Well, the Indiana Pacers failed to make a trade with Josh McRoberts to the Memphis Grizzlies for O.J. Mayo. With that, the high-flying dunker went on to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers after Indiana showed no interest in re-signing the 24-year-old forward. According to ESPN, “McBob” signed to a two-year, $6 million deal.
“It’s a great opportunity,” said McRoberts. “It’s still kind of surreal to me. It hasn’t really hit me yet.”
McRoberts isn’t a great player, but I think he’ll do just enough to help as a role player off the bench. And Lakers fans, he’ll be fun to watch. I enjoyed watching the 6’10″ guy play last season with all his flashy dunks for the team. He went on to have his best season with 7.4 points and 5.3 rebounds.
But trust me Los Angeles, he’ll have his dunks here and there you’ll enjoy them.
Although he missed the first five days of training camp, McBob looks to get the hang of it in Mike Brown’s system.
“I think I’ll pick it up,” McRoberts said. “A lot of it’s just basketball. I think a lot of the NBA stuff is the same, it’s just like in learning a new language though, everything is called something different, everything has wrinkles added into it.”
When Brown used to coach the Pacers, McRoberts was a student at Carmel High School at the time (which I actually live very near to).
“That was the high school that if we stayed, my kids would have gone there,” Brown said. “It was about five minutes from the house, so my kids always looked up to him, and we used to take my kids to watch him play in high school. So I’ve seen him play since his high school days. He’s got a great family, great friends from back there. He’s a good guy.”
McBob will wear No. 6 with his Pacers’ number, 32, retired by the great Magic Johnson.
But McRoberts was not the only former Pacer the Lakers signed to. Just today, the Lakers agreed to a one-year contract with Troy Murphy. Name rings a bell, right? Murphy was a pretty good player for Indiana when he came here in 2006. He was a solid rebounder, averaging about a 14-11 for his last two seasons with Indy.
But after the Pacers traded him to the Nets two summers ago for Darren Collison in a four-team trade, Murphy fell. The 31-year-old veteran forward/center bounced around last year with New Jersey and then the Boston Celtics. He didn’t do much and was just basically a disappointment.
The Lakers will hopefully help Murphy rebound and get back to his old ways from a couple years ago. They are in need of some guys to come off the bench for Bynum and Gasol. I think McBob and Murphy will help them a lot off the bench. Looking forward to see how they do….
…and then wait as Indiana beats them 
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