At the trade deadline in 2011, Indiana almost had a huge deal in their hands: Memphis Grizzlies shooting guard OJ Mayo in exchange for Josh McRoberts. Imagine where the Pacers could have been this year if they had Mayo? Maybe they could have beaten the Miami Heat?

However, the deal reportedly fell apart when the third team needed for cap purposes (New Orleans) backed out. Another deal was seemingly close to completion this past December, but reportedly fizzled after David Morway tried forcing Brandon Rush into the trade.

Regardless, the Pacers have clearly demonstrated their interest in Mayo specifically. And as they enter this year’s off-season, they are reportedly looking for solid role players. Mayo, who is a restricted free agent this summr, could be one. He is a solid shooter, can create his own shot off the dribble, and has shown an ability to play pretty good defense at time.

As such, he is likely to draw multiple suitors. Will the Pacers try to land him again?

In my opinion, I believe they should. There are really not a lot of guys on Indiana’s roster now who can create their own shot. Mayo is one of those guys. He can hit three. He’s learned to hit the big shots since he first stepped foot on an NBA court. The want is obvious. The big question is how much money they would want to spend on him.

Mayo isn’t a superstar by any means. However, many teams are looking to get their hands on him and lure him away from Memphis. The Chicago Bulls, for example, reportedly have been interested and there are likely other teams that may be willing to overpay him. Meanwhile, you can bet on the fact the Grizzlies won’t overpay and just let him walk.

How much, then, is Mayo worth? I would probably say between $7 to $10 million per year. Would Indiana even take the chance? They’ll likely have to pay Roy Hibbert around a $12 million annual salary. They may have enough cap space to also add Mayo, but is it worth it? Especially with George Hill’s free agency also pending this summer.

And that is where the questions of trades come up. Darren Collison has been involved of speculation of being traded on draft day. Adding to the fact of Kevin Pritchard being the new GM, and his past of making trades, there’s a good chance he is at least considering moving up.

However, would it be ideal to trade Danny Granger? We all know Granger was a bit overpaid when the Pacers re-signed after his career-season in the 2008-09 season. He’s been involved into trade scenarios since then, but Larry Bird has kept him out of it. However, if Indiana would want to get a guy like Mayo and pay him well, it seems like Granger could be the odd man out.

With that, Mayo would be slotted into the two-guard while Paul George moves back to his natural position of small forward. Personally, I think there is a problem with that. I still think George isn’t quite ready yet, and it showed during the Miami series. Indiana still needs Granger, no doubt, so it looks like we can keep those trades out of the way.

So really, if the Pacers do try signing Mayo, they may not have enough cap room to get anyone else after that. He would be huge help, but the question is how much would Indiana pay to get him.

As previously noted, Larry Bird didn’t open the check book for free agents this offseason. Sticking to that strategy, he was unable to do much aside from signing one starter, David West, and re-signing one key reserve, Jeff Foster.

Among other non-happenings, Bird missed out on Nene, Tyson Chandler, Marc Gasol, Thaddeus Young, Jamal Crawford, Shane Battier and Caron Butler. Additionally he let Mike Dunleavy and TJ Ford walk, and did the same with Josh McRoberts rather than pushing harder to include him in the much-bandied-about sign-and-trade deal to acquire OJ Mayo from the Grizzlies.

In many people’s opinion, however, this is a good thing. This year’s free agent market wasn’t as over-inflated as it normally is, but that’s likely because there just wasn’t really anything other than role players and flawed pieces available. A few guys did get way too much money (shout out to Kwame) and Bird was unwilling to out-bid his competition for the few guys he did reportedly have real interest in.

Tom Ziller praised the Legend for this approach, listing the Pacers among his “winners” of free agency.

The Pacers had the rare sane, successful offseason while overpaying for no one. Indiana picked up David West on a reasonable two-year deal, providing a huge upgrade at power forward and putting Tyler Hansbrough in a back-up role he’s more suited to play. The team also retained the valuable if under-recognized Jeff Foster. But the best decisions Indiana made were knowing when to say when no on Nene and Jamal Crawford. Each pushed their price upward with multiple teams in hot pursuit; the Pacers bowed out before the market reached its apex in both cases. Perhaps the team won’t improve as much as fans would like in 2011-12, but in the long run, skipping those contracts will likely work out just fine.

All this plus Bird got George Hill in the draft.

As Ziller notes, fans will likely be someone unfulfilled going into this season given their tendency to primally lust after free agent signings. But it’s quite likely that they will feel much better about 2013 and 2014 due to the fiscal discipline Indiana showed this offseason.

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.

According to Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the discussions regarding a deal centered on the Pacers acquiring Grizzlies guard OJ Mayo in a sign-and-trade for free agent forward Josh McRoberts have ceased. Memphis officials have told OJ to stop worrying about what he hears in the media; he isn’t going anywhere.

Proposed Mayo-McRoberts deal is officially dead, source tells the CA. Mayo told this morning that he won’t be traded anywhere.

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star has confirmed.

Memphis has decided not to trade guard OJ Mayo, according to sources.

We don’t know why the talks ended. Perhaps Larry Bird pulled out because he has found another deal he likes better that we have yet to hear about? (Jamal Crawford?) Perhaps Bird was playing too much hard ball, demanding that Memphis takes back Brandon Rush. Or, as Tillery mentions, perhaps it had to do with the Grizzlies now seeing Mayo as a little less expendable after some recent injuries have cut into their guard depth.

Mayo decision comes as X[avier] Henry sits out of practice today due to sprained right ankle. S[am] Young also hasnt practiced due to ankle injury

Stuff like that could matter more in a 66-game schedule, so it may indeed be a factor.

As for the former Carmel High School standout, Tillery thinks he is now headed to Los Angeles.

Griz looking at signing McRoberts as UFA but McRoberts likely to take more money, bigger role from Lakers

If this is the case, it begs the question of why McRoberts wasn’t just headed to Los Angeles this whole time. Seems like a better situation and, ya know, everyone wants to go there these days. Guess he thought Memphis — the team or the town — could have been a good fit. Either way, it would be nice to see how he can fit into the Lakers front court.

* Correction: Changed the title from “Seven Degrees” to “Six Degrees” after realizing I’m dumb.

One of the new components of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement was a one-time “get out of jail free” card for teams. This “amnesty” provision meant that a team could waive one player and not have his salary count against its salary cap any longer. They still have to pay the guy; its just doesn’t matter for cap purposes.

The Pacers have opted to use their amnesty on near-fossilized forward James Posey.

Pose is a pro’s pro: a gamer with a few championship rings and a litany of big playoff performances. But he is on his last legs, has no on-court role with this franchise and makes about $7.6 million more than he is worth. He was a jump-shooting pylon last year. Of the 81 shots he made last year, he was assisted on 74 of them, good for 91.4% of his made field goals. What this illustrates is a stunning lack of ability to create offense for himself and simply a lack of movement. By contrast, Danny Granger — a scorer who is widely maligned for his inability to create his own shots — was only assisted on 51% of his made shots. (For reference, a true creator like Dwyane Wade has spent most of his career with fewer than 30% of his shots coming off of assists.)

Another glaring stat is the 15 free-throw attempts Posey took during his 839 minutes on the court in 2010-11. That’s one free throw attempt every 56 minutes on the court. For reference of how inactive you have to be on offense to have such a poor foul-generating rate, Jeff Foster took a free throw every 20 minutes last season.

Now, I’m not trying to kick the guy why he is down. I’ve always loved James Posey as both a player and a personality in this league. I’m just trying to show Pacers fans that there is no downside here. Posey was not going to get any minutes — certainly not any productive ones — and with a $7.6 million salary, he had no value in the trade market.

What this does do for the team, however, is give them nearly $8 million in cap room.

Perhaps the timing of this means that the Pacers may be about to acquire OJ Mayo from Memphis. The chatter from NBA reporters is that the Grizzlies are receptive to sending back Mayo in a sign-and-trade deal for Josh McRoberts, but Larry Bird wants them to also take Brandon Rush, presumably for salary reasons and because the Pacers roster is getting cluttered on the wing. And Memphis doesn’t really want either Rush or his contract. Or both.

Either way, the decision to amnesty Posey, says Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star, may mean Bird is softening on the Rush aspect of the deal and is making room to both take on Mayo’s $5.9 million deal and still have flexibility under the cap.

Or it could just mean they were planning to do this all along (Posey hasn’t been in training camp) and this was the day they signed the paperwork. Either way, it gives the Pacers another $8 million to do something if they so choose.

And as we keep finding out, flexibility is fun.

* This post has been updated to correct Posey’s salary. It previously was listed as $6.9 million

As speculated about earlier, the Pacers indeed are reportedly gauging Memphis’ interest in swapping OJ Mayo for Josh McRoberts, who the Pacers would sign and then trade to the Grizzlies. Mark Stein confirmed that discussions are occurring.

Sources also tell ESPN that, as @MikeWellsNBA predicted, Pacers and Grizzlies again engaged Josh McRoberts/OJ Mayo talks. This time S-and-T

Between this and the Jamal Crawford news, it seems that Bird still a few irons in the fire.

But since the Rockets reportedly sent a 4 year/$55 million offer to Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, it would seem that slain rapper Memphis GM Chris Wallace has more important matters to address than trying to acquire Josh McRoberts. Popular opinion among NBA insiders is that the Grizzlies will match that offer sheet if Gasol signs it, but they obviously will be making phone calls and deliberating on the future of one of the franchise’s cornerstones for the immediate future.

So while I wouldn’t expect any immediate news on the possibility of OJ Mayo bringing his two-way talents to the Pacers’ back court rotation, that is not necessarily a sign that it won’t happen. Just stay tuned on the Gasol news and then expect to hear more about Mayo.

UPDATE: Mike Wells is on the case. And he has reported the following.

Another element in the Pacers pursuit of OJ Mayo is that they also want to send Brandon Rush to Memphis w McRoberts, according to a source.

This, he notes, could be a problem for Memphis.

That could be a potential hold up in the deal because the Grizzlies are stockpiled with guards.

If Bird really wants Mayo, I doubt this would be deal-breaker, but it certainly adds a wrinkle.

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.

Jeff Rabjohns reported the following for the Indianapolis Star.

“I was on the phone with Memphis. We had a deal with five minutes to go. At two minutes, they (New Orleans) pulled the deal, and it didn’t happen,” Bird said, referring to the 3 p.m. deadline set by the NBA.

Larry elaborated further about the opportunity to get Mayo and “not give up a ton” — a characterization that must make Josh McRoberts, Brandon Rush and Solomon Jones (the three guys who would have been shipped out) feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“We felt we had the opportunity to get a player who would help us and not give up a ton, even though I like Josh and Brandon,” Bird said. “It’s unfortunate it had to be a three-team deal because when you get more teams in it, anything that happen.

“It’s tough on me because we worked three days to get a deal done, and they (New Orleans) pull it off the table with two minutes to go. That’s pretty hard to take.”

Now the Pacers look ahead to the summer. Barring the new Collective Bargaining Agreement capping all salaries at “one peanut butter sandwich with a team option for jelly,” the Pacers should have plenty of money to target some free agents. We’ll see how that goes, but I’ve increasingly become enamored with the idea of Zach Randolph playing power forward for Indiana.

The only responses from Brandon and Josh on the matter were typical, “say the right thing” fodder, although Rush again dropped a similar line to the one he gave me last night regarding his thoughts on what the front office has in store for his future in Indiana.

“They tried twice. I’m thinking they’re going to try again. But it’s the NBA. Everybody gets traded.”

The only real surprise here is that neither Brandon or Josh used the phrase “it is what it is.”

Good call, Dime magazine. Also, I love how every other cover line is a person’s name aside from “Kenyon’s Ink,” which now that I think about it, should be something K-Mart can claim as a dependent on his tax return no matter what Ron Paul thinks. Also Part II, I bet reading this issue with posterity would be hilarious. Just look at those names.

Memphis Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley said Thursday that he and his team did not pull out of a proposed deal that would have sent guard O.J. Mayo to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for power forward Josh McRoberts and a first-round pick.

“Indiana was not able to get it all together,” Heisley said in a telephone interview. “People are going to say I have reservations (about the proposed trade). I think from our point of view, we were interested in the trade going forward. It was a very, very difficult conversation for us. It took us a long time to decide. We were getting a lot of players at the two and three position and we were getting a little skinny at the four. We had three candidates we were looking at and when we decided on one, O.J. had to be part of that trade. It wasn’t that we were anxious to get rid of him.”

Like I said … not a lot of insight into exactly why Indy wasn’t able to “get it all together.” My entirely speculative guess is that it has to do with the fact that the NBA trading deadline is insane and phones are ringing off the hook all day for basically every GM in the league. Meanwhile, Memphis was also busy acquiring Shane Battier and dealing away Hasheem Thabeet so it’s not exactly like the Pacers had their full attention.

And according to Indy Star Pacers beat writer Mike Wells, there was a third team involved, New Orleans, and they were the one that pulled out at the last minute.

Call was logged at 3:01 p.m. and Orleans was involved, but they were the team that pulled out, according to a source. Rush was going to N.O.

The fact that the call came after the 3:00 pm deadline may have also been a factor here, as multiple sources were implying earlier. Who knows? Certainly not an idiot with no league sources such as myself.

UPDATE: Here’s more from the Grizzlies side on what exactly happened, the following coming from reporter Ronald Tillery of Memphis’ Commercial Appeal. (via SBnation)

After spending all of the time and energy it took to convince Griz owner Michael Heisley to agree to trade O.J. Mayo to Indiana, the deal fell through because the teams didn’t make the NBA’s 2 p.m. deadline.

Here’s why: Memphis and Indiana agreed to swap Mayo for forward Josh McRoberts and a first-round pick but Indiana insisted on making it a three-way trade to make the deal work financially.

In the final minutes leading up to the deadline, the New Orleans Hornets pulled out. Indiana recruited another team to keep it a three-team transaction. And there’s the rub. By the time the “other” third team got involved and everything was agreed upon everyone missed the deadline.

The NBA trade deadline is a hard one. Missing it by 30 seconds might as well be missing it by 5 hours.

The fact that Indiana “insisted” on tailoring the deal to their financial needs makes it seem that, yeah, the Pacers dropped the ball here more so than it just being too difficult to work things out with Memphis. Then again, how could this work financially with just OJ and McRoberts? OJ is making $4.5 million while Josh is making less than $1 million. The salaries wouldn’t work even if the Pacers threw in Brandon Rush, who was reportedly headed to the Hornets in the three-team proposal.

Once again … Who knows?

I’m sure we will hear from the Pacers front office on the particulars eventually. (UPDATE: Bird is being evasive so far.) In the meantime, I rather enjoyed Indy fan Bubbamania’s reaction to the fact that New Orleans may have been the saboteur in this deal happening.

NBA screws pacers again, since they run N.O

Could might be, Bubba. Could might be.

Lastly, Roy Hibbert’s got jokes, too.