The Official Site of TJ Ford

Fri, Oct 24th 2008, 16:50

Jack, Ford give Pacers thunder, lightning at point

Conrad Brunner – Pacers.com

The season is just around the corner, so I’m naturally pumped. This will be my 24th consecutive season covering the NBA but you never really lose that sense of excitement, anticipation and mystery that comes with the season’s dawn.

So maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but it feels like just the right time for a bold prediction: T.J. Ford and Jarrett Jack will be the most productive point guard tandem in Pacers history.

OK, maybe not that bold.

Granted, there isn’t a lot of competition for that particular honor. Mark Jackson and Travis Best? Micheal Williams and Vern Fleming? Johnny Davis and Don Buse? Nice combos all, but not exactly Tracy and Hepburn. I’d throw in a reference for the Facebook generation but, as it turns out, nobody stays together long enough to become legendary these days.

Ford and Jack combined for 25.1 points, 9.0 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals in the preseason and there’s little reason to doubt those numbers will decline much, if at all, during the regular season. This is not just wild speculation in reaction to unreliable preseason stats. Their combined NBA career averages are, after all, 21.1 points, 10.9 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 2.03 steals.

Let’s be honest here: if you ranked the five starting positions in terms of overall talent in franchise history, point guard might hold a slight edge on center for fifth. But that could start to change this season because of Ford and Jack.

“They’re both going to play an enormous amount of minutes,” said Jim O’Brien. “We have to have them both on the court. They bring us good leadership, good toughness from the defensive standpoint. T.J. certainly has the capabilities of up-tempo-ing an offense at a level that’s one of the best in the league, which is attractive to us. Jarrett Jack is one of the hardest-nosed guys you ever want to be around. They bring different dimensions to what we’re doing. It’s just good to have those options.”

One of the fastest guards in the league with the ball in his hands – he ranked third in that category in the NBA’s survey of GMs, behind only Chris Paul and Tony Parker – Ford could well enjoy the best season of his career in O’Brien’s offense. He flirted with a triple-double in the final preseason game (19 points, nine assists, seven rebounds) as the Pacers routed the Mavs in Dallas.

“I’m feeling good,” Ford said. “I trained real hard this summer to try to train my body for what’s expected out of me. I’ll have the opportunity to play a lot more minutes than I have throughout my career, so I’m looking forward to it.

“I think this is the first time in the NBA where it’s going to be an up-paced tempo. It’s something I haven’t been a part of since I’ve been in the league. It just opens the floor up to give me a lot of opportunities to create for myself and also for others. It just gives me the opportunity to come out, be a floor general, know when to attack and when not to attack.”

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