It is obvious that the Pacers are looking to trade Jermaine O'Neal and start a rebuilding process. What jumps out at me is that the Pacers and the Sonics are at the same point. Both of these franchises were at the top of their games in the mid 90's. Each got one trip to the NBA Finals.
However, after their single trip to the NBA Finals parts of their roster started tpo fall apart. For the Sonics, Shawn Kemp went off the deep end simultaneously the core of Det, Perkins (thanks for the correction) the Hawk, etc all started aging. For the Pacers Rik Smits called it quits and the rest of their crew namely Reggie Miller started to age.
Neither team was willing to un-load and rebuild at that moment. Instead, they both tried to re-gain the magic and avoid the inevitable cycle that is the NBA. We all know the Sonics path trying everything from Patrick Ewing to resurrecting Vin to trading GP for Ray. The Pacers gambled with Ron Artest, ran out the string with Reggie and gambled on Peja.
The point is that neither franchise was willing to coincide that the NBA goes in cycles and your time on the top is limited and the fall is unceremonious. The Spurs are the only team to avoid the fall and that is because they hit the jackpot with Duncan. Had they not gotten Duncan when David Robinson retired they would have the same place that the Knicks, Boston, Houston, Chicago and the rest ended up.
It is inevitable in the NBA.
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5 comments:
For me, the difference is in the coaches that were hired after their peak.
The Pacers replaced Larry Brown with Larry Bird, then Isaiah Thomas, and Rick Carlisle. If you remove Isaiah from the list, they chose well. High quality.
The Sonics replaced George Karl with Paul Westphal, then Nate McMillan, Bob Weis, and Bob Hill. If you remove the worst coach from the Sonic's choices, there is only one good coach on the list. And if you remove Nate, then your left with four low-rent choices. (Hello, Wally.)
P.J. Carlisimo and Jim O'Brien get incomplete grades. Best of luck to both of them. Losing out on Dwayne Casey was a real blow, so I sincerely hope that Sam Presti chose P.J. without undue pressure from Clay Bennet.
Side-note:
Those Larry Brown Pacer teams with Reggie, Smits, Antonio and Dale Davis, and Derrick McKey were some of my favorite non-Sonic teams ever. They were THE TEAM when Detroit was living in the cellar. I loved to watch them play.
det and mckey never played together for the duped. in fact weren't they traded for each other?
did you mean perkins instead of mckey?
The Pacers never made it to the Finals in the 90's. Close as they got was a Game 7 in 1994 against the Knicks, which just happened to be on NBA TV today.
Eastern Conference teams in the NBA Finals in the 90's:
90 - PIstons
91-93, 96-98 - Bulls
94, 99 - Knicks
95 - Magic
locke,
i'm waiting on your response to the sonics' minority owners quote that they never intended to keep the sonics in seattle.
it's time for you to start giving us the real scoop on the sonics. youve been away from them long enough, and now you do not have to spout the company line.
face it locke. you were duped along with the rest of us. bennett is a liar and we sniffed him out from the beginning.
As long as you're letting the students grade your work, I suspect you meant "concede" rather then "coincide".
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