaine O’Neal who possesses trade value diminished to the point where it may be a waste of time to shop him altogether.

A notion of additional patience with the O’Neal situation was never fathomed in the past, but it may be the intelligent route to take at this stage. As previously mentioned, his value in the trade market is as low as it has ever been throughout his career, meaning that the next time he might be an attractive option will be when his contract is in the midst of its expiration. That expiration follows the 2009-2010 season, which is conveniently the same year that guard Jamaal Tinsley’s deal comes off the books.

At that point, the Pacers may finally be in the driver’s seat during trade discussions. Indiana needs to choose a direction as soon as possible, but it may come down to yet another apathetic year of waiting for Pacers fans. As tough as this may sound, it’s well-worth the wait.

By: Dustin Chapman

Similar to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Indiana Pacers are in the deep end of mediocrity. Throughout the past three seasons, they’ve made the postseason just once, in which they were eliminated in the first round by the New Jersey Nets. The last two years have been as apathetic as can be, as the club has combined those two seasons with a 71-93 overall record. They’ve inherited an array of long, unwarranted contracts to go along with annual health issues, a coaching change, and some off-court drama (in which they’ve attempted to clean up on). They have not been a truly competitive basketball team since 2004, and their young talent isn’t exactly the cream of the crop. Danny Granger shows a great deal of promise, but the word “mediocrity” sums up the rest of the bunch as well.

For the past few years, Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh, who recently jumped ship for New York, have failed to put together a plan. They are virtually directionles. They’ve waited far too long on the Jermaine O’Neal situation, and have kept him in town long enough to destroy the trade value he once had.

It’s time for Larry Bird and company to man up, choose a direction, and stick with a plan in order to revive this franchise. With their lack of tradeable assets, it’s nearly inevitable that they must put together a “fire sale” and start from scratch.

Whether they will decide to go that route or not is up in the air, but they’ve stalled long enough. It’s time to form a plan ASAP. Not next year, not “we’ll see how this works out.” None of that. Big decisions must be made right now.

If management fails to provide a turning point as quickly as this summer, maybe it’s time to reevaluate the orchestrator. God blessed Larry Bird as a basketball player and a basketball mind, but for whatever reason, he has not gotten it done as a President of Basketball Operations. “Larry Legend” has always noted that his goal is to deliver a championship to the state of Indiana. It may not be berserk to suggest that the way to go about doing that might be to simply step down.