Waiting on the Pacers vs. Mavericks

The Pacers and Mavericks meet for the first time since swapping several players in the off season. Darrell Armstrong, Marquis Daniels, Josh Powell, and Rawle Marshall joined the Pacers this summer after a couple of trades sent Austin Croshere and Anthony Johnson from Indy to the Mavs. While there was a lot of buzz about some potential young diamonds in the rough coming to the Pacers, at this point the trade has been a pretty blah swap of role players.

Darrell Armstong and Anthony Johnson are providing the most impact among the traded as 12-15 min/game backup point guards. DA played a huge role in a few early wins for the Pacers and always brings a spark of energy if nothing else.

Marquis Daniels is averaging about 16 min/game and 5 points, while Croshere is averaging 10 min/game and 2 points. Daniels play and playing time has been sporadic, sometimes playing playing 20 minutes while only seeing three minutes in the next game. Having not seen much of the Mavs, I can only assume Cro hasn't carved out much of a role in the rotation.

The wild cards, Marshall and Powell, earned unexpected roster spots through a solid preseason, but don't look to have much playing time in their future this year. They are young and still have plenty of time to develop into productive NBA players. Only time will tell if they will be with the Pacers or not when that time comes.

A couple of other items to ponder:

• Pat Riley is taking a leave of absence without much explanation other than he's having knee surgery and will probably come back...at some point. I think that means, if Shaq can come back and Wade gets healthy then he will probably come back since the East is so weak that the Heat can basically play quality ball for six weeks and still make the playoffs.
• Mark Montieth discusses how the Pacers' plan for an up-tempo style of play has not come to fruition. They've tried at times but really, the personnel is not suited for it and so Carlisle has been calling more plays. Al Harrington seems to think that is simply due to Carlisle feeling more comfortable calling plays, but I'd say he (Carlisle) probably gets tired of watching turnovers and missed layups. I mean, it is a struggle for some of these guys to finish plays unless they're all alone. Al is one of the worst offenders in this area, so if he wants more minutes and freedom on the court he needs to prove he's worthy of the responsibility.
• Check out Mavs Moneyball to keep up with what's happening in Dallas.