Indiana Pacers President of Basketball Operations, Kevin Pritchard, admits he's surprised by the team's 49 win season, but not as surprised as he was when Paul George asked to be traded! Kevin runs down the events immediately following Paul George's request, how a powerful play from the Pacers' players themselves affected the trade outcome, what the Pacers saw in Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, and why Nate McMillan should win Coach Of The Year.
suggested channels/streams: Pacers, Kevin Pritchard, Paul George, Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, CJ Miles, Larry Bird, Al Jefferson, Nate McMillan, Oklahoma City Thunder
PACERS GM KEVIN PRITCHARD
PACERS 49 WIN SEASON
7:37 - "With us choosing Victor and Domantas we really felt like those guys embrace what we're all about you know toughness, unselfishness"
8:33 - "I would say consensus was low 30s [wins]"
VICTOR OLADIPO
9:04 - "He has a real chance to change us in a very significant way very early"
9:14 - "I think that there was an IT factor starting in September that good night, he is really, really special"
9:47 - "When we were watching some of the early games, he [Larry Bird] said, 'gosh, you might be better than you think'."
11:02 - "He's a speed demon. There's few guys in this league that really have true speeds from end to end"
12:00 - "Larry [Bird], Magic, LeBron, those guys see the game happen before it even happens"
12:22 - "The one thing I like about Victor is that he's never really forced his game; when the play is there, he makes it, and that's a great player"
14:33 - "We felt like we could use Victor in a ball handling, make the play, be our true playmaker down the stretch the last 3 or 4 minutes"
14:50 - "As soon as we knew we had Victor and Domantas, it was all about bringing in shooting"
PACERS OWNER HERB SIMON
17:18 - Herb's ownership philosophy
17:38 - Treadmill of Mediocrity
17:57 - "Herb made it perfectly clear that breaking it down and starting from the bottom wasn't an option"
18:20 - "the draft is high risk, high reward, especially at the top"
19:02 - "We wanted to have a chance to compete this year and see what we had and then make changes or at least have opportunities with our cap space and with the draft to get better"
PACERS TRADE PROCESS
20:56 - "If we would have listened to the noise, we wouldn't have done this trade"
22:01 - The Woodcutter Story analogy
22:09 - "99.9% of the time you do not know until a lot later on whether it was right or wrong"
TRADE BACKLASH
22:57 - "You know I live in Indianapolis and taking over the job as President and then immediately having to trade your best player over the last 6, 7 years, it's not the most comfortable situation, and I live downtown and I would walk to the arena and I heard it from a few people, fans."
24:02 - "I still wanted to have a team that when the fans came to the game, they walked out the door and they said, 'I love that team.' I wanted the community to be proud of this team"
25:10 - Al Jefferson
25:59 - six veteran Pacers players who lobbied for a chance to prove themselves as a team
PACERS' PHILOSOPHY ON PLAYERS 28:40
PAUL GEORGE
32:11 - "You know I was jilted to be honest with you but at the end of the day a lot of water goes under the bridge"
32:18 - "Paul was awesome here. Got two Eastern Conference Finals, played a lot of great basketball and we will honor that for the rest of the Pacers' existence"
33:47 - "It was Victor and Domantas. We wouldn't have done just Victor. We needed Domantas"
PACERS COACH NATE MCMILLAN 41:42
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