Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard lavished praise on Victor Oladipo and revealed he consulted the team’s current star on potential moves, Dakota Crawford of the Indianapolis Star relays. Pritchard’s comments were made during radio interviews with ESPN’s Dan Dakich and CBS Sports Radio’s Kent Sterling. Pritchard said Oladipo changed the organization after being acquired from the Thunder in the Paul George deal last summer, not only with his breakout season but with his personality.
“We feel like we hit the jackpot,” Pritchard said. “No offense to Paul George, he’s having success and he’s going to go wherever he wants this offseason …”
Pritchard texts regularly with Oladipo and indicated he’d ask for the guard’s input on future decisions. Pritchard began doing that at the trade deadline.
“We looked at two or three deals. Two of them were just OK. But one of them, we really looked at. We went to Victor … he said some things, and we (kind of decided to leave it on the table).”
In other nuggets from the interviews:
- Pritchard said he’d like to retain forward Thaddeus Young, who has a player option on his contract. “He didn’t talk a lot in the locker room, but when he did it was powerful. Thad was amazing. We hope he comes back.”
- Pritchard hinted he wasn’t interested in pursuing George in free agency. Front office executives aren’t allowed to speak specifically about opposing players. “One of the things we’re about, we don’t care about big names, we don’t care about big personalities we don’t care about big brands. What we care about is being humble … Anybody that fits in, yeah, we’re interested … But if they don’t fit that, I’m not interested. It’s that simple.”
- Pritchard liked the way the contracts of Darren Collison and Bojan Bogdanovic worked out and indicated he might take the same approach this offseason. Both were signed to two-year deals with a team option. “We think big, but the challenge is, if we lose a lot of our pieces to go big … are you better off with a couple major players, or are you better off with a really good group of players that don’t make the $30 million? That (instead) make the $10 or $12 million.”
Letting players influence GM decisions has a 0% success rate. Teams should really stop doing it.
u must not watch basketball that often if u think it doesn’t work…looks like LeBron if going to the conference finals again….looks to me it never fails
LeBron is the one that chose the old roster they had to scramble to fix in the first place. He got JR Smith signed, for example.
The Roster he wanted won a Championship and has been to 3 straight finals. Only had to work once.
Going to three straight finals isn’t an accomplishment in the East.
It doesn’t work. LeBron had management sign Tristan Thompson to that ridiculous contract. JR Smith, as mentioned above.
For THIS season, JR & TT are about the only roster elements James “forced” in, and they have been terrible all year long–
UNTIL the playoffs.
Love had a weak second half but is rolling now. He is more of a recruit. Maybe Jeff Green & Korver are too, hard to say.
A player’s input shouldn’t be the only factor in roster decisions, but it should be a factor. The GM, the coach, and the players are likely going to have differing opinions on certain needs. For example, the GM and coach may think this position/role is fine but the players may think otherwise. It doesn’t hurt to gather as much input as possible when making a decision.
Yes I agree players input is important, but I definitely wouldn’t mention that the GM seeks the players input before trades in the press lol. Especially the one or a trade was proposed, the player didn’t like it so the GM squashed it. It’s almost like a player telling the head coach when he’s going into the game and when he’s coming out…. shaking off the coach etc.
Yeah why would you want the input of the people actually on the court playing…..
Do you want the flight attendants and gate staff dictating how the plane is flown? When you’re on that plane?
Yes it’s kind of like when you see the parents asking the three-year-old kid, what do you want for dinner, honey…. nuggets and fries or cheese pizza? Growing up, we ate what was put in front of us and there was always a vegetable. I had zero input on the decision.
Players play, coaches coach, GM’s work the roster. Start blurring those lines and it becomes complicated and oftentimes doesn’t work out.
Exactly. Most players don’t have any managerial qualifications, so why would you let them manage?
Oladipo was great for the Pacers but he played poorly in the playoffs honestly. He had 1 big game and that was it. I think he could sustain this level of play for the duration of his contract but Pritchard is delusional if he’s trying to win with this same roster. Why would you not get George if you could again? You put him on that lineup with Oladipo and the Pacers can compete for the Finals.
PG going to LA. Pacers not paying him those $. He is a choker, not worth money. 5 points in close out game. 2-16/0-6 on 3s. He never hit one game-changing shot in all of 16-17 season. Good riddance. Fakers fans enjoy! OKC is screwed.
Thad declines his option, they decline a few players options. PG13 back in Indy with a better supporting cast.
PG13 back to Indy.
Wouldn’t that be a lucky strike