Pacers sitting Danny Granger for remainder of preseason

Reported by Scott Agnes at Pacers.com, the Indiana Pacers are going to shut down Danny Granger for the remainder of the preseason due to the re-aggravation of his strained left calf. This isn't a monumental surprise given Granger's lack of participation in Saturday night's win against Cleveland, but could be a minor annoyance in Frank Vogel's desire to play his rotations close to their regular season form in the final two preseason games.

Vogel stated that Granger would be out of this week's games and will issue further updates when we get into next week's regular season tip-off, but the consolation is that the calf isn't a concern on Granger's left knee. Lingering injury issues are never a good thing, however, so it's only a hope that rest will serve the calf well and get Granger back on track to be in the rotation as early as possible.

The timing isn't great for Granger, who appeared to be finally rounding into the flow of the game; helping the Pacers in their most dominant starter run stretch of the preseason early in last Friday's game against Chicago. He hit on all three of his three point attempts and it's one of the rare times in this exhibition run that the Pacers have appeared to be capable of playing on another level from the team they were last year.

It's one thing that makes Granger's health and reliability important as far as the starting unit goes. The Pacers being able to spread the floor beyond Lance Stephenson's range while still getting Granger's scoring threats can lift the Pacers from "well, maybe, on paper anyway, I guess" contenders to a team that can break through the 55-win barrier. In the meantime, the final two preseason games will be a glimpse of the team we'll be seeing sans Granger, should Granger being out become an unfortunate regularity.