reflections
May 6th, 2008 Time To Pick A Direction


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.

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