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Can Jackson stay focused?

If the Indiana Pacers take another step backwards this season (they won’t) Pacers general manager, Larry Bird, may want to start thinking about taking over for his former teammate, Danny Ainge in Boston.

I know the Pacers pulled off a huge move to re-acquire talented forward, Al Harrington and another that landed them athletic swingman, Marquis Daniels from the Dallas Mavericks, but I am still skeptical about a team that continues to depend on Jamaal Tinsley as their starting point guard.

Here’s the skinny on the Pacers for 2006-07.

Point Guard

Tinsley is a fine player when he’s healthy, however, it seems as if that’s generally only about 50 percent of the time. The Pacers also have a backup in Sarunas Jasikevicius that is slower than my three-year-old son, Emmanuel. The Pacers might be better off going with their third and fourth string point guards, veteran, Darrell Armstrong and youngster, Orien Greene.

Shooting Guard

The Pacers have a couple of players who can be downright explosive at times. Starter, Stephen Jackson can be a streaky shooter, but generally does a very capable job. Backup, Marquis Daniels is an athletic player who showed he could score almost at will in last year’s championship finals against the Miami Heat.

Small Forward

I know the Pacers loved bringing Harrington back into the fold – and that he’s going to score between 18 and 20 points per game this season, but if it were up to me, I’d have kept second-year player, Danny Granger as my starter. As it now stands, the Pacers have near all-star caliber player in Harrington and one I think could also be one in a few years in Granger.

Power Forward

The Pacers will have their best player, all-star forward, Jermaine O’Neal for the entire season, which should be an immense boost all by its lonesome. Competent veteran, Maceo Baston, will back up O’Neal and should provide some quality play without too much of a drop-off in quality.

Center

Starter, Jeff Foster, may be the best center in the entire league at concentrating on what he does best – hustle, hustle, hustle. Foster is also an excellent rebounder and defender. Having said that, he is also foul prone on occasion because of the enormous amount of hustle plays he makes. If backup David Harrison can continue the slow growth process he’s shown, the Pacers should be okay in the middle. Heck, I know a lot of teams that would take this duo in a heartbeat (Philadelphia).

Prognosis:

Indiana has won 44 and 41 games the past two seasons after winning 61 three seasons ago. However, this is a different time and certainly a different team. I expect the Pacers to win somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 games while proving themselves to be a legitimate conference final contending team.

Eric Williams is a syndicated columnist and can be heard every Wednesday at 3:15pm EST on www.BetUSradio.com. You can contact Eric at eklass66@yahoo.com.