Don’t count on the Pacers tanking anytime soon under owner Herb Simon, even if Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star believes they should strongly consider it.
Simon invited five local media members, including Doyel, to discuss the team and the recent report from The Athletic that the Pacers are open to a roster shakeup. The Athletic’s story characterized the Pacers and Simon as increasingly open to a rebuild, despite having resisted going that route in the past. But the 87-year-old pushed back against that notion, suggesting that he’s still opposed to the idea of a full-fledged rebuild and wants to remain competitive even if the club makes a few roster changes.
“We want to be as far up in the draft as possible because we want to win as many games as possible,” Simon says. “I just don’t play the game that way (tanking). I don’t think about it. Maybe I should think about it, but I don’t.
“I don’t want to see it,” he added. “And if I don’t want to see it, the fans don’t want to see it. Why would we want to go through a rebuild when we can build on the go? That’s the talent. Donnie (Walsh) did it all the time. Larry (Bird) did it. Kevin (Pritchard) will do it. We can do it.”
Simon told reporters, including Doyel, “I love our little team,” adding that he believes the Pacers have had some bad luck in close games and can turn things around without doing anything drastic. It remains to be seen whether he’ll adjust his stance by the trade deadline or whether Indiana will prove him right.
Here are a few more interesting quotes from Simon’s media session:
On the Pacers’ ability to acquire top free agents, which they’ve historically been unable to do:
“I don’t believe in the premise (that top free agents won’t consider the Pacers). We’ve had people like David West who wanted to come here. We’ve had our share of good players. Maybe the top three or four players may not want to come here because they want to go to a better climate or pay less taxes or whatever reason. I don’t use that as an excuse.
“… I think it’s blown out of proportion. If it’s the right situation and we pay the right price, we can get most every player, I believe. I don’t see that … I’m not going to pull the small-market (self-pity) thing. I’m not concerned about it. We have a wonderful environment here for players. They treat them very well. They’re taken care of properly. And (players) love being here.”
On his willingness to spend, despite not paying the luxury tax in more than a decade:
“I didn’t build a practice facility not to spend money. We didn’t rebuild this arena not to spend money. I had to put money in that. We’re building a beautiful plaza for the public. We try to be good citizens, and you’re just picking one point: ‘Why aren’t we paying (luxury) taxes?’ We’ll pay taxes when it’s the right time to pay taxes.”
On his desire to win a championship in Indiana:
“I’m not crying poverty, ‘Woe is our small market.’ I’m proud of this market. This is a basketball market, and we’ve had tough times and we’ve had good times and we’re going to have good times again. If I can hang around long enough, maybe we’ll even win a championship.”
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
This team literally is a middle build. They would need to acquire star talent to actually improve from being a mid level East team. And even then it may not be enough to surpass a Nets or Bucks team. And if they improved the Sixers team via trade they won’t surpass them. And the Heat lurk, Bulls vastly improved for at least 1 season.
Basically you’d need to get the # 1 overall pick out of these trades and start over with Chet or Paolo.
But there are other determined teams that have been tanking for this draft all season.
maybe get a new coach. They lost a bunch of close games. the team has some good solid talent but always comes up short. Rebuild the bench and get a coach that can coach in close games.
Knives are now out for Rick C. who was a bad hire as this is his second go-round. Nick B. got all blame unnecessarily last season and ownership still cannot make a directional move. Wash rinse repeat.
Their bench is good though it’s so odd.
I agree a lot of these games were winnable
Wow, never say ‘David West’ without first saying ‘the immortal’…
Stand up guy – straightforward…
Mr Simon is sooo right, ’cause you are a small market ain’t no excuse, if you pay & you win FA’s will come, as simple as!
Tanking ain’t never the answer, even if you are middle of the road is much better, when you tank you are years from contending, at the middle of the road you might just be 1 or 2 moves away from contending, kudos to him for sticking to what IND has been doing so well for so long!
Now Sabonis must be untouchable, Brogdon & CLV are nice players, TJ is good (when playing) even Turner ain’t bad, but probably is the one I would look to trade, with a good return from a Turner trade, you might get quite a bit far in the playoff.
Agree with your opinion. Mr. Simon seems to be a level headed realistic owner and person. It just isn’t that easy to put together a championship team. The Pacers have a good nucleus. If somehow the Pacers can find a few good ‘diamond in the ruff’ types, the team’s results will improve. Just trading for the sake of trading isn’t the answer.
I love this dudes attitude
Appreciate the Simon not taking the “woe is me I’m a small market team” out.
The simple fact is that its a tough sell for a small market team to go full-on tank mode even if it is the better long term plan. This can happen with any market size team, but you run the risk of alienating the fan base if you go through a full tank and rebuild. And if they don’t find the right foundational player and surround them with the appropriate players to make them a playoff team, you risk an extended duration as a cellar dweller.
Big market teams have a little more freedom to work with because they can take on bad contracts and go over the cap to get young players/picks and their big market status makes them more appealing to free agents. They can afford to splurge a little more in free agency and be a little more reckless with their spending. Smaller market teams like the Pacers don’t have that freedom to the same extent that big market teams do.
When your accused of not being able to attract star free agents, and your only defense is David West at the end of his career ..