Pacers Take Miles Plumlee

Submitted by wmcdowell
Friday, June 29, 2012 at 6:20 PM

Larry Bird, the Indiana Pacers President of Basketball Operations announced this week that he was resigning from the Pacers front office but also announced that he would go ahead and draft for the franchise since he and his scouting staff had done exhaustive scouting on the best that college basketball has to offer.

The combination of Bird, Donnie Walsh, and Kevin Pritchard decided that four year Duke player Miles Plumlee (career 4.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 0.6 BPG) would help Herb Simon's team contend in the East. What, Scott Haskin or Primoz Brezec weren’t available?

Going into the draft, it was widely assumed that the Pacers needed more shooting and scoring off the bench and that they needed a good backup at center to restricted free agent Roy Hibbert.  The Pacers plan to re-sign Roy Hibbert and likely have Plumlee back him up. 

"I think it's a home run," coach Frank Vogel said. "He's the best dirty-work player in the draft. He's a blue-collar guy who falls right into our team's identity, which we rebuilt around defensive rebounding, and this kid's specialty is defensive rebounding."  "Our first scouting meeting, I jokingly asked, 'Are there any Jeff Fosters in the draft?' and four of our scouts said simultaneously, 'Miles Plumlee.' We've had our eye on him ever since. I know he's been a personal favorite of Larry Bird. We had a hunch about him. And his personal workout blew us away.''

If there is one thing Vogel has learned early in his tenure as Pacers coach it is to toe the company line.  Every national draft expert has been left scratching their heads about the Pacers selection.  Plumlee was widely thought of as a mid second round pick at best. 

The Pacers, actually Bird outsmarted the entire NBA and took a guy so far under the radar that he should be a stealth bomber. Plumlee reportedly blew away the Pacers with his workout and they were forced to grab him before the “D” League could get their hands on him.  Plumlee supposedly has a 40” vertical jump but then so did Steve Hart.  The last Indianapolis athlete that blew away management in workouts was Jeff George.  How’d that work for ya!

Plumlee wasn’t even the best Plumlee on his Duke squad.  Brother Mason will be a senior for the Blue Devils next year.  Miles didn’t even start for the Blue Devils and averaged a shade over 6 points and 7 rebounds per game his senior year.  His strengths are considered to be his athleticism, jumping ability, and work ethic.  His downside attributes are his basketball skills.  Sounds like a homeless man’s Josh McRoberts to me!

The Pacers have a very sketchy draft history under the watchful eye of Larry Bird and newly renamed Pacers President Donnie Walsh.  Here are some of the Pacers dubious #1 draft picks beginning in 1992:

1992-Malik Sealy
1993-Scott Haskin
1996-Erick Dampier
2000-Primoz Brezec
2002-Fred Jones
2004-David Harrison
2006-Shawne Williams
2012-Miles Plumlee?

The Pacers still had available Arnett Moultrie, Perry Jones, or Festus Ezeli as power forward or center options that were taken shortly after Plumlee.  All were more highly rated! 

The lasting legacy of Larry Bird and the last memory of Pacers fans is the selection of Miles “Freakin” Plumlee.  Maybe it’s a good thing that Larry has left the building.