Pacers Summer League: Midpoint Report and CRAZY FA signing period.

So the Pacers have won one and last one so far in the Orlando Summer League. We welcomed Oklahoma City to the NBA by spanking them in the first game, and lost to the Demetris Nichols led Chicago Bulls yesterday. Early Calloway has been the most impressive non-contract player on the team and is probably the only guy with a snowball’s chance in hell of making the actual roster other than Williams and Graham. Still, the games have been pretty sloppy so far, and even Calloway committed his fair share of turnovers in the Chicago game. Because the Pacers have a lot of guaranteed money thrown at Travis Deiner, Calloway probably will either sign with another team with serious PG woes or go back to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants next year. If something happens to TJ Ford’s spine again, he’d be a decent player to back up Jack and Deiner and fill up a roster spot. His defense is much better than Deiner’s although Deiner is probably a better floor general and maybe a better shooter.

Summer League Box Scores:

Game 1 vs. Oklahoma City
Game 2 vs. Chicago

There have been a windfall of deals in the NBA recently. Let’s recap some of the minor deals.

-Orlando, one of the most overrated teams in the NBA, signed one of the most overrated free agents on the market in Michael Pietrus. Defense is really Pietrus’ only overwhelming quality, on the offensive end he’s a poor man’s Stephen Jackson. Terrible shooter, very low basketball IQ. Via ESPN.

-Golden State has made an offer to one of my favorite free agents, the floor running, rebounding, shot blocking, crazy dancing Ronny Turiaf of the LA Lakers. The deal is for 4 years, 17 million dollars. The Lakers do have time to match this deal. Via Real GM

-Golden State has also apparently signed Cory Maggette, who is supposedly a pretty good player, but playing for the Clippers, who really knows? Via Real GM

-And, for the big news that you probably know already: Elton Brand has apparently pulled a Carlos Boozer and instead of joining Baron Davis in LA, has agreed to terms to play for the Philadelphia 76ers. A lot of this was the work of David Falk, the most cunning agent in the NBA who got Brand the payday that the market dictated. From a Pacer fan’s perspective, this deal sucks, as it undoubtedly bumps Philly up a tier over us assuming Brand doesn’t get injured. It’s going to be a long, hard road to the playoffs next year.

Let the overpaying begin…

Some general news around the league:

ESPN is reporting that both the Wizards and the Warriors have offered a max contract to Gilbert Arenas. 6 years, 120 million dollars for those weak knees and somewhat questionable attitude? Such is the culture of current GM summer spending habits. To Gil’s credit, while there are questions about those aforementioned knees, he has played 80, 80, and 74 regular season games in the last three years. Let’s just see if he can sustain that into the postseason next year.

Even Donald Sterling has dove into spending so far this offseason. Donald Sterling, in typical fashion, was outbid by the Kings for none other than the highly coveted Beno Udrih. So what does he do? Take it up quite a few notches and enter the much more expensive bidding war for Baron Davis. Oy vey, Donald. Real GM says that a deal could be reached as early as tomorrow.

So, if the Clips pick up Baron tomorrow, I wonder how this affect their commitment toward the recently opted-out Elton Brand?

Even beyond these big name guys who likely are going to get you more wins but never a title, there are plenty of guys in line to be overpaid this offseason. You know it’s inevitable when ESPN has Desagana Diop as the #5 unrestricted FA. I know it seems unlikely that guys like Diop, Kwame Brown, and James Posey (please look beyond his playoff performance) deserve a huge payday, but in the era in which Adonal Foyle gets locked up for about 46 million, anything is possible. Should be an interesting offseason.

Dog Days of Summer: Orlando Summer League Roster Set

Summer League is among us, and the Pacers roster has been set. After a rookie free agent camp held between July 3-6th, the summer league team will head down to Orlando, FL from July 7th-11th.

Our roster is made up of, well, a lot of random guys who will probably never see time in a regular NBA game. Our notable guys include Stephen Graham and Shawne Williams. I will be watching Stephen very closely, since Shawne’s future with the team seems somewhat in doubt and Stephen did play quite well in limited minutes at some times last year.

Some other interesting guys on the roster:

Earl Calloway, of IU fame and the leading scorer of Pacers’ NBDL affiliate the Fort Wayne Mad Ants last year.

Stanley Burrell- his numbers aren’t amazing, but he went to Xavier and always killed my alma mater, George Washington. I’ll be rooting for him as a fellow A-10 conference supporter.

Pete Campbell- a fan favorite at nearby Butler, can really stroke the three but can’t do much else on an NBA level.

Courtney Sims- played a bit for the Pacers last year, a rail thin big guy from Michigan.

You can check out the biographies of all the summer league players here

Indiana Pacers 2008 NBA Draft Preview

So, with the lottery long since concluded a week or so ago, the ping pong balls didn’t do much of a service to the Pacers and the team, with the 11th worst record in the league, ended up with the 11th pick in the draft as well. The Pacers are always somewhat of an enigma in the draft, TPTB never seem to pick up the consensus players that the mocks have us taking.

So, for me, that automatically knocks out any chance of the Pacers drafting Russell Westbrook or D.J. Augustin, who, based off of almost any mock draft, are the players we will take. Almost anything could happen in this draft, there are rumors swirling that the Pacers might try to trade down in the first round to pick up Kansas’ Mario Chalmers, something I see as a distinct possibility. Chalmers is by most accounts a great system PG, which plays solid defense and has a pretty good shot, as well. All three are attributes that would be of great value to the Pacers next year. Most people suspect Chalmers to be picked around the 15-20 range, and if he is the Pacers’ man, the team will most likely try to trade down to pick him up.

Assuming we do keep the 11th pick, the prospects are still very intriguing. In a recent interview with Pacers.com Larry Bird said that he is targeting a either a big man or a PG, and that he’s pretty sure that player will be there at 11. He also said he is looking at a player who can “help them right now.” The fact that Larry is looking for an immediate contributor rules out the extremely raw big DeAndre Jordan, and his seeming concentration on a big or a PG rules out guys like Joe Alexander, Donte Green, and Danillo Gallinari as his primary target, as all of those guys are swingmen (of which the Pacers have stockpiled).

Seeing that I think the Pacers will follow history by not following conventional wisdom regarding their draft pick, and that they won’t draft a swingman (unless some unpredictable trade is in the works), I look at the Pacers drafting either Maresse Speights or Darrell Arthur if they stay pat at 11. If a player like Eric Gordan or even Brook Lopez slips, the Pacers may go that route, but either or those players slipping all the way to 11 seems like a stretch.

So, that leaves us with Speights or Arthur. Speights is a 6′10” 245 PF/C from Florida who is known by scouts as being a good post up player who already has a nice arsenal of moves for a college kid, who also can rebound pretty well. However, he has a few character issues and a low basketball IQ. He’s been compared to Elton Brand. Arthur is a shorter, slimmer (6′9”, 225) player from Kansas who is known for ability to run the floor. He also has a great mid range jumper and a decent post game of his own. He needs to develop his body a bit more so that he can hit the glass against some of the bigger guys in the NBA.

I think both Speights and Arthur are great prospects, either of which the Pacers would be happy with. I tend to favor Speights, because of his NBA ready body, but I believe, if given the opportunity to go with one or the other, Bird would go with Arthur. In the past LB has shown a predilection toward athletic players with a high ceiling, something of which Arthur is much more than Speights. Arthur also seems to have much better character than Speights, who, based off his interviews, doesn’t seem like a guy who would interact well with fans. Arthur is the more marketable, more athletic guy with a bigger upside. I think that will lead LB to draft Darrell Arthur if we stand pat at 11.

I also believe it is very possible that the Pacers may avoid Speights and Arthur altogether and trade down to draft PG Mario Chalmers in the mid first round. I like Chalmers’ chances in the league because he is much larger than Augustin (6′2” vs. 5′11”) and won’t be such a liability on defense. Chalmers isn’t the creator Augustin is, but he is still a solid system PG with a nice shooting touch. If our coaching staff could improve his full court vision and teach him to make a fancy pass or two once in awhile, he could turn into a solid starting PG for the future for Indiana. The biggest obstacle to Chalmers becoming a Pacer is whether or not we kind find a taker to trade down in the draft.

So I think are chance in the draft are the following:

Darrell Arthur: 40%

Mareese Speights: 25%

Find a trade to draft Mario Chalmers: 25%

Draft an even more highly touted player who somehow slips in the draft: 10%