A PG playing with a high flying Paul George and an All-Star Hibbert. He should have more than 4.9 assists a game this season. If the Spurs traded T.Parker (strong rumors at the time), G.Hill would not have gotten the Spurs to a championship series. No way can they afford Granger, who is going to be the most overpaid. Most important need for the Pacers are bench players, they had 0 bench this season.
They should just amnesty granger and if they give qualifying offers to t handbrough and pick up stephenson's players option they could have 19.5 mill left on free agency. Perhaps they could go for Paul and then use bird rights on d west? Or just re up dwest for 10 and use the rest on any pg or even josh smith. They proved size might be the only thing that can stop Miami and I have a feeling free agents might be viewing Indiana with more attractive now.
for next season, sure. After that, it depends on where Granger is at health wise and what sort of salary he wants.
So I guess that means they could keep West and the lineup for a year. Then Granger and George will be up for extension and they probably can't keep both, am I correct? Thanks for the replies.
Yep. They likely re-sign West and extend George this summer. They can keep Granger, draft someone, and even add a couple near-minimum bench guys (maybe Handbrough/Augustin, since I don't think they deserve much more than minimum salary, or maybe someone else). But next year they'll have to choose between Granger and Lance Stephenson. Maybe if Granger isn't very good and accepts a massive paycut, they decide to keep them both and go over tax for a year or two. I wouldn't bet on it -- but the Pacers ownership has been willing to spend on contending teams in the past.
Can't help but think the guy can get back to his better days if he's on the right team. Celtics and Grizzlies, for example, would be nice fits if those teams had the trading chips to get it done.
Granger gave a postgame interview shedding light on his rehab: http://blogs.indystar.com/pacersins...ith-the-heat-and-what-lebron-told-stephenson/ Danny Granger, who missed all but five games this season, gave his first extensive interview to the media after the game. Here’s the Q&A from the media session. Your thoughts on the team? A: I’m extremely proud, especially the younger guys. Paul George, Lance Stephenson, the growth they’ve shown this year is really admirable. We lost me and we had to rotate how we were going to play. They stepped up. Roy had another great year, George Hill had a great year. It’s another step for us. We started three years ago. We kind of snuck into the playoffs against the Bulls. We got to the second round, lost to the Heat, lost to Heat again, but it’s building blocks. We keep building toward our final goal. The joy in seeing the team grow after years of struggle? A: I’m so happy, I don’t even know how to describe it. My wife was like, ‘You’ve been just so happy walking around here.’ It’s exciting to see us doing so well. I’ve been here through all the years we weren’t doing so well. We drafted Roy, we drafted Paul, we drafted Lance, the cornerstones of our foundation and it’s been impressive to see them grow. What do you see in the possibilities with you and Paul together next year? A: It’s scary. I think it’s really scary what we can do when we play together….For the most part, our future is very, very bright. How confident are you that you’ll be 100 percent and able to contribute? A: I’m confident. My rehab is probably another month and a half to two months, so I’ll be ready for the season. It’s just a matter of time. How hard was it to sit and watch knowing no matter if it was you or Lance coming off the bench, you guys would have been a spark plug? A: It hurts more so than when I actually tried to play and I knew I could do a little bit, but I couldn’t do everything. Then I had to shut it down again. It hurts, but I tried to tell myself don’t worry about things you can’t control. It just happened. It happened to me and I’ll come back from it. What did you see out there during Game 7? A: People talk about the Miami and they say they’re an old team, but they have a lot of experience. Ray Allen couldn’t make a shot for the first four or five games, and he gets to Game 7 and can’t miss. D-Wade starts making shots, Chris Bosh making 3’s. They’re a veteran team and when you have that veteran experience. They’ve all played in big playoff moments. It shows, they’re a young team and this was our first time really on the big stage in 10 years as franchise. The veteran leadership they had, the veteran experience really outweighed our young guys. What will this series do for the team going forward? A: I think over the last three years, the experience we’ve developed has led us to this point. Even when we lost to the Bulls in the playoffs, they beat us 4-1. The next year we lose to Miami in six and now we lose in the conference finals. All that experience builds. No team jumps to the forefront based on the talent that they have. You have to experience those moments. It’s just another building block. What happened in Dallas when you were supposed to play in March? A: It wasn’t the pain, it was that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. According to the MRI’s and everything, we saw what was in there. We thought I could play with it and I couldn’t. It was really small, they removed it and we just went on from there. I wasn’t going to play on one leg. Just wasn’t. What did the doctors remove? A: I had a piece of scar tissue in my patella tendon. What role do you foresee for yourself next year? A: I expect to be back in the starting lineup. We really didn’t have a drop off from the team before in this team. We lost to the Heat again and my role is kind of secondary to my health.
Granger actually would be a good fit in a D'Antoni offense, if Pacers want to go all out in win-now mode for next year, a Nash/Gasol for Hill/Granger/2013 1st pick makes a lot of sense. Salaries are close, maybe Pacers throw in Gerald Green to make it work. Pacers get out under the 4 years, $24 million left on Hill's contract, and Gasol comes off the books at the end of the year. Pacers leave themselves with cap space in summer 2014 before they have to max George, but get better with Gasol & Nash to make a serious run at the finals next year. Lakers get younger, get a good scorer in Granger so they aren't a total disaster of a team next year, get Hill to run the D'Antoni offense, and still leave a ton of cap room for 2014.
Paul George was actually playing SG when Granger was healthy. I can still see him playing SG. T-Mac played SG and he and Paul George are about the same size.
Yeah and everybody always remarked how he was playing out of position, that it stunted his growth and it didn't fully optimize his talents. Of course he is capable of playing SG but his size and defensive skill is best utilized at the 3. He doesn't yet have the ball handling skills and passing that T-Mac had at the SG position.
not everybody. mostly people who come up with Granger trade ideas and look for a way to justify them. George is brilliant at defending smaller guards.
True... What about having Granger play the SG position and George playing the SF position? Because I don't see Granger willing to come off the bench, in an interview that someone posted above, he said he expects to be a starter again. It doesn't make sense seeing him come off the bench. I still think George would be fine at the 2 though.
Stephenson gonna get a raise? Cool, very interesting to see what this team can do with a healthy Granger. Small ball sometimtes maybe?
Should've traded Granger when his stock was way high couple years ago. But I can understand why management didn't pull the trigger
I'm sure he will. He's signed at minimum right now. He's an unusual player who's often very frustrating to watch, but he will still probably be worth ~midlevel to some team. Considering that he may improve next year, possibly even more than that. Physically he's so gifted... If he can just handle the mental side he can get much better. Almost 6'6, ~240 pounds right now, and quick for his size. He did a pretty good job defending LeBron at times, and he was clearly too big and powerful for Wade to defend.
I don't think what "position" they're at matters so much as does the fact that the two of them seem to stifle each other on the court.
