Get to the Point, Larry

Tonight's game against the Hawks proved three things to me.

1.  We are in dire need of a point guard.
2.  We need a defense.
3.  I need to invest in a heavy baseball bat to use on all the fans of us joining the "John Wall Lottery"

We need a point guard who can orchestrate our offense in such a way that our best scorers are getting the ball.  We need a point guard who can turn our team's offensive mantra, which has been "let's stand around until someone gets open" into an offense that can effectively exploit the defense and utilize our weapons.  We also need our defense to step up.  As they mature, Hansbrough and Hibbert will be amazing defenders.  They already are pretty good.  Danny Granger is a great defender.  Dhantay Jones is alright, but our biggest issue is that we have absolutely no one who can defend the opposing guards.  This forces our big three off their men on help defense, which invariably will lead to opposition baskets.

This is why I make this plea to Jim O'Brein, Larry Bird, and all Pacers fans.

DO NOT JUMP ON THE JOHN WALL BANDWAGON!

If we needed a point guard who could monopolize our offense, he'd have my vote, but we already have one of those.  His name is T.J. Ford.  He, too, was a college super star, and he, too, is a miserable point guard.  He doesn't struggle because of a lack of skill; he struggles because of his egocentric offensive strategy.  He can score, but he cannot provide a decent outlet for our best players to get the ball in scoring position.

What is John Wall?  He is a scoring point guard.  He cannot survive in an NBA offense.  If he wants to be a champion, he needs to switch to a two guard and never look back.  Even if he does that, however, John Wall does not belong in Indiana.

So who does?  What is the model of a perfect point guard for the Pacers?

Two words.

Mark Jackson.

We need a point guard who can score if needed, but who is a pass first guard who knows how to read a defense and set up Danny, Psycho T, and Roy to score.  We need a hard-nosed, cerebral guard who can not only dissect defenses, but who can read the opposing offense and contain their guard play to the point where our bigs can stop the offense.

Why was Reggie so great?  Because in every clip you see him make a big shot, he ran off a screen from a big (typically big Dale Davis) and caught a darting pass from the man, Mark Jackson.  Mark had low PPG averages and high assists/game, but he was still a superstar in our book, but you don't see those players praised in the age of Lebron.  Basketball has seen three distinct phases in our lifetime.

1.  The Age of Jordan:
In this age, teamwork was worshiped.  While MJ was by far the most famous Bull, he was surrounded by stars.  In both the East and West, the top three or four teams every year were stacked at all five positions.  One-superstar teams could never survive in this league, but the loss of these teams led a seamless transition to the next phase.

2.  The Age of Kobe:
Why is this the age of Kobe as opposed to the third stage?  Because despite his recent success, Kobe doesn't exist without a big.  This is the age of the tag team.  From Kobe and Shaq to Manu and Duncan, this age was dominated by the one-two punch, but then people started dropping off leading us to...

3.  The Age of Lebron.
In this league, too many teams rely on one star (Kobe, Lebron, Dwight Howard, etc.) to keep their team successful.  I argue that these teams are the weakest of the elite teams in the past twenty years, and I propose that it's time the Pacers lead the charge back to a full roster.  Hibbert is on track to be an All-Star center, better than Rik Smits.  Danny is the best three that we've seen since Chuck Person.  Psycho-T has a the skills of Austin Croshere with the hustle of Jeff Foster.

I like where we're headed, tie us together, give us a pass-first point guard who can utilize our strengths, and I can see us in the Conference championship before too long.

Or so we can only hope...