Right now, Ekpe Udoh is receiving a lot of hate. A bunch of teams haven’t been favoring Baylor’s forward Ekpe Udoh because he is entering the NBA Draft at the age of 23. A lot of players over 22 years of age receive a lot of criticism and have bad track records in the NBA.
And that is why Larry Bird will draft him.
No, not becuase Udoh looks like he will have a terrible track record, but Bird won’t believe that hype. Bird always goes for guys who have spent three or four years in college. At 23, it’s obvious Udoh has.Udoh is fast for his size and can be a hybrid if the Pacers draft him at the number ten pick. The 6′10″ 240-pounder can play small forward and power forward. In his last year with the Baylor Bears, he averaged 13.9 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per game. That is pretty much averaging a 14-10 per game. He can score and rebound and can be a guy who can compete with Troy Murphy and Tyler Hansbrough at the power forward position or Mike Duleavy at the backup small forward position.
And also, in my opinion, I see nothing wrong with Udoh being 23 years old. Josh Howard came into the draft as a 23-year-old I think and look how great he is, except off the court. Yeah, you know how he is. But Udoh isn’t like that. I see him as a quiet guy and a very underrated basketball player. Udoh’s best game last year statistically was twelve points and 20 rebounds. He has had many other games like this with 17 rebounds and things like that.
Also, there is another person who has found success, and was older than Udoh coming into the draft: Taj Gibson. Gibson turned 24 years of age a day before the 2009 NBA Draft went down. When he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, he received much criticism. But he played well in his rookie year, averaging nine points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game. He also showed a lot of maturity on and off the court. Along with that, he was voted to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, with guys like Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, and Darren Collison. Not bad, huh?
Larry Bird has shown a lot of interest in a guy like Udoh. The Pacers now need a new power forward. Roy Hibbert is the future at center. Danny Granger is obviously the future of the Indiana Pacers franchise, so there is no need to fill his spot at small forward. Shooting guard is well secured with Dahntay Jones, who has been a big defensive stopper and was actually coming off one of his best years, if not his best, offensively. I can see Brandon Rush improving sometime soon. Plus, the point guard position has been receiving too much hype from Pacers fans. I see nothing wrong. T.J. Ford will probably change himself and A.J. Price will turn out to be the future. Along with that, Earl Watson came off big off the bench. The problem I see is power forward. I mean, Troy Murphy has only been good when he was healthy. And sometimes, he tends to act like he’s a shooting guard when he chucks up those three-pointers, which he is awful at most of the time. Tyler Hansbrough is questionable. And Solomon Jones and Josh McRoberts are only used as good backups, not starter-worthy. And Jeff Foster? Please. Right now, he is nothing more than trade-bait.
With drafting Ekpe Udoh, he can be that power forward of the future. Now people are thinking of other draft picks. Let’s discuss that.
Gordon Hayward will be the dumbest pick ever. Remember Steve Alford? The Pacers passed on him and drafted Reggie Miller. That was the best decision made in the team’s history. This is going to happen again. Hayward was projected as a late first-rounder and early second-rounder before Butler’s run at the NCAA championship. As I read David J. Berri’s book, Stumbling On Wins, a player’s draft position can be boosted up if his team makes it to the NCAA Championship game. Hayward is now projected as a pick 14-23. All because of his TEAM’S success, not his. Yeah, he played well in the tournament, but he is awfully being too overhyped. Xavier Henry could be a good pick, but it might be a mistake. Henry wouldn’t be a smart choice in my opinion. The Pacers really don’t need a shooting guard now. I have said before Indy should draft him, but now that I have thought about it, he is not needed. And when people mention Cole Aldrich, I laugh. Aldrich will be a laughable pick for the Pacers. I know Larry Bird has targeted him, but no, do not get Aldrich. Hell, Aldrich will most probably be gone before it is Indy’s turn to pick. And he will be a major bust in my opinion. But even if the Pacers have Aldrich available, they will probably pass on him. I bet you they will. And so what if NBADraft.net has Hayward projected, that’s retarded of them. Along with that, people have hinted Ed Davis. I see Davis falls with the Utah Jazz, who have the ninth pick. Carlos Boozer will probably be leaving and that leaves the Jazz at Davis. Avery Bradley has been mentioned, but that will be a bad pick, too. Like I said before, the point guard position is a bit overhyped. Bradley will most likely fall from picks 15-20.
So why draft Udoh? Yes, I talked about his age won’t be bad and that he is a scorer and is great for his size. Udoh also has good character. He is a great guy in person and won’t be a cancer to the locker room or anything. He is a smart basketball IQ and is just a very respectable and nice person. But there is also another thing: luck. Now how the hell is luck go into the equation? Well, the Pacers do in fact hold the tenth pick of the draft. Now if you haven’t looked at the NBA Draft for the last ten years, the tenth pick is very underrated and has received a lot of luck. This is where you don’t see many busts at all. The worst you have seen at the tenth pick for the past few years is average. From 1999-2005 and 2007-09, the worst pick is average and best is superstar. The worst year for the tenth pick in the past ten years was in 2006 when the Seattle SuperSonics, now the Oklahoma City Thunder, drafted Mohammed Sene. Other than that, there have been a lot of great picks. Take a look from this chart I made:
Now are those some good picks or what? I say so. Keyon Dooling and Spencer Hawes or worst out of the group but other than that, all of those others guy are one of the faces of the NBA and their teams. Now if the Pacers draft Ekpe Udoh, they could get luck. It happens. Whoever is the tenth pick gets luck. You probably think I am crazy, but I’m not. Some of these guys were considered underrated when they were drafted. And now look at where they are now. It’s kind of like the Madden game curse. For the past ten years, every single player has taken something from the curse. Troy Polumalu had an injury problem and Larry Fitzgerald wasn’t that effective. Brett Favre was terrible with the New York Jets in his last few games, and that’s when he was on the Madden 2009 cover. Or how about Shaun Alexander? He was terrible after the curse. Vince Young did bad, too, but now is redeeming himself. Ray Lewis probably has probably received the most success after the Madden Curse. He was injured for much of the year after being on Madden 2005, but now is back to being one of the best linebackers in the league. This year, Drew Brees is on the Madden 2011 cover and may have some bad things coming for him. Ekpe Udoh is the opposite if he gets drafted. He will be great.
The Pacers will have to draft Ekpe Udoh for many reasons. And I admire the guy. Larry Bird is paying attention to Udoh carefully. And once all the options and the keys to success go down, Udoh will probably be the best fit.
Ordinarily, the bad news doesn't start coming in until the NBA season begins, but it seems the poor Indiana Pacers just can't catch a break right now.
One of the few bright spots in the 2009-2010 season, second round pick AJ Price (7.3 ppg, 1.9 apg, 1.6 rpg in 56 games) fractured his knee cap during a charity game in New York and just underwent successful surgery. He will be out for 4-6 months.
Let's be honest here -- no one was expecting Price to be the future of the Pacers at the point guard position, but the kid had (has) potential. Let's just hope Price can recover within 4 rather then 6 months (which would mean he'll miss the start of next season). And that's not factoring into account the time it will take him to get back into shape and get his legs back under him. It seems his sophomore season will be a difficult one even before it begins.
If Price is out for part of the season or if he's ineffective when he returns, where does that leave the struggling Pacers? With Earl Watson likely to leave as a free agent, that just leaves TJ Ford behind. Who knows, maybe this will be a good thing, something that will allow Ford to find himself again after a shocking season where he screwed up the team's chemistry, looked for his own shot all the time and rarely passed the ball. This is a contract year for him so the incentives will definitely be there.
Will this also affect the upcoming NBA draft? Will the Pacers be looking for a point guard more than ever now, or will a trade or signing for forthcoming? Either way, Pacers fans need to keep expectations in check. It is highly unlikely that anyone the team gets will be able to turn this franchise around immediately.
With a whopping 87% certainty, the Indiana Pacers surprised no one when they ended up with the 10th overall pick in the next NBA draft lottery.
Let's face it -- no matter what Larry Bird says about how great the 10th pick is, we all know that the Pacers could have done a lot better had it not been for that silly winning streak the team embarked on towards the end of the season.
Case in point -- the No. 1 pick went to the Washington Wizards, who had the 5th best odds of winning the lottery. Do I need to remind Pacers fans that for a stretch of the second half of the season, the Pacers were in line to be in that position (or even better?). Sigh...
Complete lottery results below:
1. Washington
8. LA Clippers
2. Philadelphia
9. Utah*
3. New Jersey
10. Indiana
4. Minnesota
11. New Orleans
5. Sacramento
12. Memphis
6. Golden State
13. Toronto
7. Detroit
14. Houston
* -- From New York via Phoenix
Now, instead of dreaming of John Wall and Evan Turner, or even DeMarcus Cousins, Wesley Johnson or Derrick Favors, the Pacers are stuck with a disappointing pick. It's not the end of the world because there are always a few surprises in the draft, and perhaps the Pacers will get lucky this year like they did in 2005 when they drafted Danny Granger at 17th. But I cannot help wondering what might have been.
The focus now shifts to who the Pacers will draft with the 10th overall pick. Most mock drafts have the portion of the draft stacked with athletic big men such as Patrick Patterson (Kentucky), Ekpe Udoh (Baylor), Donatas Montiejuanas (Lithuania), Greg Monroe (Georgetown), Ed Davis (North Carolina) and Hassan Whiteside (Marshall). However, what the Pacers really need is a solid point guard, and after John Wall, there aren't exactly a lot out there. The second best PG in the draft may be Wall's back up in Kentucky, Eric Bledsoe, but few have Bledsoe going as high as the 10th pick.
Would the Pacers be better off trading down or packaging the pick for a point guard? According to Pacers.com, Devin Harris may be available. Put Harris and Granger together and you might have a pretty decent team, even though both men took a step back last season.
The Pacers also have a couple of second round picks this year (provided Dallas surrenders their pick from the Shawne Williams trade -- at least that was a smart move), but no one is expecting miracles out of a second round pick. If the Pacers can get a couple of players with those picks who are anywhere near as good as AJ Price was for them last season (though let's not carried away, he's never going to be a star), then I would consider them highly successful picks.
Hopefully, the Pacers can get a quality PG through trading the pick, or strike gold with the 10th pick, as unlikely as that is. I'd much prefer it if they somehow managed to get Harris for the pick and some expiring contract (please let it be TJ Ford!).
Imagine a starting unit with:
PG Devin Harris (who has a career revival) SG Brandon Rush (who suddenly wakes up and becomes a solid, consistent player) SF: Danny Granger (who has a career revival) PF: Troy Murphy (who suddenly learns how to defend) C: Roy Hibbert (who continues to improve and no longer fouls every chance he gets)
Then on the bench you have: AJ Price (PG), Dahntay Jones (SG/SF), Mike Dunleavy Jr (SG/SF), Tyler Hansbrough (PF), Josh McRoberts (PF/C), Jeff Foster (PF/C), Solomon Jones (PF/C), and hopefully not TJ Ford (packaged in the Harris deal -- their salaries even match!).
After being released by the Indiana Pacers a few months ago, Travis Diener was eventually picked up by the Portland Trail Blazers.
That year for Diener was just a waste and had no point or value to it at all. First of all, he had a major toe injury that forced him to miss most of the season and lose his job with Indy.
Diener will now be a free agent on July 1st.
So far, there's three teams interested in the young point guard.
One are the New York Knicks, who need a consistent guard to run their system. The Los Angeles Lakers are another team, who needs a point guard that can cover faster players and Derek Fisher can't do that. There's also the Magic, but that's if they don't re-sign their backups.
There's also a chance of Diener going overseas to play ball in Europe.
"If something doesn't work out here, I'm not afraid at all to go overseas to play," he said. "It's a high level over there, but my first objective is to get another contract here. But you have to weigh all the options. One of the options for me is I want a chance to play and play a lot.
"We'll see what happens; there's still a lot up in the air. In a couple of months I'll know more."
Okay, seriously, I am getting tired of these rumors of the Pacers moving. I really don't think it's going to happen at all. It'll never happen. NEVER! I have so many reasons, so let's start now.
Yes, yes, Indiana has been going to financial troubles and there are those rumors of them that they might be threatened to leave town.
Financial troubles are getting so bad that if Herb Simon can't pay for the team and the building costs by June 30th, it's all over. Everything has to be done in 30-40 days, says Jim Morris.
But I just don't see it happening. I think Indy can get through this. I know they can. I mean, how can you see a professional basketball team moving from the state of Indiana!
Indiana! This is where basketball dreams are made. Indiana is probably one of the top five states for basketball. They had 1,000 people in attendance for a State Finals high school basketball game!
The Pacers have been in Indy for over 40 years! And now people are expecting them to move. Oh jeez. There's a bright future out there. We heard all the rumors. At the beginning of this season, there were rumors of them moving to Vancouver.
They were way off. And now the rumors come up again. Probably a lot of you basketball fans have read Bill Simmons' recent book. He said the basketball H.O.F. should be in Indiana. He thinks Indiana is the best state for basketball.
Which brings me to this: there is no way a professional basketball team will leave Indiana. It's just impossible. I guarantee Herb Simon and Larry Bird will find a way to fix this.
I just know they will. So you guys can just keep going on those rumors. It's not gonna happen!
Plus, if you look at this way: would you pay $15M for Conseco Fieldhouse or $150M for leaving the city and moving to another city, as Indy Cornrows points out. Take your choice. There's another reason, see?
And according to the Indiana Business Journal, the Pacers would be in $147M in debt if they were to leave the city and do all that bullcrap.
Though Indiana has been a struggle for the past few seasons and again this season, just think of what would happen here. Chaos. This team has so many good memories. From Billy Knight to Rik Smits and Reggie Miller to Ron Artest and Jermaine O'Neal, a new future is awaited.
We are seeing a new team. Rebuilding. Next year is the best bet for the playoffs. It's possible. With a new future with building around Danny Granger, Dahntay Jones, A.J. Price, Troy Murphy, Brandon Rush, and Roy Hibbert; there's no way in hell Indy is moving.
Fans will probably help. But I know. I know, the Pacers are staying.
Hilarious. For weeks, with their playoff hopes gone and the lottery in waiting, the Indiana Pacers played their best basketball of the season, winning 10 of 12 games. All it did was destroy almost any hope of securing a top 5 pick in the next NBA draft (which they were in line to get before the run). Now, when it TRULY doesn't matter whether the Pacers win or lose anymore (since it won't change their position in the standings regardless), they go and get blown out by the Orlando Magic in their home finale, 118-98.
As has happened so many times this season, the game was over by the end of the first quarter, when the Magic steamrolled ahead with a 42-18 lead. What made things more depressing was that after keeping playing time sporadic during the damaging hot streak, Coach Jim O'Brien finally decided to give more playing time to AJ Price, who played 25 minutes. However, the bulk of the bench minutes were given to Mike Dunleavy and Dahntay Jones. Josh McRoberts only played 12 minutes, and Luther Head and Solomon Jones didn't play at all. Puzzling and depressing.
The Pacers finish their regular season on the road against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.
The Indiana Pacers just can't stop winning, though to be fair, they probably would have beaten the woeful New Jersey Nets even if they were tanking.
The final score, 115-102. Troy Murphy had 25 and 9. Danny Granger had 22. The Pacers are now 32-48. They have won 4 straight and 10 of 12.
I'm sorry, but this is just crazy. The Pacers don't need to win any more games. They haven't for a very long time. The good news is that even if they win their final 2 games of the season, the Pacers won't be leapfrogging anyone else in the standings. And even if they lose both games, they won't be falling behind anyone else. Which means they should probably try and win.
Jim O'Brien said this: "I said to our guys, 'They are tasting victory, they are hungry and they have confidence. They have solid pieces. I don't think they're far away from being a playoff contender."
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The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please 
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our 
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? 