May

6

Pacers Looking To Improve

Posted by Stephen Rhodes under Main 

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June will be a big month in Indianapolis as the Indiana Pacers prepare for the NBA draft; no doubt they have watched tons of tape and also went on some scouting missions along the way in that quest.? This year will prove to be interesting as they need to decide as to use or trade their 11th overall pick (last year, they had no pick - they gave it to Atlanta to complete a trade involving Al Harrington).? Pacers president Larry Bird hasn’t thrown any names out there, but one would expect the team to use that pick on either a point guard or a center; Bird has said that the player that they draft has to fit into coach Jim O’Brien’s style at least 90% of the time.

Bird and his entourage have already attended the Portsmouth tournament that took place earlier this month and will be in Orlando?at the pre-draft camp in late May.? From there they will bring in potential draft picks for workouts; as opposed to previous years, they can bring in up to 6 players - up from 4 - for workouts.? 2 workouts per day are allowed.? Here’s the interesting thing about the Pacers: they have obvious needs at bothpoint guard and center.? But in this day and age, a point guard helps a pro franchise much more than a center in that the point guard is the leader on the floor.? That’s not to say that a wide-body (read: a center) wouldn’t help the Pacers, but the free-agent market doesn’t look too promising at either position and there’s a salary cap to think about, as well.? In a “If I was the draft general”-type of scenario, I would draft a point guard with the pick the Pacers have and then peruse the free agent files to see what centers are available.



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