Is Jonas now ready for "Prime-time"?

[golden]

Jonas had a great game, no doubt. But let's not forget that Mahinmi and Hill are borderline NBA players.

That whole Pacers lineup is a mess. Mahmininini & Miles starting? And Monta Ellis has been an subtraction-by-addition type of player on previous teams. Indy isn't even in a position to tank properly. WTH is Larry Legend doing?

[white men can't jump]

Could be. But why bother signing Ellis then?

On that I have no clue, except maybe to try and lighten George's load enough so he doesn't just demand a trade at the end of the year. Seriously, it's not hard to imagine George wanting out in the near future. I mean, where is Indy going?

[Snooch]

On that I have no clue, except maybe to try and lighten George's load enough so he doesn't just demand a trade at the end of the year. Seriously, it's not hard to imagine George wanting out in the near future. I mean, where is Indy going?

I would welcome George here

[S.R.]

On a side note, what was Indiana thinking? Do they really expect to be able to compete with two career bench players as their starting bigs? No wonder they wanted Paul George to play 4!

And their home opener is against Memphis tonight. They have my condolences.

[raptors999]

That whole Pacers lineup is a mess. Mahmininini & Miles starting? And Monta Ellis has been an subtraction-by-addition type of player on previous teams. Indy isn't even in a position to tank properly. WTH is Larry Legend doing?

They should have tanked for Okafor or Towns while PG was hurt. Tanking now makes no sense

[S.R.]

That whole Pacers lineup is a mess. Mahmininini & Miles starting? And Monta Ellis has been an subtraction-by-addition type of player on previous teams. Indy isn't even in a position to tank properly. WTH is Larry Legend doing?

I was thinking the exact same thing last night. This roster is their idea of trying to keep things going while they've got George? That's a bottom 5 team without him. That roster sucks.

The coach is still good.

[BobLoblaw]

That whole Pacers lineup is a mess. Mahmininini & Miles starting? And Monta Ellis has been an subtraction-by-addition type of player on previous teams. Indy isn't even in a position to tank properly. WTH is Larry Legend doing?

Their owner will never tank. He didn't want to tank when he was much younger, and now he's around 80, he won't start now. They haven't had a top 9 pick for close to 30 years, not counting that pick that they got from the Raptors for Antonio Davis.

Monta Ellis is a good addition for them IMO, they needed that dynamic penetrating guard. George Hill is a nice fit next to him.

I really didn't like that they basically gave up Hibbert for nothing, I think Bird got emotional and screwed up there. Ujiri would've been much more patient and probably got some picks for him.

Other than that, not much that Bird can do if the owner wants to win now.

[hotfuzz]

Oh man, imagine if we can get PG here. I hope he becomes disgruntled.

[SkywalkerAC]

vs Mihimi and Hill. Indy is a very small sample size.

Yeah that's a scrub rotation, but both are defensive role-players. My point is that Mihinmi is not a small player, and Jonas made him look small.

[JimiCliff]

Oh man, imagine if we can get PG here. I hope he becomes disgruntled.

Lowry/Carroll/George/Markieff/JV...that team contends in the East...

[raptors999]

Lowry/Carroll/George/Markieff/JV...that team contends in the East...

PG would be the 2

[raptors999]

Yeah that's a scrub rotation, but both are defensive role-players. My point is that Mihinmi is not a small player, and Jonas made him look small.

Jonas should be able to dominate Mahimi. He is getting paid to be battling with the Duncan and Gasols not the Mahimis of the league. Centers generally are just bigger against guys so it isn't like SG or SF who might have an off night. Bigs need to be consistent otherwise they aren't better than jump shooters

[Henry_Chinaski]

Three things:

1) Now that Valanciunas doesn't have to run around the 3pt line on D Raptors are much better on the glass. Off course, Carrol, Scola and Biz do a very good job too. So +1 for solid defensive rebounding;

2) Valanciunas played in the last few minutes because Biz fouled out. If he would've avoided that 6th foul, he'd have played till the end. And Jonas scored 5 points in the last couple of minutes... So there you have it. I think Jonas will get around 30 min against Boston but struggle on O against Amir while Biz will be getting more minutes in a game against Bucks. Jonas is still too late on defense but it's obvious that he makes much better reads and decisions on D when he's under the basket. I think that the main reason why Jonas could be getting a bigger role (like he did in the first game) is Ujiri. He wanted to change defensive approach and it just feels this demand to feed him in the post, to play more inside-outside game. And 10-12 shots per game is enough to keep Jonas happy and keep him efficient and to avoid too many turnovers.

3) Offense is still based on ISO. Too much. On the other hand, Scola has a terrific passing game and was looking for Jonas all game long. DD and Lowry share the ball with Carrol and Jonas much more which is a good sign. The issue is that they still don't do a good job on motion offense. But it's the first game of the season.

[octothorp]

My favorite play last night came sometime in the first half. As I remember it, JV set a pick for DeRozan, who drove; this original pick and roll was reasonably well defended, and DeRozan immediately kicked it back out to Lowry, who immediately drove, and as soon as Mahimi left JV to help, Lowry found JV with the pass for the easy dunk. That play had about as much chemistry as I can ever recall seeing from those three together on offense. I hope to see a lot more of that type of offense as the season goes on. They all demand attention from defenders when they're playing to their strengths, and that's going to open things up for one another. Of course, it could be that that was just some early-season improvisation that Casey manages to eliminate once he gets his plays implemented.

[Just Is]

And their home opener is against Memphis tonight. They have my condolences.

Poor PG.

I said this in the game thread but I'll say it again. The Pacers are not going small because they want to...they're doing it because they have to.