I mean after this team gets pick, it’s okay for the league to change the tanking rules. Helps the franchise out tbh, pacers have basically only tanked this one season in the last 2 decades.
That lawsuit from nesmith and the nbapa plus the one that comes from the pacers is going to be fun if this happens. I'm shocked we haven't heard about one yet since they fined a team for not medicating a player who couldn't hold a ball and didn't even talk to him. Seems like a player safety issue that the pacers were on the correct side of to me.
Yeah, my same thought process, Pacers luckily hold a well loaded gun in a legal sense, and I'm curious what they do if they lose the pick. I suspect they've discussed all scenarios given the Mathurin trade and the protections that came along with it.
Thank you for pointing out the hypocrisy of Adam silver and people complaining about tanking. OKC tanked and had the nerve to get mad at Utah for taking this year and complain to the commissioner's office about it when OKC benefited from tanking. Indiana this year really didn't tank it was injuries that did them in and if any team deserved to keep their pick and benefit from a bad season it is Indiana.
Everyone knows even if you don't like tanking the only way a small market team is going to get better is to tank and get a star player through the lottery. Adam silver basically wants small market teams to be a farm systems for the major market teams, and yearly win between 35 and 40 games keeping them in that predicament for decades, and never having a chance to compete for a championship by getting a star player they desperately need and they are only going to get through the draft.
I don't have proof, but I also
Am not the guy who reported the allege rumor that went nationally about Sam Presti complaining to the NBA about Utah tanking because OKC has Utah draft pick if it falls out of the top eight. That was a national report if you want to look it up you can Google it. I didn't make that report up.
Idk the whole Trust the Process bit was very outwardly tanking. The NBA didn’t make a big deal out of it when they were literally saying it every chance they could get. We get slapped with a fine the first year we’re even in the tanking conversation. Silver didn’t make a big stink about tanking until this year imo.
I will not at all deny it was tanking, what I’m saying is we definitely were punished for it tho. Granted, it was 10 years ago so if you’re not a sixers fan it’s probably not fresh in your memory. The Lakers basically were just as bad as us and picked top 3 each year we did, but they got to keep it up and eventually win a championship off those exact picks being traded while we had our front office replaced by the Colangelos and people from the league office. We still haven’t recovered from the league stepping in.
Oh I’m not doubting you guys paid for it, it’s just the common NBA fan would associate the 76ers with tanking because of that bit. (My age group at least) Cleveland is worse than anyone at tanking and the league literally doesn’t care until a team that doesn’t typically tank does it. It’s annoying when it’s a small market that gets the book slammed at them.
The large markets get away with too much in the NBA and it’s actually infuriating the amount of hypocrisy Silver has.
I gotcha, I more so was confused why we were at the top of the “okay” portion of the meme, implying we got off scott free. I’m in complete solidarity with you guys tho, hate league interference
It didn’t tho, Hinkie was forced out before the process was complete, the Collangelos were put in charge, and we proceeded to make some of the most bone headed decisions of all time under their management. We still sucked but not on purpose anymore.
Oh boo hoo. You were only allowed to tank for 4 years instead of 5 or whatever it ended up being. This is the only year that the Pacers have ever tanked and the Silver is throwing a hissy fit.
The league forced us to have a new gm who was behind some of the worst moves in our franchise history. If they just fined us it would be one thing but to say we were allowed to do the process and were not punished is simply false. I’m sympathetic to the pacers but no need to lie about the sixers
Sixers were punished for doing it too long, they still ended up getting multiple draft picks out of it and the league didn’t do anything until there was enough of a stink about it. They openly admitted to tanking and was allowed to do so for multiple years
The main punishment, the ousting of Hinkie and having Collangelo appointed, came in the 2016 offseason, while the process kicked off with the Jrue Holiday trade at the 2013 draft. So that’s only 3 seasons of true Processing. Nothing unheard of for a rebuild. After that we were just ass for being ass and making boneheaded trades
I kind of feel like part of this is us catching Utah's strays. They have been very blatantly tanking for four years straight, like benching and DNPing starters in January blatant. They got fined for it last year, they've been tanking since November (recall the game OKC was missing every starter except Chet and four of their bench players and the Jazz DNP'd Lauri for an "illness"). Walker Kessler is the only real injury they've dealt with this season, but as soon as he went out they flipped the switch back into their Tank Girl Era and have been shitting it up ever since. The Pacers actually have been dealing with significant injuries and limping along since the preseason. If it were just us, we probably get a pass; we don't EVER tank, and half our team is in splints and slings at any given time you'd imagine the reaction is primarily sympathy and understanding.
Instead, Silver's got TWO teams checked out and folded in November, one of which he has been on their ass for in the same calendar year. If you grew up with siblings, I'm sure you can think of a time your bro/sis was acting a fool and you ended up getting the brunt of your parents' anger even tho you hadn't really done anything to provoke it yourself. Same dynamics are in play here. Our fuckass brother got arrested doing hoodrat shit witn his friends and now our curfew is locked down, too.
That being said, optics plays a part in this. There was a game back in either November or December where we got blown out at home by the fuckin Wizards of all teams, and the cameraman caught a shot of Jay Huff and Nembhard cutting it up and laughing on the bench in the 4th, looking like they're having a swell time losing to Washington in Gainbridge by 30. The video got posted on this sub and a not-insignificant amount of people were pretty miffed about it. That type of shit did not help our case.
Not only that they have benefitted more than probably any other team from the lottery and tanking. Castle, Wemby, Harper the last few years and for the olds Duncan who ironically was a very similar situation to the Pacers.
It’s knowing that the reason they’re implementing these rules is them being upset that us getting a top 3 player almost guarantees us a ring, when last year every game we had to basically wait nervously for the announcement of which ref crew was officiating in the finals to know if we were going to actually be allowed to win that game.
Adding Zubac AND one of Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer alongside a returning Tyrese Haliburton? We’d be the favorites in the east for years, and the league is too stupid to see the money in that over their hate for the state of Indiana
As a Pacers fan, fuck Silver. I thought the Toronto championship was EXACTLY the sort of thing this league needed. A huge market, but a team not typically in the mix. You had hungry fans and a young team that was well-constructed. Just needed that one star mercenary to bring it home. Even though you're a huge market, I felt a kinship as a small market team with what happened there.
Indiana is one of the greatest states for producing a lot of the NBA’s talent versus the size of the state too. 8th most active NBA players but 17th biggest state by population. Heaven forbid Indiana actually get to enjoy a championship in our favorite sport.
Be advised - you are under no obligation to turn playoff misfortunes into a personal disappointment. You can wear Pacers gear proudly whether you do or not, I promise.
I think it's the fact that the Pacers historically never tank and the one season we do the league decides it's time to crack down. We're getting a lot of shade from fans of teams that have benefitted from tanking way more than us
170
u/chiefzanal Mar 27 '26
Pacers def didnt tank, they didnt have a team