How about some praise for Danny Granger?
by dbcb on Jan 7, 2012 1:22 PM EST
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PrintYes, praise. Let's try something new.
Let us get this out of the way now: Granger has been shooting like absolute garbage this year. 30% fg, 42% ts, and 36% efg is downright uuuuuuuugly. He is also probably shooting too much but shooters are going to shoot. But let us be honest, his worst shooting year in the NBA (last year) was 42.5%. He isn't going to shoot 30% the whole year, it will come around.
Some positive news about his shooting? Although the sample size is small, he is shooting 50% fg with an efg of 65% in "clutch" situations, up from 30% fg and 36% efg last year. Once again, sample size is small but still. Oh, and we are 2-0 in those games so far.
But that isn't what this post is about. It is about some of the criticism Granger has gotten over the years for his defense. And when this year came rolling along, and we added some new weapons (West, Hill) and expected improvement from our other weapons (PG, DC, Hibbert), a lot of Granger fans and criticizers alike wanted him to amp up the defense to his pre-all star days and calm down the shooting. And so far, Granger has amped up the defense. Big time.
Defense is hard to quantify with stats but let me try. You can easily just use the eyeball test and see this too but stats are easier to type lol.
Right now, Granger is 5th in the league (and the first forward on the list) in steals per game, averaging 2.1. He is also adding a block a game to go with it. Do steals mean you are an awesome defender? Absolutely not. But this is double the amount he averaged last year.
But, now let us look at his defense outside of steals. Last year, the small forwards opposing Granger had a PER of 15.2 against him, averaging 20 points per 48mins while shooting a eFG of 51%. This year? Granger's opposing small forwards have a PER of a whopping 8.5, averaging 14 points per 48mins while shooting an eFG 33%. How is that for some improvement for you? (For comparisons sake, praised defender Paul George's opponents at SG have a PER of 14.7, with 20 points per 48mins while shooting eFG of 51%).
And although a very crude method, here is how the opposing small forwards have faired against the Pacers:
Pierce: 10pts, 3/17 shooting
L. James: 33pts, 12/21 shooting (pretty sure PG guarded him though)
D. James: 10pts, 4/9 shooting
Prince: 12pts, 5/13 shooting
Casspi: 4pts, 1/6 shooting
Butler: 3pts, 1/4 shooting
Prince: 6pts, 3/10 shooting
Not everything is doom and gloom so far with Danny. When his shot comes back and if he continues playing defense like he has been, we are going to have a very good player on our hands.
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Granger
Danny has bought into Vogels defense first, smashmouth style game. He is playing very good “D” and his shot will come. Great job on P. Pierce last night.
For those who want Eric Gordon...
Guess who is injured again.
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't."
- Jack Dempsey
by infinityzero.systemerror on Jan 7, 2012 8:15 PM EST reply actions
Yeah EJ’s injuries are really troublesome. I’m more interested in making a play for Harden over the summer and trying to acquire him similar to the way we got George Hill. The thunder will have to pay Westbrook big money this off season so if we can put together some sort of attractive package that saves them money we could plausibly convince them to get something out of him before he becomes a free agent.
Don't hold your breath.
They’re in disgustingly good shape. If they have to give Westbrook max money they’ll pay a tiny amount of luxury tax (compared to the other big spenders), but they don’t have anyone they need to move…except maybe Perkins, but I doubt they’d do that yet.
peac.e
Ok
Danny has been pretty awful this year. His D has definitely improved, but he didn’t guard all of the SFs you listed above. Also, if you want to look at steals, you should probably look at turnovers too. He’s averaging 2 a game, amongst the highest for forwards. Combined with a 30% shooting from the field, that’s awful.
His passing has been for the most part awful, so has his dribble / driving. So yes, I appreciate the increase in defensive intensity from last year, but it seems ridiculous to praise him for being just about our worst player and for playing defense like he should have been playing all along.
but he didn’t guard all the SF’s you listed above
brilliant observation. Maybe you should try reading the post and comprehending it instead of skimming it
Oh and on the turnover front…
at turnovers too. He’s averaging 2 a game, amongst the highest for forwards
Love
James
Durant
Lee
Griffin
Anthony
Beasley
Diaw
Gay
Cousins
Stoudemire
Turkoglu
Pierce
Bosh
Maggette
Gasol
Wallace
Iggy
and tied with Garnett, Harrington, Dunleavy, Smith, Humphries
he is not among the highest for forwards. Don’t make things up that can be easily looked up please. And if you said “wingman” instead of forwards, he is even farther down the list. I didn’t coutn any shooting guards in that list.
www.themindofshadow.blogspot.com/
Praise him I will not....
…encourage him I must.
He’s got a LONG way to go to give us what we need from him (shooting % aside…though that’s a big part of it).
For some reason, it seems that fans and perhaps coaches expected Danny to play All-star basketball instead of smart basketball after he made the 2009 All-star team. Until the end of last season, it didn’t really matter and was probably a worthwhile experiment to see if he could be that kind of put the team on his shoulders type player (even though most reasonable fans assumed he couldn’t).
Now we have a pretty well rounded team, Danny has proven he isn’t a true franchise cornerstone and it’s time for him to learn how to be a leader, but also play with in the construct of a team.
So far, so….good? Well, there’s been improvement this season. His defensive effort has been better, and not just better, but much more consistent all game long as far as intensity level. But, as someone said above, I’m not going to praise him for doing something over an 8 game stretch that he should’ve been doing all along (especially when he clearly wasn’t giving full effort late last regular season when we had a shot to be a higher seed in the playoffs…though I was very impressed with his work in the 5 game series with the Bulls).
What he needs to do now to earn some higher praise (from me anyway), is something he’s just now starting to flash, and that’s leading by example, but mostly playing smart and under control. Passing the ball as much or more than he shoots it (he’s not a guy who can take over games), continue to play defense, be more vocal (if he can pull it off with sincerity…or just leave that up to West and Foster otherwise).
Danny could be a very valuable veteran leader, shooter, defender, and maybe even a decent facilitator. So far we only know for sure that he’s one of those things (shooter) and he’s doing horribly at that now…and let’s not forget he’ll probably be one of the top 30 or so highest paid players next season…he needs to be among the top 30 or so players on winning teams to get praise…right now….he’s not.
peac.e
No praise, just advice...
Danny you’d probably be able to make the team better by taking a week off and shooting about 2000 jumpers a day – how about some IR time for that ankle?
Yeah. Getting beyond a "good" batting average from the field (.300) would be nice.
But, I think his shooting will come. Rather him be out there in game situations making improvements in the other parts of this game….passing, dribbling, decision making, defending w/ out fouling, etc.
peac.e
Doesn't matter that much.
Danny isn’t shooting well and isn’t putting up his regular numbers so far, but does it really matter? He doesn’t need to be averaging 20 points a game anymore for this team to win. So far it’s been very balanced scoring and sharing the basketball that has won theses games (including stellar defense). Loving these Pacers.
by onlypacersfanintexas on Jan 8, 2012 6:39 PM EST reply actions
It matters if he's shooting 30% and still trying to get to 20ppg.
But, I think he’ll figure out how to help the team win. And his shot will return too.
peac.e
What I like...
… is that Danny is shooting less shots over the past four games. He went from putting up 20 shots a night in the first four games to bringing it down to 13-14. I imagine someone said something to him, yeah?
Maybe not.
He’s a smart guy. He might have just decided he’s not helping the team trying to shoot himself out of his slump and he’ll just have to work on it in the context of the game…and this team doesn’t need him to score 20ppg…as said above.
peac.e
Hey this is basketball – not rocket science. I would never assume Danny’s a “smart guy”. I’m just hoping someone on the coaching staff has the brains and balls to do something about his abominable play – coach him out of his slump, at least cut down on the number of bad shots, bench him, or worst case trade his sorry @ss – because right now he’s hurting more than helping and this can’t continue indefinitely.
by FortWayneKarl on Jan 9, 2012 10:05 AM EST up reply actions
a 30 on the ACT and being accepted to Harvard
says Danny’s at least a little intelligent
"He's like Darth Vader." - Frank Vogel on Larry Bird
I googled and apparently it was Yale where Danny was accepted, but I stand corrected. :)
I still wonder what the heck is going on with him this year… If his shooting slump keeps going on, maybe the Pacers should hire a sports psychologist for him.
by FortWayneKarl on Jan 10, 2012 10:24 AM EST up reply actions
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