The Pacers have taken Jamaal Tinsley's name off his locker. He isn't allowed to practice with the team. Obviously, he won't be dressing for the team come preseason in a week -- he might not even be in the same gym as the team. For almost all intents and purposes, Tinsley is not a Pacer. But he will take up a roster spot until Indiana can find a home, because Larry Bird and David Morway have insisted he won't be bought out, reports the Indianapolis Star's Mike Wells.Bird repeated his summer-long stance that Tinsley will remain on the roster but away from the team until he is traded. "We're not buying him out," Bird said. "He will stay where he's at until we get something done. Jamaal knows that, his agent knows it and we know it. Nothing has changed."The way Indiana has dealt with Tinsley is a bit surreal. Shawne Williams and Marquis Daniels have been in as much if not more trouble than Tinsley over the past few years, but there isn't any trade talk circling them. The team let proud smoker David Harrison slip into free agency without a whimper, and the strategy of building a clean-cut roster has been beyond evident since the Stephen Jackson for Mike Dunleavy trade. But again: is Tinsley so big an attitude problem this sequestration is necessary? Maybe so, but it seems odd in the NBA ... even a unique market like Indianapolis.
Some might surmise actual roster considerations serve to embellish Tinsley's neg-swag: with T.J. Ford and Jarrett Jack in tow, the Pacers hardly have much immediate use for the veteran. If he were a model citizen, his presence would be superfluous in a basketball sense. That he's been involved in some unfortunate matters turns "no value added" into "get him outta here." If Bird thinks the quarantine is necessary to prevent further trouble and speed up the trading process, then I guess that's what he has to do.
