Indiana Pacers 2010 Draft Preview

Basketball Betting Lines

06/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indiana Pacers have a solid group of young players that are developing nicely but they need a legitimate quarterback to lead them.

The Pacers just don't think T.J. Ford is the answer at the point guard position and are reportedly shopping the 10th overall pick with the intent of landing Ty Lawson from Denver or Nick Collison from New Orleans.

Kentucky guard Eric Bledsoe would be a reach that early here so if Indiana is forced to stay put, getting Danny Granger a long, athletic running mate like Greg Monroe, the Georgetown lefty with the skills of a much smaller player, or Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for the Pacers, a team that also needs a better defense mindset and maturity on the floor.

Players under contract: G Brandon Rush; G T.J. Ford; G A.J. Price; F-G Mike Dunleavy; F-G Dahntay Jones; F Danny Granger; F Tyler Hansbrough; F Josh McRoberts; F-C Solomon Jones; F-C Troy Murphy; C Jeff Foster; C Roy Hibbert.

Free agents: G Earl Watson (unrestricted); G Luther Head (unrestricted)

Draft picks: 1st round (10th overall), 2nd round (40th overall)

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.