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OJ Mayo

Paces Use Amnesty Provision to Waive James Posey

by Jared Wade on December 12, 2011 at 2:33 pm · 2 comments

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

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The Pacers Are Pursuing OJ Mayo

by Jared Wade on December 11, 2011 at 5:44 pm · 2 comments

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.

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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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UPDATE: Larry Bird on Failed Trade: Deal Pulled Off the Table with Two Minutes to Go

by Jared Wade on February 26, 2011 at 5:45 pm · 2 comments

Larry Bird is now talking about what happened when his attempted trade with the Memphis Grizzlies for OJ Mayo fell apart just minutes before the trade deadline came and went last Thursday. UPDATE: And it is a different story from the one that Griz owner Michael Heisley was telling the other day. I’m not a logic major, but it seems as though someone here is either misinformed or has pants that are on fire. Apparently I was misreading this based on the Star’s “Bird claims Grizzlies pulled deal off table late” headline. Reporter Jeff Rabjohns has informed me that it was New Orleans that pulled the deal off the table at the last minute. Sorry for the confusion. Here’s the link to the more clearly presented Indy Star piece.

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.

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