For the rest of the game, the Pacers played with Darren Collison, Hill, Paul George and Danny Granger on the floor together. Vogel would send Hibbert back in — with 2:19 left, his team’s lead down to just one point and the Kings shooting two free throws — but it wasn’t for a perimeter player. Roy relieved West, leaving the team with still just one big man on the floor.

In the previous post, I didn’t get into out West’s take on the matter, which Mike Wells of the Indy Star touched on, because (a) I’m not sure he is correct here since Hibbert was playing like garbage and I didn’t want the views of someone much smarter than me about basketball to supersede my point that Roy was playing poorly against the zone, and (b) this coming account by Sam Amick is seemingly out-of-character for West and deserves being fully highlighted on its own since he’s questioning his coach.

I’m sure you don’t care about my editorial choices, however, so let’s get to the point: here’s what West had to say about it to Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated after the game.

How bad was the Pacers’ mood both during and after they melted down in a 92-88 loss at Sacramento on Wednesday? One of the team’s consummate pros, David West, acted more like a pro wrestler.

When coach Frank Vogel opted to match the small-ball approach of new Kings coach/Don Nelson prodigy Keith Smart late in a fourth quarter in which the Pacers were outscored 26-8, a helpless and frustrated West unleashed a right cross on his folding chair while repeatedly yelling, “I knew it!” He was exasperated through each and every late possession while sitting the final four minutes, watching the Kings’ zone stifle the Pacers one minute and covering his eyes with his towel while shaking his head the next.

What he “knew,” he would later contend, is that things would have turned out differently if the big men were allowed to finish the game.

“It was kind of a last-ditch effort to junk the game up, and we [played] right into their hands,” West said.

And somewhere in retirement, Nelson — the godfather of small ball whose 2006-07 Warriors famously upset top-seeded Dallas in the first round with that style — was smiling. The Pacers were nothing short of shocked, with players trying to make sense of why and how it all happened among each other in the locker room afterward.

“We had some lineups we’re not used to playing with, and that cost us some buckets on the offensive end,” said West, who signed a two-year, $20 million deal before the season. “They were comfortable and knew what they were doing with their lineups and they were able to close the game. … Late in the game you always want to be on the floor and feel like you can help.”

West is wiser than most, and the level of his frustration was clearly based on the big picture. While the Pacers are still off to a great start at 9-4, seven of their next nine games are on the road and include matchups against the Lakers, Bulls, Magic (twice), Celtics and Mavericks.

Last year, the Pacer players post-game comments were always dripping with veiled disdain for Jim O’Brien’s personnel choices. This came as no shock. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to anything O’Brien was doing, and it appeared as though he was just mixing and matching player combinations at random. If anything, some of his playing-time decisions looked to be based on little more than “screw that guy.”

So far, there has been nothing (that I can recall) but the opposite expressed for Vogel. And that makes this is a particularly interesting public take from West, who is — unmaliciously but certainly — questioning the lineups that his coach chose to close this game out with.

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Not so long ago, we looked at the fact that the Pacers starting lineup was the second most effective unit in the NBA. This was encouraging, especially since both David West and Danny Granger have been individually stinking up the gym when it comes to making shots. The other interesting aspect is how much better this unit is playing than last year’s starting group — which featured  four of the same five guys — did.

Last year, when the Pacers transitioned to the “starting lineup of the future” — Darren Collison, Paul George, Danny Granger, Tyler Hansbrough, Roy Hibbert — the team improved. But that group struggled. And it hasn’t been doing much better this year. Now, the only difference between the lineup above and the new starting lineup is the substitution of West for Hansbrough.

But the difference in results has been glaring.

• Last season, Collison, George, Granger and Hibbert played with Hansbrough for 329 minutes. In total, they were outscored by 19 points, or about 2.8 points per 48 minutes. On offense, they scored 104.9 points 100 possession while allowing 108.1 per 100 — meaning they were outscored by 3.2 points per 100.

• This season, Collison, George, Granger and Hibbert have played with David West for 165 minutes. They’ve outscored their opponents by 64 points — or a thoroughly ridiculous 19 points per 48 minutes. On offense, they have scored 111.9 per 100 possessions while allowing 92.7 per 100 — meaning they’ve outscored their opponents by 19.1 points per 100.

• Some things have changed this year. Collison, George and Hibbert are all more experienced for one. And this disparity is probably partially affected by Indiana’s schedule so far. However, last year’s starting lineup (DC/PG/Danny/Tyler/Roy) has been used sparingly this year (only 24 minutes). And it’s been a train wreck. They’ve been outscored by 11 points (over 22 points per 48 minutes), and scored only 85.4 per 100 possessions while allowing 104 points per 100 — being outscored by 18.6 points per 100.

• Over the two seasons combined, that means the the starting unit with West substituted for Tyler is 8.3 points better in offensive efficiency and 15.1 points better in defensive efficiency.

• Tyler’s numbers are somewhat concerning. Of the eight Pacers players who have seen consistent minutes so far this season (the starters, Tyler, George Hill, and Dahntay Jones), only Tyler (-1.7) and Dahntay (-11.7) have overall negative ratings (offensive efficiency minus defensive efficiency) during their time on the court. Granger has posted the best number (+12.9) followed by Collison (+11.3) and West (+8.9). Some of this likely can be attributed to the fact that Hansbrough has played 159 of his 308 minutes alongside Dahntay. During his time playing with Jones, Tyler is -5.0. In his other 149 minutes, he’s been +1.7. Still, overall, the team’s offense efficiency is 9.9 points worse with Tyler on the floor, and the defensive efficiency is 3.8 points worse.

It’s very early so we can’t read too much into such stats at this point, but the numbers beat up Tyler pretty hard in a relatively small sample size. But if we glance a little further, it seems that Dahntay may be Typhoid Mary here.

Consider these numbers:

• In the 122 minutes George Hill has played with Dahntay, the Pacers have scored 93.8 points per 100 possessions while allowing 111.3 points per 100 — good for a 17.5 rating per 100.

• By contract, in 156 minutes Hill has played without Dahntay, Indy has scored 102.1 points per 100 while allowing 84.8 per 100 — good for a +17.3 rating per 100. And during those 156 minutes, 100 have been with Tyler on the floor. When Hill and Tyler play together with Dahntay on the bench, the Pacers offense sucks (scoring only 93 points per 100) but their defense is strong (allowing just 85 points 100). Their overall net rating is +8 per 100.

Lastly, let’s look at some George Hill splits.

• He has played 101 minutes with West, and the overall numbers are positive (+4.8 per 100), but not great. But, 36 minutes also featured Dahntay on the floor, and those units posted a negative overall rating of 51.9 points per 100. In the other 65 minutes the offense (116.4 points per 100) and defense (83 points per 100) were both stellar.

• The Pacers haven’t exactly hummed when Hill has played point guard. In his 117 minutes at the one spot, the offense drops to 84.1 per 100 and the defense heads north to 103.0 per 100. Dahntay, who has been on the court 76 of the minutes Hill has run the team, isn’t really the factor on the offensive production side, where there’s almost no difference. Defensively, however the team is much worse — 110.1 per 100 in 76 Dahntay-filled minutes vs. 90.2 in 41 Dahntay-less minutes. I should note that these 117 minutes do include the times when Hill has been paired with Lance Stephenson, times when it is kind of unclear as to who is actually running the point. Interestingly, in 54 minutes when Hill has been paired with Lance in the backcourt, the Pacers are positive (+1.8 per 100), but not impressive (with an offensive efficiency of 93.5 and a defensive efficiency of 91.7).

• With Hill at the 2, the Pacers have been a juggernaut. In his 161 minutes playing shooting guard, they have scored 109.7 points per 100 and only allowed 91.2 per 100 — good for a +14.6 rating.

Based on this, it seems to me that not landing Jamal Crawford or OJ Mayo might work out reasonably well as long as Hill continues to get a lot of run at the 2. If you add the time with the Hill/Stephenson backcourt, that’s a 105.3 offensive efficiency and a 91.3 defensive efficiency in 214 minutes. It’s very hard to like this offense overall. But all this show major promise from Hill and West.

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The numbers certainly don’t suggest that the “West-as-screener in pick-and-roll” has benefitted the team. According to mySynergySports, if you look at plays that West finishes (those that end in a shot, free throws or a turnover), he only converts to the tune of 0.67 points per possession. When it comes to efficient production, that’s not only not good — it’s rather gross. On a team-wide basis, Indiana has finished plays out of the PnR 203 times. When the ball-handlers have shot, they have hit just 30.1% of their attempts. When the roll-men finish, it’s hardly better at 35.7%.

But the action, with West involved, was the go-to play play Indiana ran down the stretch in both Toronto wins. And in looking at West’s numbers from Synergy, we need to factor in David’s early-season struggles to actually convert when he gets a good look: through 11 games, he’s shooting a deplorable 48% at the rim and an ugly 37.5% between 3-9 feet. After direct post-ups, the PnR has been the second-most frequent action West has been involved in. So when it comes to both plays I remember watching and simply logic, we can surmise that West has missed some good screen-roll-created shots.

Moreover, the pick-and-roll has freed up so many good looks for Pacers not involved in the action directly. Swing passes and kickouts to the weakside have created so many good looks. And it seems as if this “pick-and-roll as a weapon” mentality is permeating the rest of the team’s collective conscious. I mean, in the second quarter last night, Lance Stephenson and Jeff Foster ran a picture-perfect screen/roll that got a three-point play for Jeff.

For the ball-handlers last season, Tyler Hansbrough was the team’s best pick-and-roll (or, more usually, pick-and-pop) partner. He was OK and could often get an open 17-footer out of the action. But it was never a true threat. This year, with West as the screener — and an improving Hansbrough and often-effective Roy Hibbert — the team has a go-to play that NBA history has proven to be unstoppable when run with precision.

As Indiana runs it, there is still a ton of room for improvement. Again, just look at the numbers above. This isn’t Stockton and Malone by any stretch of the imagination, and almost every team in the NBA has been more effective with their PnRs than the Pacers have so far.

But all the signs are there that this will continue to improve. Under Jim O’Brien, the Pacers were never adept at this most-basic of offensive weapons. So between better familiarity, the ball-handlers learning to make better decisions, and West and Danny Granger not missing so many shots near the hoop, we can presume that better things are ahead.

And even if not, at least Indiana’s pick-and-roll, this one being initiated by a crafty dribble-handoff, produced this David West dunk. I may be forgetting something, but I think this is the best highlight we have seen from West as a Pacer.

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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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“I’m not really a rah-rah type of guy.”

Ironically, that was the most boisterous, energetic thing I heard David West say last night after the team’s win in New Jersey. It was their fourth victory in five games, but questions remain about a team that most analysts expect to show marked improvement in the win column this year. Most disturbingly, the offense — a wall-flower party in 2010-11 that was the main reason Indiana was a sub.500 squad — looked largely unchanged.

One thing most onlookers agree has changed, however, is the team’s culture. It’s not as if last season’s team was a cast full of character concerns. This wasn’t the JailPacers Era roster, featuring late-night scuffles, shoot-outs and illegal substances. It was just, as Adrian Wojnarowski puts it, “sophomoric.” Mind you, I didn’t spend that much time in the Pacers locker room last year; I was probably around post-game on only four or five occasions. And last night was the first time I saw how this year’s team behaves after a game.

But West, in particular, stood out as a beacon of seriousness that contrasted last season’s youthful, not-ready-for-primetime vibe.

Woj explains.

For everything free-agent forward David West has brought to the Pacers – a classic, refined presence – he’s declared his loud, bold arrival in the most subtle of ways: performance over promise, correction over criticism, a raised eyebrow over a harsh word.

“I don’t tolerate a lot of ignorance, and I think guys are starting to figure that out,” West said. “I’m not a preachy guy, but I just try to represent something different in terms of who I am.”

Jeff Foster echoed Woj’s sentiments regarding West’s maturity.

“The way he carries himself in the locker room, the weight room, on the court, there’s such leadership,” Foster said. “He speaks up when he sees something that’s not right, but sometimes it’s just a look. He’s been a huge presence so far.”

West has balanced the floor and balanced the room. So much big talk in the NBA, so many big proclamations, and sometimes the softest, surest, steadiest voice can transform a franchise. Sometimes, everyone just needs to watch a man go to work.

As for balancing the floor, that’s something he also does well. According to some, that was almost not meant to be. Many, including Ray Allen, thought West was headed to the Celtics. Last night, however, David brushed off how much was made of him nearly going to Boston. “I think that was more the media than actuality,” West said. “We were never really that close. I think it was more hype.”

Now that he is in Indiana, he is excited to start changing the on-court culture just as much as anything else.

He is trying to lead by example in that regard as well. West’s production has been unimpressive — for him — early on this year. But he looked like his New Orleans self last night, starting off hot by hitting 5 of his first 7 shots, moving the ball without thinking twice and relishing the contact in the paint that too many bigs who have played in Indiana in recent years have shied away from.

To really pick up his individual play, however, he said needs to get all the back to where he was before the injury. He admitted that he will need a few more weeks to be where he wants to be in terms of conditioning and re-gaining his feel for the nuances of the pro game. Coming off of a knee surgery earlier this year, he has only been really playing for three-and-a-half weeks. He was cautious, but diligent with his recovery regimen. He started rehab within days of the operation and was off crutches within four. But he only really started playing ball again the week before free agency began.

David said has no concerns about the knee itself structurally — be clear of that. But he does know he still needs time to get back to being himself on the court and learning his new teammates. And as that progresses, he believes he will be able to further cement his unselfish, disciplined stamp on this franchise.

“We’re still getting familiar with one another,” said West. “We’re trying to change the culture a little bit in terms of not being so much of a one-on-one oriented team. We’ve got so many guys on this team — anybody can really carry the load offensively on any given night. Being unselfish, being able to make plays for one another, is ultimately going to define this team.”

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All of the team’s primary big men got double-doubles; Roy Hibbert scored 16 with 14 boards, Tyler Hansbrough finished with 16 and 13 off the bench, and offseason pickup David West tallied 11 and 12 in his first game as a Pacer. These guys were just relentless on the glass, and that’s exactly how you out-class your opponent so drastically on a night when you only shoot 36.8% from the floor yourselves.

Nobody personified both ends of this spectrum as much as West.

He struggled to connect from the interior in the first half, missing 6 of the 8 shots he took and blowing several good possessions with his inability to finish. But he didn’t lose focus. He didn’t concede to the fact that it just wasn’t his night. He made it his night. Or, more accurately, he made it his team’s night. Exhibit A: West ended the half with 6 offensive boards (and 9 total).

This stat alone marks a major qualitative difference from the offensive futility we have seen out of this offense in recent years. Too often, Pacer players make a mistake and adopt a “woe is me” attitude. West messed up plenty but instead refused to let a miss be the final outcome of the possession. He went and got the board. He went back up strong. (And he is STRONG.) He re-gathered and kicked it to a teammate in a better position to score. He tried his hardest to atone for his errors. In doing so, David West showed Pacers fans that he is a perfect cocktail of strength, finesse and maturity. He is the mint julep of power forwards.

This (sorry for this word) stick-to-it-iveness represents a non-acceptance of failure that this team has sorely lacked for years. We will see over time if this attitude can permeate the rest of the team, but it was certainly already present from the Pacers new power forward in the first half of the first game he ever played for the franchise.

After the bigs, the best signs of better things to come came from Paul George. Like West, he made his share of mistakes, losing the ball on the first play of the game and making several head-scratching passes, for instance. And like West, he didn’t let these errors get to him. It didn’t seem to be maturity or professionalism that guided his actions, however.

No, Paul George seemed to be spurred by a commitment to aggressiveness. Early on, this new-found mindset was apparent.

Last season, George’s default offensive setting was passivity. He was rarely involved in plays and spent most of his time standing around. When things broke down or — more often — in transition, Pacers fans saw flashes of his instincts and athleticism, but the on-court evidence that he could become a high-level scorer was sparse.

Tonight, on the contrary, George pressed. Less than four minutes in, he found himself in an unfamiliar situation: being the ball-handler in a pick-and-roll at the top of the key. He used the screen and slow-dribbled to his left. Without hesitation, when he saw his man sag, he pulled up from three. He stuck it.

About a minute later, George found himself in the mid-post with the ball. He tried to turn and face but was thwarted and instead spun baseline and took a fadeaway jumper. It wasn’t a great shot and it’s one that the efficiency-is-everything crowd often criticizes guys like Kobe for taking. But George goaded his defender into over-challenging and used his length to be un-phased by the defense. The defender was too aggressive and fouled. Again, this isn’t a great shot, but it represents the new mentality of George. Not only is he now more willing to be aggressive in situations that demand it; he is also willing to try to make something out of nothing.

In the second quarter, he didn’t hesitate on a catch-and-shoot three. By half time, Paul George had scored 10 points to the lead the team. And he did in on just two field goals attempts (hitting the two three-pointers while going a perfect 4-for-4 from the line). The tangible passivity we saw when he had that ball as a rookie seemed gone. The second half, even as the game turned into a laugher, featured George being aggressive enough to be called for a (dubious) offensive foul while attacking the rim and a high-light reel play that perfectly illustrated his potential to emerge as a two-way beast in this league.

He closed out on a jump-shooter taking a long two and used his Stretch Armstrong length to swat the ball out the air like a Scud missile. George wasn’t done though. He caught the carom and took off down court to lead a fast break. The Pacers had numbers and he could have passed it off, likely for an uncontested layup or at least an easy jumper for a teammate. But … nah. He took it right to the cup himself and laid it in.

Hibbert, Tyler, Danny Granger (at times) and even the guards all did a lot tonight that deserves more discussion. But the two main things that will help the Pacers emerge as one of the better teams in the East is David West bringing some offensive punch and Paul George becoming a true threat. Tonight, we saw both of those things.

And that, more than blowing out a team that might be among the worst in the league, is what Pacers fans should be excited about.

Other thoughts

• In addition to all the intangibles bandied about above, there were two reasons Indy was able to win going away despite their 36.8% shooting: they recovered a ton of those missed shots (grabbing 18 offensive boards to Detroit’s 31 defensive boards), and they made their threes (hitting 7 of 15, including 6 of 10 from their starting perimeter players Granger, George and Collison).

• Danny started off shaky but got going a little bit a after a getting fouled while gathering a defensive board. Indy was in the bonus so Danny got to walk down to the other end and hit two free-throws. He hit a pull-back jumper the next trip down the court. He had his ups and downs after that, but looked positively reincarnated on one pick-and-roll. It was the second straight encouraging PnR run by Indy so I’ll start by telling the backstory. On the first play, George dribbled to the left wing off a Hibbert screen and found a rolling Roy with a nice pass at the free-throw line. Two defenders jumped in front of the big fella and he kicked out a perfect pass to Collison in the corner for a three. On this second one, Danny drove hard right towards the rim with Hibbert again being the screen. Granger entered a congested middle but rather than force a tough, contested shot, he dumped the ball to a sneakily rolling Roy, who dunked the ball without dribbling as he was fouled. The one major downside to Granger’s game (other than a few sloppy brainfarts on offense) was that he remains over-interested in deflections, steals and blocks while playing defense. He has retained that swipe-at-anything mentality that fills up the stat sheet but too often comes at the expense of getting good position and forcing his man to simply take a tough shot.

• The Pacers recorded assists on 20 of their 32 field goals. That’s sharing the ball.

• While fighting for a loose ball, Tyler Hansbrough nearly ripped Will Bynum’s arm out of its socket like a GI Joe doll. Bynum was whistled for a foul. This is exactly the guy Indy needs off the bench. Mr. Bro Hands also made a slick little running hook shot at one point and stuck a nice baseline jumper on a kick-over from a driving David West. If Hansbrough and West can both be knock-down shooters from the mid-range, the spacing of this offense has the chance to give Roy Hibbert a ton of one-on-one chances in the post.

• The state of Indiana loves them some George Hill.

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This morning, Indianapolis Star beat writer Mike Wells reported that the team would not be making a decision on David West’s playing status for tonight’s game in Chicago (at 8:00 pm) until after this morning’s shoot around. That practice session has presumably concluded. Yet we still haven’t gotten any word from the team on whether or not he will play.

If not, it means that the team’s new starting power forward, who had his torn ACL surgically repaired this summer, would not make his Pacers debut until the regular season. That isn’t ideal obviously, but the good news is that the reasons for holding him out are, by all official accounts, precautions based on West’s need to improve his conditioning.

West said his surgically-repaired left knee has felt fine — he’s not wearing a brace — during the practices. His biggest issues are getting into game shape and becoming familiar with the offensive and defensive schemes.

“It’s going to take some time, I know that,” West said. “Learning the terminology and some of the particular things that the team wants to do and learning the guys’ tendencies. Every day we have good days of practice we get closer to our goal.”

West added the following comments in a piece by Conrad Brunner that was published today on Pacers.com.

West has looked strong in practice since joining the team as a free agent last week, and he scored 13 points in a 24-minute intrasquad scrimmage during Fan Jam on Sunday at Conseco Fieldhouse. Whether West will play tonight, however, remains to be seen. His surgically repaired knee is not the issue, rather the conditioning time missed in rehab.

“We’ve kind of just been playing it by ear in terms of making sure my conditioning is getting better, and really having a good sense of what’s going on,” West said. “I don’t want to be out there disrupting the flow and the way guys are working. We knew that was going to take some time in terms of guys getting used to me, me getting used to guys and the system.

“I think I’ll be all right. Patience is more just making sure we’re covering all our bases. I don’t want to get out there and be a deer in headlights, just be completely lost. Obviously, that would disrupt the ability of this team to play well and get better. We’ve been going with the flow, playing it by ear, a lot of communication going on. (Monday) was a good day. We’ll see how I feel (Tuesday).”

Stay tuned for the final word on tonight’s starting lineup.

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Many teams are upset about NBA Commissioner David Stern’s decision to not trade Chris Paul to the Lakers. But the nixed deal didn’t just alter the fates of the two teams in Los Angeles and the Houston Rockets. Several other franchises were affected less directly, but still affected enough that they had to alter their plans.

Boston, for example, was in the process of trying to get the Hornets to sign-and-trade them free agent power forward David West. Now, just because the CP3 saga was going on, it doesn’t mean New Orleans were necessarily unable to get involved in a different deal involving West. But team GM Dell Demps seemed hand-cuffed, and it’s quite possible that West and his agent saw the ensuing turmoil and began thinking that relying on the Hornets to facilitate an agreement with the Celtics was more trouble than it was worth.

I don’t know that any of that occurred, mind you, but it seems reasonable that it could have.

Regardless, West, as you know, ended up signing a two-year deal with Indiana rather than going to Boston. And Celtics starting shooting guard Ray Allen doesn’t seem particularly pleased about it. [Emphasis added by me.] (via I Am a GM)

[Ray] Allen first heard of West’s potential interest in Boston last month when Allen was playing golf in Augusta with his private banker, who coincidentally also handled West’s financial affairs.

“He told me how much I would love [West], that he and I were the same kind of guy — cognitive thinkers,” Allen said. “He said West was interested in coming to the Celtics and would be willing to come for less.”

So why does Allen think West had a change of heart?

“Once it got down to the end, I think his ego kicked back in,” Allen said. “He wanted the dollars. I guess it comes down to ‘What is a championship worth to you?’

“Think of all the guys who have made $20 million and could be considered one of the best ever, but they get chided because they never won. We [the Big Three] all had to do less when we won. We’re still taking less to make it work. But it’s worth it. No one can ever say to KG, Paul or me, ‘You guys never got your ring.’”

Theories abound on why West chose the Pacers over the Celtics. Included among them is the notion that since West opted out of a contract that would have paid him $8.5 million, he needed to “save face” among other players (and agents) by not accepting a Celtics contract that included a first year of just under $8 million, even though the average value over the life of the contract would have been higher.

The other factor could be that West preferred a two-year deal so he could re-establish himself as the two-time All-Star he was before he was injured, rather than commit for three years to a team with an uncertain future.

It’s one thing to lose a free agent to Los Angeles. It’s quite another to lose him to Indiana, a franchise that won just 37 games last season and is a small Midwest market that has always struggled to draw high-caliber free agents.

This whole Jackie MacMullen article is worth reading, particularly since it states that West could have made $29 million over three years in Boston — a significantly larger sum than the offer that had been previously reported: a $24-million-over-three-year contract. [Ed note: this sentence was altered cause it initially was written even more poorly than it reads now.]

Because of salary cap restraints, the Celtics could not offer a two-year deal. They were required to acquire West in a sign-and-trade, which means the contract had to be a minimum of three years. In what team and league sources described as a creative but complicated package, the Celtics were prepared to offer West a four-year contract with a buyout that, in the end, amounted to three years and $29 million. In other words, the average of their offer was just under $10 million (about $9.6 million)

This is good news for Pacers fans.

If the 31-year-old David West was significantly concerned about how he would bounce back from his offseason ACL surgery, it stands to reason that he would want to get as much guaranteed money as he could on the open market. If his knee might never fully recover, it would be fiscally prudent for him to try to get that one last, big contract before the wheels fell off. Especially if doing so meant playing next to KG, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen for arguably the most successful franchise in pro sports history.

But he didn’t do that.

He opted to sign only a two-year deal for $10 million per season as opposed to getting a guaranteed third year at almost the same annual salary. To me, this seems like a decision that would only be made by a guy who thinks he will be so productive and healthy for the next two years that, even as a 33-year-old NBA veteran, he will be able to sign another contract to make up for the $9 million he left on the table by not signing with Boston.

His own confidence in the stability of his knee doesn’t mean there is nothing to worry about. But if West did turn down a $29 million deal, he essentially just bet $9 million that his leg is structurally sound. That has to be at least somewhat reassuring for Pacers fans.

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That’s what coach Frank Vogel told Indianapolis Star beat reporter Mike Wells.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel said today that West likely won’t play against the Chicago Bulls at Conseco Fieldhouse on Friday.

“It’s only because the game will just be days after he signed with our team,” Vogel said. “He’s still learning the system and he’s got to improve his conditioning because he was holding himself back some since he was a free agent.”

This is definitely a bummer for fans who hoped to see what the revamped roster, which has added West and George Hill this summer, can do against the Bulls. Although I presume Pacers fans will be more forgiving if Bird goes out and acquires any other players who can’t suit up for the first preseason game.

West is probably eager to play. But he has also enjoyed the extended lockout. It gave him time to recover from the surgery he had to repair his ACL after the devastating knee injury he suffered late last season.

Indiana’s new forward is one of the few players who benefited from the lockout. Last season, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a victory at Utah on March 24. The 31-year-old West had surgery April 12 and was told he’d need six to nine months to recover.

Thanks to the extended break, he will be ready in time for the start of the season.

“For a guy like me, it helped me,” the two-time All-Star said. “It would have been a lot of time missed. I just attacked my rehab and knew this lockout was looming.”

Really, West is an NBA veteran who doesn’t need much preseason seasoning. So this is probably for the best. This season will be truncated. But the way it is being compressed — by squeezing 66 games into four months — is going to be brutal. Even if West’s knee shows no signs of wear and tear during the regular season, the team will likely be best served by letting him sit out a game here and there when the schedule gets overwhelming. Consider it a precautionary investment in the playoffs. Seeding will matter less than normal as all teams likely try to be healthy for the playoff more so than guarantee home court advantage.

If that is also Indiana’s philosophy, giving David a night off in a completely meaningless preseason game is probably a good idea.

No related posts.

This offseason, Larry Bird isn’t showing much flex. He has made some offers, but they are all under his terms. When the terms of the David West acquisition came out (two years, $20 million), I was floored. I had long thought that the Pacers signing West would be a mistake. But that was based off a fear of his knee and age, and — most importantly — presuming it would take a four-year offer north of $38 million to sign the former All-Star forward.

But nabbing a guy of his talent, who may have no fall-off from his knee injury, for only $10 million and only committed for two years? That’s not just a no-brainer. It’s genius. On Twitter, me and Tim were speculating about how Bird might have been able to pull this off.

I thought that the Legend must have brought in Rick, the bald pawn broker from the TV show Pawn Stars. He is a notoriously tough negotiator and my joke was that the conversation between the Rick and David West’s agent went something like this.

David West’s agent: “We’re looking for a four-year offer.”
Pawn Star General Manager: “I was thinking more like two.”
West’s agent: “I can’t go that low. How about three?”
Pawn Star GM: “How about one?”
West agent: ” … … hmmm … … OK. You’ve got a deal.”
Pawn Star GM: “All right. *shakes hands* Let’s go do some paperwork.”

Tim had a different theory: “How did Bird get West for 2 years? Perhaps, ‘I’m Larry ****ing Bird’ occasionally works.”

Reports also had Bird sticking to his guns in the OJ Mayo-for-Josh McRoberts trade discussions. Larry wanted Mayo — has targeted him repeatedly now — but he seemed unwilling, according to reports, to do the deal unless the Grizzlies took back the final year of Brandon Rush’s contract (worth $2.9 million). Now, word is that those talks collapsed because the Grizzlies took Mayo off the table (perhaps due to a significant injury to another of their guards, Xavier Henry). But they were definitely interested in McRoberts and Mayo seemed someone they were willing to part with at the right price. To some degree, we can postulate that Bird simply was not prepared to meet that price.

There may be another reason for that: Jamal Crawford. He has been high on the list of players Bird is reportedly trying to sign this offseason. He would definitely fill what is to me the team’s most glaring need: someone who can create his own shot off the dribble. It is clear why Bird would want to add Jamal’s arsenal of offensive weapons to a perimeter rotation that includes Danny Granger, Paul George, Darren Collison and George Hill. There isn’t a dynamic penetrator or high-level shot-creator among that lot.

So, especially with the Mayo-as-dynamic-ball-handler option now dead, Bird has to be panicking, right? He must be calling Crawford’s agent to sweeten the pot?

Nope.

Mark Stein of ESPN recently reported the following.

Sources w/knowledge of deal say Pacers have two-year offer out to Jamal Crawford worth $10M with out to return to free agency next summer

Again, he is offering a guy who was presumed to be near the top of the free agent crop only two years. The player option next year is a carrot that suggests “I’m not trying to hurt your potential to make money on your own terms over the next few years, but I’m not guaranteeing you the three or four years of financial security you’re seeking.”

And this is with the full knowledge that Jamal has other teams bidding for his services.

Pacers, though, could still be outbid by Wolves, who want Crawford to play 2 guard next to Rubio with Barea completing three-guard rotation

If Bird misses out on both Mayo and Crawford (not to mention the other players we have no evidence he has played hardball with), he may face some criticism. And that will be fair. But wasn’t the opposite approach what everyone blamed the lockout on? Wasn’t in the fiscal irresponsibility of small-market teams signing players to insane contracts half the problem?

I’m sure Larry doesn’t care about that. But he does seem to be setting his price and refusing to budge. He knows these assets on the market have value. But he knows he needs to turn a profit.

He wants to make a deal, but he doesn’t need to make a deal.

He’s the Pawn Stars GM.

Related posts:

1. UPDATE: Larry Bird on Failed Trade: Deal Pulled Off the Table with Two Minutes to Go
2. Pacers Remain Interested in Jamal Crawford, But the Instant Offense Guard May Be Headed to New York
3. Jamal Crawford Is Not Going to the Knicks