James Posey Has Won Two Titles Since the Last Time the Indiana Pacers Made the Playoffs

He won his first title with Miami in June of 2006, more than six weeks after the Pacers lost their most recent playoff game to the New Jersey Nets 96-90. To give you an idea how long ago that was, I watched that game while on vacation in Hawaii, and I barely even remember that I ever went to Hawaii. (Mental note: Go back to Hawaii.)

Posey won his second championship with the Celtics in 2008.

Due to this, he believes he will be able to use what he learned on these title teams to teach the young Pacers how to win.

"“It’s about winning at the end of the day and putting ourselves in a good position,” said Posey, who along with Darren Collison met local media Tuesday for the first time since being traded last week. “I’ll continue to work hard and lead by example, show these guys that we won on the teams I was on before because we worked hard and valued each other.”Posey, a 6-8 small forward, is accustomed to winning. He has been on playoff teams in six of the past seven years and won titles with Miami in 2006 and Boston in ’08. He joins a Pacers team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since ’06 after two seasons with the New Orleans Hornets.Posey provides an outside touch, but his greatest contribution might be more difficult to notice. He said he’ll provide leadership lacking since Reggie Miller retired. Posey said he’ll be in young players’ “ear so much that they’ll get tired of hearing from me.”"

I really have no idea how much playing time Posey will get this year. I’m guessing it will not be that much considering he was pretty bad last year, shooting 36.5% from the floor and only 33.5% from three to go along with a career-low in 5.2 points per game. (His career averages are 41.3% and 35.1, respectively, and 8.8 points per outing.)

Still, even if all he does is teach Brandon Rush a little about how to off-the-ball defense, teach Danny a few crafty tricks and maybe show Paul George the ropes of perimeter NBA defense, that would be good enough. Getting rid of Posey’s contract ($6.5 million this year and another $6.9 million next year) was a sticking point for the Hornets to give up Collison no doubt and, while it is somewhat onerous, the Pacers were definitely in a financial position to swallow a small albatross if it meant acquiring a real point guard for the future.

Anything that Posey can provide on the court is gravy is what I’m getting at. And, of course, regardless of what he does on game nights, he will certainly help out in the ways he talked about above by being a positive, wise presence in the lockerroom, on the plane, during practice and wherever else it is these guys hang out.