Indiana Pacers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Solomon Hill Understands Pacers Option Decision

May 4th, 2016 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Solomon Hill thinks Indiana’s decision against picking up its team option on him for next season drove him to become a better player, observes Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. The combo forward who shot a sizzling 11 for 19 from 3-point range in the team’s seven-game first-round series didn’t play nearly as well in summer league this past July, and so he understands why the Pacers made the call they did this past fall, even though he led the team in minutes played during the 2014/15 season. Buckner notes. “I kinda felt like my 82 [games] last year was kinda thrown out and they just [said]: ‘This is what he’s done,’” Hill said. The Pacers will face a challenge to re-sign him, since any new contract they give him can’t have a salary for next season that exceeds $2,306,019, the value of the option they declined.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel never gave Jordan Hill an explanation for why he dropped out of the rotation in the playoffs, Hill said, and the 28-year-old is hoping that front offices focus on his production in the regular season, when he averaged 8.8 points and an efficient 6.2 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game, Buckner relays in the same piece. Hill is set for free agency again after signing a one-year contract last summer.

Pacers Notes: Turner, Mahinmi, Vogel, George

May 3rd, 2016 at 2:12pm CST by Chuck Myron

Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird criticized coach Frank Vogel‘s shift back to a lineup with two bigs in the middle of the season, a move that rookie Myles Turner helped to prompt, as Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star examines. Turner paid dividends after the Pacers drafted him at No. 11 last year and Bird, in spite of his desire to move away from a traditional lineup, is impressed with the rookie. Vogel is too, as Turner relays.

“Myles Turner emerged,” Vogel said after Sunday’s game. “Myles Turner showed what he’s made of by having a great series in his first go-around in the NBA playoffs. He just had a great series. He didn’t shoot the ball well tonight, but he played well, had dominant defensive stretches and learned to read and trust the pass. There’s a lot of reasons to be excited and hopeful about our future because of that kid.”

See more from Indiana, where Vogel’s future is suddenly and surprisingly uncertain:

Soon-to-be free agent Ian Mahinmi indicated after the game Sunday that he’d like to re-sign, Taylor notes in the same piece.
Bird doesn’t want to leave Vogel’s job status up in the air for too long, telling Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star that he knows other job opportunities exist for the coach. That would suggest Bird’s mind is already made up, argues Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Vogel has performed capably in parts of six seasons with Indiana and did well to win 45 games this season, Berger posits, but Bird thought the seventh-seeded Pacers would upset the No. 2 seed Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, as Doyel relays. Still, the issue doesn’t appear to be about performance nearly as much as philosophical differences, Berger contends.
Those in the locker room Sunday saw 2015/16 as a successful campaign, and Paul George, under contract for at least two more years, expressed optimism about what’s to come, as the Star’s Candace Buckner relays. “At the end of the day we had a good year, had a good run,” George said. “We had a rookie in our lineup [Turner] who’s going to get better, going to learn, going to come back a completely different player. This is a two-seed. A 55-plus win team. We took it to Game 7 … .”

Frank Vogel’s Status With Pacers Uncertain

May 2nd, 2016 at 5:34pm CST by Chuck Myron

5:34pm: Bird said he’ll speak with owner Herb Simon at an undetermined point to figure out whether to re-sign Vogel, as Bird told Doyel. Finding a way to generate more offense is the key, Bird insisted. “We need to score more points,” Bird said. “If Frank comes back, what can we do to get better offense? It’s on all of us. Frank’s a great guy. He’s going to be fine no matter what happens. If he’s back, he’ll be fine here. If he’s not, he’s not. We’ll see.”

8:45am: Pacers coach Frank Vogel‘s contract expires this summer, and he and the Pacers have yet to discuss an extension, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post heard that Vogel might have been coaching for his job Sunday, when the Pacers lost the deciding game of their first-round series to the Raptors (Twitter link). President of basketball operations Larry Bird declined to answer a question after Sunday’s game about whether Vogel would return for next season, saying, “Come on, man, the game just ended,” according to Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).

Bird spoke in January about a philosophical difference between himself and Vogel, saying that he preferred an up-tempo attack with Paul George at the power forward while Vogel favored a more conventional approach with two traditional big men. George put up resistance to playing the four at the beginning of the season and Indiana largely abandoned the idea.

That Vogel is on an expiring contract is a surprise, since the Pacers announced in October 2014 that the extension he signed then was for multiple seasons, notes Scott Agness of VigilantSports (Twitter link). Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported shortly after the extension that indications were that it ran through the 2016/17 season. However, it appears in the wake of today’s news that the multiple years to which the team referred included the 2014/15 season, which had already been a part of Vogel’s pact.

The 42-year-old Vogel would become an intriguing candidate on the coaching market were he and the Pacers to part ways, as Wojnarowski points out (Twitter link). He’s 250-181 in parts of six seasons with Indiana, his only NBA head coaching stop. That doesn’t include a 31-30 record in the playoffs, where Vogel guided the Pacers to back-to-back appearances in the Eastern Conference finals in 2013 and 2014. The Kings, Rockets and Knicks are the NBA teams looking for head coaches at present.

Do you think Vogel will be coaching the Pacers next season? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

One GM Says Solomon Hill Worth $7MM-9MM

May 2nd, 2016 at 5:16pm CST by Chuck Myron

One NBA GM thinks Solomon Hill warrants between $7MM and $9MM a year on his next contract, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (ESPN Now link). That would be a problem for Indiana if it wants to keep him. The Pacers can’t re-sign the combo forward for a salary greater than $2,306,019 next season because they declined the team option for that amount on his rookie scale contract.

Kings To Interview David Blatt

May 1st, 2016 at 8:43pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings have scheduled an interview for early this week with former Cavaliers coach David Blatt, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Blatt was one of the first names connected to the Sacramento coaching vacancy and has been a rumored candidate for several jobs since Cleveland fired him in January.

Blatt met with the Knicks this week to discuss the possibility of replacing interim coach Kurt Rambis and was believed to be a candidate for the Lakers’ job before they hired Luke Walton. During his brief stay in Cleveland, Blatt led the Cavaliers to the 2015 NBA Finals and compiled an 83-40 record.

Blatt will be at least the fifth candidate to interview for the head coaching position, according to James Ham of CSNBayArea. Ham reports that Sam Mitchell, Mike Woodson, Kevin McHale and Vinny Del Negro have all gone through formal interviews.

Indiana assistant Nate McMillan may soon join that group, Ham reports, depending what the Pacers do in tonight’s Game 7 with the Raptors. McMillan has a 266-269 career record in 12 years as head coach of the SuperSonics and Blazers.

The Kings are also planning to interview Charlotte assistant Patrick Ewing, whose team was eliminated from the playoffs today. Ham says Mark Jackson of ESPN and Grizzlies assistant Elston Turner are also on the list to be interviewed.

Once the interviews are complete, GM/executive Vlade Divac plans to whittle the list down to three finalists that he will present to Sacramento management. Despite earlier reports that the Kings wanted to find a coach this week, Ham says there is no timetable. The organization has been without a coach since it fired George Karl after the season ended.

Criticism Nothing New To Vogel

April 30th, 2016 at 2:05pm CST by Arthur Hill

Pacers coach Frank Vogel is used to the level of criticism he received after the Game 5 loss to Toronto, which included calls for his firing on social media, writes Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star. “I don’t take it personally,” Vogel said after the Indiana blew out the Raptors in Game 6. “I hear everything. I don’t take anything personal. The passion the fans have? It isn’t as strong as mine.”

Loss Of George Pays Off In Myles Turner

April 28th, 2016 at 8:26pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The loss of Paul George for all but six games of the 2014/15 season placed the Pacers in the position to land Myles Turner in the 2015 NBA Draft, and he’s outperformed a number of those selected ahead of him last June, notes Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News. Turner, the No. 11 overall pick, appeared in 60 games and averaged 10.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per outing on the season.

Whittington, Christmas Recalled From Mad Ants

April 4th, 2016 at 9:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pacers recalled power forwards Shayne Whittington and Rakeem Christmas from their D-League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, according to the team’s website. Whittington played in 40 games for the Mad Ants, averaging 12.1 points and 7.9 rebounds, while Christmas appeared in 48 games, averaging 13.9 points and 7.1 rebounds.

Plenty Of Blame For Pacers' Problems

April 1st, 2016 at 7:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Pacers‘ late-season collapse, writes Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star. He claims the root of the problem goes back to president of basketball operations Larry Bird’s decision to make Indiana a smaller, faster team with Paul George starting at power forward. George resisted the move and has been a poor leader in general, Doyel claims. Coach Frank Vogel also gets blasted by Doyel, who notes that the Pacers have lost a league-high 20 games that they’ve led during the fourth quarter.

Texas Notes: Morey, McDaniels, Parsons, Simmons

March 31st, 2016 at 5:18pm CST by Arthur Hill

Rockets GM Daryl Morey is accepting blame for the team’s disappointing season, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. After advancing to the Western Conference finals last year, Houston is 37-38 and locked in a three-way tie for seventh place. “It has been a very tough year in terms of a lot of the things we were hoping [to] take us to the next level, didn’t and we also took a step back on top of that, so far,” Morey said. “The season is not over but to this point we underperformed from what we did from last season.” The most glaring move that didn’t work out was an offseason deal that brought point guard Ty Lawson from Denver. Lawson proved to be a bad fit alongside James Harden and signed with the Pacers after agreeing to a buyout in Houston.

There’s more NBA news from the Lone Star State:

K.J. McDaniels‘ improvement on defense has given him more playing time, Watkins tweets. Interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff likes the versatility of McDaniels, who can match up with point guards if necessary. McDaniels is getting significant minutes for the first time since Houston acquired him via trade from Philadelphia in February 2015. The Rockets re-signed him to a three-year, $10MM deal during the offseason.
Chandler Parsons, who appears poised to opt out of his current contract, isn’t guaranteeing a return to the Mavericks, as he said during the television broadcast of Wednesday’s Mavs game, according to The Dallas Morning News. “We’ll see what happens this summer with the option and whatnot, but right now we’re just focused on the team and anything I can do to help them,” he said. “We’ll worry about free agency when we get there.” Parsons is likely out for the season after undergoing knee surgery, but a report this morning suggested he may be available if Dallas reaches the second round of the playoffs.
Spurs rookie Jonathon Simmons overcame tremendous odds to earn a spot on an NBA roster, writes Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. Simmons was close to giving up when he attended a D-League tryout in Austin in 2013. He impressed the Toros and spent two seasons there before getting his chance this year in San Antonio. Simmons has become a regular part of the Spurs’ rotation, averaging 14.3 minutes through 52 appearances.