No Bynum hurts them. Bynum is rounding into a very good player. Another guy who is out is Ariza. In my opinion, that hurts them as much as anything. Walton on the other hand, I see as just another role player for them who can be replaced easily enough with little drop off. (I have been watching Laker games a lot since they picked up Ariza, a player I liked to see play for Orlando the past two seasons.)

Hayes is damn near the best athlete on the team. Defense for him is a side-line which can change under the right circumstance (both Dumars and Hunter were shooters first and then got serious).

More playing time will even out his excessive (mind's eye) offensive game and the assistant coaches need to stress that he can even out tension from some heavy defense. He needs to even out his game and he will lessen his hyper activity which usually ends in excessive fouls. In short, he needs to play off the right distance and get lower on defense. Ironically, by doing this slight degree of change, will add to his offensive style where his body becomes the offensive shield for his deadly jump shot...this opens up more slashing/paint maneuvering.

For gifted athletes, it's all a matter of expanding (most of the time forcefully) outside of your comfort zone. Coaches are paid (in a surreptitious matter) to guide players in these directions.

That was one of the best games of the year for the following reasons:

1) Sheed had his best game in my opinion. He got going on the block and rebounded well. 3 dunks for Sheed! It looked like 2004 all over again. He also his a big 3 toward the end. Oh yeah, and he has 3 blocks-- 1 was spectacular and 1 was blocking Diener's final 3-point attempts toward the end, which was huge.

2) Flip was creative with his rotation. He surrounded Stuckey with shooters finally with Rip in and Sheed pulling the big man out of the paint. Stuckey didn't just stand there and dribble because there was finally room to drive. He looked ten times as aggressive once he got going. Later, Flip kept Amir in with CB/Rip/Tay and Sheed. I love that combination.

3) Balanced scoring. Maybe it is a result of 1 and 2, but the FG's and FT's were very spread out on our team. 8 players with 3 FG's or more I believe and all but 1 player with FTA's.

4) That dunk by Amir!!! One-handed hanging in the air and taking it out of the clutches of another player. Dude is freaky.



My only other comment is that I thought that Diener would have been a good pick-up for a lot of teams in the off season. He was sort of the Amir Johnson of Orlando for the past few years. He'd get a sniff of playing time, take full advantage of it, then go into bench hibernation for 10 games. He's definitely undersized (as Sheed proved on his final shot), but he is quick and has one of the more deadly strokes.

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"I’ll just say this: We’re not talking to teams about their second- or third-best players." Joe Dumars talking about his plan to get other teams' 4th best players.

Detroit 110, Indiana 104: 'SHEED STARS: Wallace puts up 24 points and grabs 10 boards in road win

What does Flip get out of always making these back-handed comments about Sheed. Does he want to start trouble?

Aj got some burn, we have reason to think he will now be constantly given PT. Still, he makes many mistakes on D and he doesn't know how to move his feet (Murphy drew a foul abusing this weakness).
But, on O, he's an X- factor- just think of the offensive tip in. He can jump out of the gym and he's pretty quick.
Stuckey played Wade- esque, pushing his body into the defender while going to the hoop- also pretty solid at the 1.
AA showed he's not doing any damage to the team when he's out there.
Sheed was great inside, I still wonder why he decided to stop working the paint as time expired.
All in all, a nice game, but you still shouldn't forget that Tinsley and O'Neal were injured- this shouldn't have gotten that close.

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I'm a wannabe- GM, but I stand to it.

oh, another one who tries desperately find "hidden messages" from quotes...Better understand that it doesn't matter, what coaches say publicly, what matters, happens in lockerroom.

Please do not take those "public releases" so damn seriously.

It is frusterating. Whenever he has one of those good stints I always think the same thing. Soon to be followed by a 5 point game.

Good game last night except for the 1st quarter. Starters are still pacing themselfs. Billups remarked on how much energy the Pacers played with and how unpredictable their style is without O'Neal. Nice that our bench was able to do the same thing. Something to build on.

Maybe he gets a few more games like last night out of Sheed? Coaches call guys out in the press, especially veteran guys. Not sure I see what's wrong with it. It might even work.

Still though how about SHEED last night in the second and third? 8 of 9, the only miss a three, five boards in eleven minutes. Whoa baby. The Indiana front line was in foul trouble by then and it was fun to watch.

I'm getting more and more impressed by Billups too. I'm not sure he's ever played better than this season. He looks some much in control, and if that jumpshot ever deserved to be called smooth, it's for the way he's shooting this season. He really ought to be starting over Kidd in the ASG.

Stuckey still really isn't running the offense, but last night was a glimmer of what we saw in the preseason. He missed some shots he should have made, but they were good shots, and he seemed more relaxed to me than any time since the injury.

Nice game after a long lay-off against a team playing very loosely.

Can someone explain to Rip about big guys chasing him down on the break?

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

I truly understand FLip- I mean, Sheed could do this every night but at times, he simply refuses. And come playoff time, I always wonder if he still knows how to work the post as he refused to in the regular season most times.
That block mentioned in the article was a foul- obvious body contact. But since such a huge amount of players get superstar calls, I'm the last one to complain about that bad non- call.

Well, kudos to me! I missed my 'first' game of the season and I did NOT record it. All I did was watch ESPN game tracker on the way in from work. Reminds me of the old days before NBA LEAGUE PASS addicted me.

All I would change in the minutes played last night was to take 5 minutes away from Rip and Dyess(38 and 33, respectively) and give them to AA and Max(14 and 15 would have been their total).

And remeber, guys, PLEEZE REMEMBER, this was not your Mama's Pacers. This was still a game we should have won by +10. But as far as a practice game goes, it was OK. Lets try this rotation vs the KOBEyers.

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