What Granger means to the Pacers

given the new pieces, growth of others, and the new(ish) coaching staff, 1 game is REALLY too small. I realize Danny’s a lightning rod because he’s the highest paid guy and the de facto “best player” but it’s getting kinda old.

Is the following:

a.) Effort
b.) Focus
c.) Efficiency
d.) Consistency

I think he’s showing more consistent effort. And I can’t imagine he’s missing the ‘good’ shots he takes on purpose so I won’t blame him for that. But, he needs to focus on efficiency (taking good shots and not commiting turnovers and bad offensive possesions) and consistency. I didn’t see the Charlotte game, but I do think he’s getting a bit better, from what little we’ve seen so far this season, at being another cog in the wheel rather than the best player on a bad team. At this point, he just has not shown the understanding of when to push it and maybe force the action (which should be rarely given the solid all around talent we have) and when to deffer to others and let the offense come to him.

He needs to learn all that. Move without the ball, pass out of the lane, come off screens, become a cutter. He’s done a very little bit of that in the past, but not enough this season.

I am in no way advocating any shopping of Danny Granger now, or likely anytime later in this season…however….

If he can’t find his role in 2012, with $13, and then $14mil. due the next two seasons and some quality, but not All-star type RFA (don’t kid yourself JPSinclair) needing to be retained, likely at a price possibly slightly higher than actual on-court value…I don’t think we can keep Danny for sentimental reasons, or because he still shows flashes of being an above average player.

It’s hard to quantify what I really expect from him, but I’ll say this. With the slow/steady emergence of Paul George, the addition of Hill and West, and some other solid offensive options (Hansbrough and Hibbert namely)…if his Assists don’t go up to 3 or 4 per game and his PPS (points-per-shot…my prefered method of scoring efficiency) doesn’t get back to the 1.3+ range…I’m done with Danny.

I would really like to believe he was all of that and a bag of chips too, but are we watching the same games? So far this season, when the offense has went well, it was more often than not when the ball kinda skipped Granger down the floor. Vogal has said time after time that good things happens when they pass the ball and most of the team gets it. But too many times Danny has killed the flow by shooting as soon as he gets the ball. He was the best player on bad teams. The talent has caught up with him and he isn’t responding.
I’m not even sure if he is the 4th best player on the team now. Trade him? To who? If anyone in the league thinks he is worth that much money, I think he would have already been gone.
He’s here for the duration folks… Just look at the numbers!