[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

The Pacers have held some very good workouts the last two days. The Pacers practice gym is openly viewable to the public, so I was able to catch some of the workouts. Here’s what I saw:

June 1st

Derrick Caracter: I don’t know how much weight he’s lost, but he looks different than he did at Utep. He looked very trim. He didn’t do a ton offensively besides outmuscle Orton a few times downlow. He also got his shot put on the glass a few times by Whiteside. I like Caracter though. He reminds me of Zach Randolph a little when it comes to hitting the offensive glass and his touch around the basket. He reminds me a little of Glen Davis too somewhat. He could be a good value pick in the mid 2nd round.

Chris Kramer: Not much to say. He played hard, but looked out of his league. He was abused consistently by Stephenson. I expect him to go undrafted. He’ll make some money overseas.

Daniel Orton: He’s a big/wide body. He needs to tighten his body up. I see the Kendrick Perkins comparison. I think he has potential to be a very good on ball post defender. He’s very strong and holds his ground well. He held his ground well against Caracter, despite giving up a few buckets. He also moves his feet pretty well on the perimeter. He has a toughness/seriousness about him that I like. Decent motor. He didn’t show much offensively, but his jumpshot form didn’t look bad. I’d be surprised if he fell out of the lottery. Good potential here.

Lance Stephenson: Kramer is a tough player, but wasn’t really a great matchup. Stephenson ate him up. Post ups, one/two dribble pull-ups and drives to the basket… I liked what I saw from Stephenson. He’s a first round talent offensively. The only thing I didn’t like was that he seemed to just kind of stand around when the ball wasn’t in his hands and he let Kramer beat him off of the dribble a few times.

Ekpe Udoh: His jumpshot wasn’t going down, but he was the best big. He fought hard on defense and was active. He mixed it up on offense. He had a couple of slams over Whiteside, moved well without the ball and also made some very good passes. His motor was good. He fought defensively. I’m not sure if he’s going to be anything special, but he should be a solid power forward. I liked what I saw.

Hassan Whiteside: I think he’ll slide. I was disappointed. His length and shot blocking ability was evident, but he’s a wimp… He didn’t always fight hard and was easily backed down. And the crazy thing was that once he got backed down or pushed in traffic, he just dropped his arms… Almost like “I give up.” I didn’t like what I saw. He did cover some good ground on a few blocks (looked like he thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread after blocking shots), but overall… His motor was just okay. He’s very raw offensively. He looked lost at times. I wouldn’t be surprised if he fell into the 20’s. He needs work physically, mentally and offensively. He’ll be spending some time in the D-League.

June 2nd

Erick Bledsoe

Avery Bradley

Sheron Collins

Jordan Crawford

A.J. Slaughter

Willie Warren

I’ll go over what I saw from the June 2nd workouts tomorrow.

[skip-bayless-is-my-hero]

i want to hear who pacer fans want us to draft. i personally want bradley or maybe patterson or possibly monroe if he slips. i could live with hayward but i think they could trade down and get him. pacers fans tell me your thoughts.

[nateoak10Participant]

I thought he was going to have good workouts

[OldSkoolBasketballParticipant]

Whiteside stock is falling. Is it too late to drop out?

[nateoak10Participant]

I dont think he falls past the Spurs. If Houston passes him up for Henry he will slide to Miami or the Spurs imo

[midwestbbscoutParticipant]

the pacers should trade down if epke udoh is gone….maybe get a first rounder next year….

[sayounhParticipant]

I didn’t get to see the workouts in person, but I did see some video clips. I bleed gold and black(referring to Purdue) and I was disappointed that Kramer wasn’t able to demonstrate his lock-down defense. He seemed to be trailing Stephenson at all times. I guess they brought him in as an option for the 57th pick but I don’t see it happening now.

So what’s with nbadraft.net suddenly picking the Pacers to draft Gordon Hayward with the 10th pick?

[kolds1028Participant]

In my opinion, I think they should either take Avery Bradley at No. 10 or trade down and take a high-potential big man (i.e. Hassan Whiteside or Larry Sanders) packaged with a veteran PG. Bradley could solve their need at PG, he is eerily similar to Russell Westbrook in almost every aspect of the game. This would leave them with two 2nd round picks in which there should be plenty of options. Jerome Jordan, Jarvis Varnado, and Greivis Vasquez make the most sense to me. Leaving their last pick to be used on the best available player.

This would be the smart thing to do, so you can absolutely gurantee this will not happen as Bird will make yet another horrific draft choice and keep doing whatever makes the least amount of sense in virtually every situation.

[lalailaParticipant]

there are some highlights of day1 practice on pacers.com too

[JoeWolf1]

I’m not a Pacers fan so I don’t follow them too closely, but as a KU fan I do occasionally check up on them or watch them to see how Brandon Rush is doing, and when you look at Bird’s draft history he hasn’t done too bad nor has he drafted primarily white players. Tyler Hansbrough was averaging about 9.5 and 5 but struggled with injuries, he’s got a moster work ethic and keeps himself in great shape and he’ll be back next year, I think its too early to call him a horrible pick. Bird traded for Rush who really came on at the end of last season as someone who can be an elite perimeter defender and hit open jumpers, he even averaged over 10 ppg as a starter. Larry Bird’s Pacers drafted Danny Granger in 2005 and before Hansbrough haven’t drafted a white player since 2004 i believe.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge Bird fan as a GM, but I feel he gets a lot of crap for poor drafts, but I don’t really see it when you look at his track record.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

I tried to post a video of the June 1st workout, but I guess something is up with the site. As someone said above, there’s also a short video on nba.com/pacers.

[The Scare Crow ReturnsParticipant]

Monroe,Udoh or Davis at PF with the 10th pick…Or Trade down for a combo of picks to get Bradley and Hayward(maybe the Wolves 16th and 23rd for the 10th overall….

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

I’m somewhat harsh on Larry Bird. We haven’t picked higher than eleven in over a decade, but I still question quite a few of Bird’s draft/free-agency moves. I had a MAJOR problem with his 2006 off-season. This is probably when I became Bird’s enemy.

– He drafted Shawne Williams over Rajon Rondo.
– He traded Ron Artest to the Kings for Peja Stojokavic. It was time for Ron to go, but we could’ve gotten a better deal. Stojokavic was on the last year of his deal and had no intentions of re-signing with us.

I also had a problem with Bird’s 2009 NBA draft. Hansbrough was a solid pick, but I thought we should’ve drafted a point guard. Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Eric Maynor, Darren Collison and Rodrigue Beaubois were still on the board.

[cycloParticipant]

Whiteside sucks both in attitude and performance.

Any team would be making a huge mistake drafting him in the lottery.

Don’t even think about it.

He’s in a tailspin right now.

Falling…….

[Author]

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