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Atlanta Hawks

The Best Play of the Pacers Season So Far

by Jared Wade on January 12, 2012 at 4:21 pm · 1 comment

As mentioned on his report card, Roy Hibbert often looked like a man among boys last night against the Hawks lineup. As Bret LaGree of the Hawks blog Hoopinion noted, this was in part due to the fact that Al Horford left the game early with an injury. He wrote that, in the third quarter, with Jason Collins starting at center in the play of Horford, “the Pacers ran the Hawks out of the gym, partially on the basis of Hibbert not having to worry about Collins and being free to protect the rim.”

Of course, there was a reason Horford left the game. And it was due to his shoulder getting banged up when Hibbert and Paul George sent a tag-team swat team after two of his shot attempts.

The result was the easily the best Pacers sequence so far this young season. Horford gets swatted, regathers and gets swatted again. Vlad Rad picks up the loose ball and gets his attempt block nearly before it even leaves his hands.

Then it’s off to the races the other way as Paul George adeptly leads a break, but slows it down rather than forcing a drive (perhaps due to the fact that he, not so surprisingly, almost lost his dribble). He finds a posting Hibbert, who had hustled down the court and looks poised to a make a move. But instead sees a wide-open David West cutting through the lane for to turn the Indiana power-play (Horford was lying on the floor at the other end) into a dunk.

Ball movement city.

* UPDATE: Didn’t know about the severity of Al’s injury when originally posting. In the grand scheme of things, this play really sucks. Al Horford tore his left pec during the exchange and will now be out up to 4 months. Crappy, crappy stuff. No insensitivity intended. Was unaware.

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Jamal Crawford Turned Down the Pacers Offer

by Jared Wade on December 13, 2011 at 6:19 pm · 8 comments

Larry Bird wasn’t willing to offer much to sign free agent Jamal Crawford.

And Bird won’t be getting Crawford, according to Indianapolis Star beat writer Mike Wells.

Jamal Crawford has turned down the Pacers 2 yr, $10 million down offer, according to a source

This isn’t altogether shocking. Bird offered Jamal a salary that was less than half what he made last season. At 31, coming off a year in which he was less productive than he had been since 2003, Jamal couldn’t have been expecting to make $10 million per year ever again. Particularly not if he expected some team to give him three- or four-year guaranteed contract.

But he certainly could not have been prepared to accept a short, two-year deal (the second being a player option) that would make his salary lower than it has been at any point since 2004. It’s hard to believe anyone who had other offers would be impressed by the eagerness with which Bird tried to sign Crawford.

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Jamal Crawford Is Not Going to the Knicks

by Jared Wade on December 11, 2011 at 4:01 pm · 1 comment

A new, enlightening report from Michael Cunningham at the Atlanta Journal Constitution has all but ruled out the Knicks as a destination for Jamal Crawford. In order for New York to get the guard, they would either need Crawford to sign for the “mini mid-level exception” of $2.5 million (a figure likely too low for him to accept) or have the Hawks facilitate a sign-and-trade deal.

But due to league trade rules involving teams over the salary cap (which both New York and Atlanta are), that second option could only happen if the Hawks were willing to take back a player who earns around as much as Crawford signs for.

And they are unwilling to do that.

GM Rick Sund said the Hawks still “have never been a taxpaying team and our goal is not to pay the tax,” an approach that essentially means the team is out of the running to re-sign Jamal Crawford or use the free-agent guard in a sign-and-trade transaction.

“It’s going to be difficult to sign Jamal in a straight signing transaction,” Sund said. “We are looking at other alternatives, of course. You always look at everything but it’s not nearly as easy as if you had four months. Four days instead of four months makes it more it more difficult.”

Cunningham elaborates.

So all those factors mean a sign-and-trade with the Knicks is out. And, obviously, the Hawks also have no chance of re-signing Crawford or any other free agent making more than the minimum as long as they decline to pay the tax.

This certainly increases the chances — at least logistically from a supply-and-demand perspective — that Larry Bird, who has shown interest in Crawford, follows up his David West acquisition by inking a deal for the former Sixth Man of the Year.

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Pacers Remain Interested in Jamal Crawford, But the Instant Offense Guard May Be Headed to New York

by Jared Wade on December 11, 2011 at 1:24 pm · 2 comments

Anyone who has watched the Pacers extensively over the past few years should know that the team has one flaw that trumps all else: they can’t score. Last season, their defense vacillated between elite and very good. But they could never consistently put points on the board, something highlighted by their inability to score for minutes at a time during crunch time against the Bulls in the playoffs. Had they just been able to get a couple of points here and there, they likely would have made that series much more than the five-game gentleman’s sweep that it became.

Low and behold, it has been no surprise to hear the Pacers name continually linked to Jamal Crawford, by far the best scoring guard in this year’s free agent market. If he were to join the team, he immediately would become the team’s best player at creating his own shot, something that it is currently devoid of.

Unfortunately, it seems as though the former Sixth Man of the Year wants to play for the Knicks. Playing alongside Carmelo, Amaré and Tyson Chandler — not too mention for Mike D’Antoni — sounds like a whole bunch of fun, so this isn’t particularly shocking. Plus, Jamal used to play in NYC once upon a time. The Hawks, which were reportedly once against helping facilitate another team’s deal for Crawford, are now trying to work something out with the Knicks in which they receive some asset back for the departing guard, according to the New York Post.

Still, like with the David West scenario, the Pacers are in the background should that deal not go down.

Here is a two-part report from Indianapolis Star beat writer Mike Wells on the Pacers attempt to acquire Crawford.

Part one.

Agent Andy Miller on Crawford’s situation: “We’ve had interest in Indiana. We’ve made it clear they’re one of the teams we’re considering.”

Part two.

Miller continued: “But there hasn’t seemed to be much movement so we’ve had to look at other opportunities as well.”

Wells is also saying that Larry Bird’s interest in Memphis guard OJ Mayo persists. As you may remember, the Pacers seemingly had a deal for Mayo cemented at the trade deadline last year. All the major media outlets were reporting that a trade centering around Josh McRoberts for Mayo was a done deal.

Then it all fell apart, with differing parties reporting different reasons. This team pulled out or that team wouldn’t include so and so. It was a bunch of he said/he said.

But now it seems like the two teams may be revisiting a similar deal. Memphis wants Josh, who Indiana seemingly has no interest in retaining. And Larry Bird could help them get him with a sign-and-trade deal that brings back Mayo. OJ isn’t quite as gifted as a scorer as Crawford, but he can get his own shot to some degree. At least more so than Danny Granger or Paul George and probably more so than George Hill.

So he makes a good back-up plan.

Which seems to be the theme of this free agent season for the Pacers: back-up plans for back-up plans of back-up plans for back-up plans.

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