Draft Day is always a big day for every NBA team. A team can make the right move (see Lakers trading for No. 13 pick Kobe Bryant in 1996) and ultimately win a lot of championships. Or it can make the wrong move (see Golden State drafting Todd Fuller two selections in front of Bryant) and set the franchise back for years.
For the Indiana Pacers, today is a big day, both literally and figuratively. They need a player who will help them improve immediately, and with only three frontcourt players under contract for next year, they need bodies. Big bodies.
With the wrong move, the franchise will not take the almost mandatory step forward and progress into the playoffs next spring. Another failure to make the playoffs and coach Jim O'Brien and team president Larry Bird — both entering the final year of their contracts — may have the unique opportunity to clean out their offices together next spring, and the indifferent central Indiana fan base will continue to stay home and watch “NCIS” on Tuesdays in January rather than make the trek to Conseco Fieldhouse.
With the right move, the Pacers could improve themselves defensively and become tougher physically, which would catapult them into a group of middling playoff teams (Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago and Miami) in the Eastern Division. No, they will not contend for any title next year, but they would at least be a playoff team. Once you're in the playoffs, excitement can happen (see Chicago Bulls of this year).
Which player will make the Pacers better defensively, as well as tougher?
Well, Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin would, but I'm thinking he might be gone by the 13th pick. My selection to improve the Pacers would be Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair.
Blair is a 6-foot-6 beast of a man who will – if nothing else – rebound. If all you can say about your pick is “Well, all he does is rebound,” then that's not a bad pick. Questions abound about Blair's lack of height and his propensity to grab cheeseburgers with the same gusto he attacks the glass. However, he does have a 7-foot-2 wingspan and, and, and … did I tell you that he'll rebound well?
You roll out last year's first-round draft pick Roy Hibbert (7-2) at center and Troy Murphy at power forward, then back them up with Jeff Foster and Blair, and Indiana will automatically be one of – if not the – best rebounding frontcourt in the league. Not the best defensively, mind you, but better than it was this winter.
Foster is already strong defensively, but Hibbert needs to make major progress at that end of the court. Yes, he blocks shots. But I am talking about defense, as in keeping the ball out of the post, sliding over to stop drivers, switching quickly on screens and not fouling, every seven seconds. And in the case of Murphy at the defensive end… well, anyway, Hibbert needs to get better.
If Blair's gone at No. 13, though it seems he won't be based on the “mock draft” experts (see 27-year-olds, still living with their parents with nothing better to do), then I would pick North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough.
I don't envision Hansbrough being a great NBA player, but I do know this: He'll play hard every night. I mean every night. He'll dive on the floor for loose balls, he'll take charges, he'll fight for boards, he'll do what it takes to help the Pacers win, and I don't think you can ever have enough of those guys on your team.
Bird is also considering selecting a guard, which, if the right player is available at No. 13, could make sense. Would you rather have an extremely talented Ty Lawson running your offense or a 17-minute-per-night player in Hansbrough?
However, the Pacers already have seven guards under contract for this upcoming season, and is Lawson really going to be that much better than current guards Jarrett Jack (though he is under a club option for this year and may not return) or T.J. Ford?
Also, considering healthy returns by Mike Dunleavy and Marquis Daniels, improvement from second-year player Brandon Rush, who was very good late in the year, where would the Pacers play Lawson or other potential perimeter draftees Brandon Jennings, Gerald Henderson, Jeff Teague or Terence Williams?
Indiana can't, and I don't think it should.
