I’m probably going to end up breaking this up into several different posts because I just don’t have the energy to type out everything and as one post it would be pretty long even for me.
I thought about breaking it down by players we will keep, should keep, need to keep, players we need to trade, cut and even players we need to go get.
But I think instead I’ll just do it player by player and see how that goes.
Before we go into this though I guess it’s my turn to do the annual complimentary statements regarding the team’s success and standing in the season. Yes, there is no doubt that certainly in the regular season they exceeded almost universally all of our expectations. To end the season 3rd in the East and better yet 5th overall was just way more than we ever hoped for going into the season. Getting to the second round of the playoffs also was a step forward and even taking the Miami Heat to 6 games was a step forward considering how the season started against them.
However as good as the season was and as fun as it was to watch we now are officially at 0-0 for our next game.
So in other words other than experience, both good and bad, this season is now over and it no longer means a thing.
Sadly because of Birds idiotic year to year hand shake agreement we now once again will be left for the next couple of weeks wondering if he will or won’t return. In the past frankly I didn’t care all that much because I have always assumed Morway was the brains of the outfit anyway. But now there is even a good chance he might leave the franchise to take over Portland.
So the truth is if they both depart we have absolutely no idea what the next G.M. will do with our club. I mean if Bird stays Granger is pretty secure here because I think there is a mutual loyalty between them from when Danny didn’t leave and didn’t demand an even bigger contract than he was given. But if he’s gone a new G.M. will not necessarily feel the same loyalty and Danny for the first time in his career may end up on the trading block. There is just now way to know for sure.
But all we can do for now is look at the team we have with the current leadership/management structure we have.
With that in mind let’s just start with the starters.
Danny Granger:
This was the third lowest scoring average of his career. One of the reasons for that is because he shot a career low 42% from the floor (his career avg. is 44). In fact although I don’t have the actual numbers in front of me Danny’s field goal % for the season was saved and brought up that high by a late season surge in both scoring and field goal %. He has been amazingly consistent as a rebounder over his career and although technically his 5.0 rpg were his third lowest of his career it really is in line with what he had been averaging. Now while his shooting % certainly affected his overall scoring the other thing that had a big impact was that he just didn’t get up that many shots because he was trying to fit his game into the teams overall game plan. As an example in the 09-10 season he only played in 62 games as well (same as this year) but he shot the ball 1,139 times compared to only 941 this season.
The odd thing is that Danny Granger is generally the most controversial Pacer player that we have. The reason this is odd is because this is a guy who has never ever been in trouble with the law, the league or our team. From all reports he is an upstanding citizen and while that may not mean much today believe me over the past 5 years it wasn’t just an important thing it probably was the important thing. But the fact of the matter is he is a peripheral level all-star talent player (meaning he has made the team once but may or may not ever make it again) and at the end of the day he is a boring jump shooter who brags about his old man game. Let’s face it that really isn’t going to sale tickets to certain fans who want to see the high flyers and exciting plays.
But beyond that the one thing that Danny Granger is guilty of is that he is the best player on our team, yes even today after the additions of West & Hill and the improvements of George & Hibbert, Danny Granger is still the best player on our team.
A lot of people don’t think that he is good enough to be the best player on a good team and that is a fair criticism. But where I tend to part ways with them is that they tend to blame this on Danny and do not realize that he can’t be held responsible for the fact that the team has not brought in a better player. He can only be the player he is and no he is not ever going to be a Dwayne Wade or Derrick Rose type of high flyer. That just isn’t his game. I think it is more than safe to say that Danny is a good soldier for our club (another reason there is loyalty there) and I feel that he would have no opposition at all to us bringing in another player that was better. I think a lot of people tend to forget that this is a guy who was a rookie right after the brawl, in other words the year he got here the team collapsed because of what happened the year before and Reggie was already gone. This is a guy who had no mentor and no other true veteran presence to help guide him along or even help him with the team. So really it is actually somewhat surprising that he turned out as good as he did.
One of the other criticisms of Danny is that he does not always appear to be engaged on the defensive end. I think that this is a fair assessment as well. I think some over state it but there are times where it does appear he takes a play or two off, which frankly is not good. But there are times when he locks in he can be an almost elite level of defender who denies position with the best of them. Obviously the playoffs were rough but I contend there is nobody on the planet that could really guard him one on one.
Passing is just average and while 5 rebounds a game isn’t bad for a small forward this is the one area that he drives me crazy because this is where we often times catch Danny leaking back trying to sneak out on a fast break all the while our other four players are having to slog it out to try and control the glass. What sucks is when he wants to he can be an almost outstanding rebounder for his size.
Overall I think the fact that he was trying very hard to metamorphosis his game to accommodate the rest of the team and the new coaching staffs philosophies speaks well of him and I am not concerned about his game declining, I just believe he was trying to fit the system.
Now having said all of that I want to say this. I think the playoffs from Danny were a disappointment. Honestly I may have been setting myself up with to high of expectations for him but I really thought that we would see him step it up to another level and frankly while he had a couple of decent games against the Magic not once did I ever feel like we had a special game from him. I really thought we might, but it just never happened. Now how much his knee hurt him we’ll probably never know? It may have been a little or a lot or none at all but since he sat that final week of games to rest for the playoffs he never came back the same.
Predictions: He will be a Pacer as long as Bird is here. He will be back next season and I think we will probably see a slight overall production in his scoring.
What I would like to see: Shoot 10% fewer threes and drive the dang ball. His free throw attempts were down this year but that may be because nearly 1/3 of his shots were three’s.
Will he be an all-star: No.
David West:
Just like Granger this was the third lowest scoring average of his career as well. Also like Granger he was trying to fit his game into a new coaching staff and in the overall structure of the team. Unlike Granger he was actually trying to do this with a new team.
This was also his third lowest rebounding total of his career as well and he grabbed a full less rebound a game than he did the previous year.
He was the most significant addition to our team last year and frankly the argument could be made that he was the most significant addition via free agency to any team this year. There really can be little doubt though that he was the most significant free agent signing in Pacers history. I can’t think of another player that we have signed via free agency that came in and had the impact on the club like he did.
He immediately established himself as one of the locker room leaders if by doing nothing other than showing the team how to act and prepare for each game. Several players have made the statement that West did not tolerate any type of distractions in practice and in the locker room. Not saying he was a hard nosed person and made the team miserable, quite the contrary by all reports. But he had the one thing that you can’t buy and you can only earn and that is the respect of the locker room. So even if he didn’t make an on floor contribution (which he certainly did) he was very valuable to the club as a leader.
On one end of the floor West maintains an almost all-star like ability. On the offensive end in the low post he has a very high ability to get his shot off and not only get off the shot but make the shot. He is far stronger than I ever dreamed he was and he physically can punish a defender who tries to body up to him. He still has a nice mid range game and can make a decent if not fancy pass to a cutter or open man.
Then we come to the other end of the floor and this is where we start to see a problem. David is not a bad man to man defender and as long as he has a low post player he usually will not be burned. Obviously the crappy stretch fours of this world give him some problems because this take him away from the glass and he will never be confused with a gazelle running the floor. But it is in help defense and protecting the rim that we find David having the most problems. He can not rotate laterally to save his life and thus when Roy is not in the game or when he has rotated out to slow up a pick and roll (which is a mistake every time it’s done but that is for later) this leaves nobody at the rim. This often times is where you find Granger feverishly attempting to run in and protect the rim only to have the pass go to his man for a layup because nobody rotated to help him.
As long as Roy maintains any form of quickness and out of foul trouble it is manageable but the moment he is out and West is in with Tyler it usually is not a pretty site.
Predictions: He will continue to start on our club and will probably even take a bigger leadership role next season. Will probably produce more points as this is a contract year for him.
What I would like to see: Rebound the ball more often. I really would like to see him consistently control the glass. I understand he isn’t going to be a shot blocker but he is big enough and strong enough that he should control the backboards more often than not.
Will he be an all-star? No.
Roy Hibbert:
He’s going to get paid. He may not get the league max, we better hope not, but he is going to be the highest paid Pacer next year and for years to come. Whether we like it or don’t like it agree with it or don’t agree with it, it is going to happen.
I have no doubt in my mind that the Pacers will match almost any offer that is thrown Roy’s way. I suppose they might let him walk for a max contract but short of that I think he will get almost whatever David Faulk asks for.
Here is the thing; there were times when Roy was probably the 2nd or 3rd best center in the NBA. Then there were times that he acted like the 2nd best center on our team. This has always been the case with Roy; he has stretches of good play and then stretches of bad play. But what made this season different? His poor play stretches lasted only a few games at a time not weeks at a time like it has in the past. Simply put he is still young, he is a legitimate 7’2” tall and he has a high work ethic, high character person who is also becoming a legitimate low post threat.
What is making Roy more special as a player is something that none of us expected at all. Sure we all thought he could block some shots but none of us and I mean none of us expected him to become the rebounder that he has become. People sometimes ask me to compare him to Rik Smits and there are some similarities but one area where Roy is already starting to take a clear edge on is the rebounding because Rik just never was that good on the boards.
Also while we expected Roy to be a good shot blocker I think most of us would admit that he has far exceeded our expectation of not only being a shot blocker but just in general guarding the interior.
Our entire defensive scheme when he is on the floor is to filter people at him, no matter their talent level. Because Roy has the respect of the officials (he earned it by being very respectful when he was a rookie and 2nd year player) so that now when Roy jumps straight in the air with two hand extended up, even if it is in the restricted area, this is not a foul. That is just a huge advantage because that gives you about a 10’ wall that you have to shoot over if you are the opposition. We saw in the second round how the Heat adjusted to that but I said at the time and I’ll say it again, they are probably the only club in the NBA that has two players who can hit that one handed running tear drop shot routinely.
Now because I’m gushing over Roy at the moment doesn’t mean that he was without faults. He is the worst pick and roll player in the world (ok that might be hyperbole but not by much) and there are times when he fails to establish a strong post position.
He really needs to work on how to deal with a player with a lower center of gravity.
But with Roy that is the one thing so far that we can count on, if there is something to work on he will do it. Guy has been dedicated to improving his game since he arrived in town.
His playoff status was a mixed bag of nuts in a way. I will not say a bad word about his rebounding because generally when he was in and he was around the ball he would grab it which made me very happy. But in both series smaller less talented players would take him out of the game by not allowing him position. Now the fact that we could not make an entry pass didn’t help any but Roy does have to work to get to the spot so they can make an attempted pass at least.
Predictions: Did I mention he is going to get paid? He will be a Pacer and will anchor the club for at least another 7-8 years.
What I would like to see: Keep on keeping on basically. Improve again for the next couple of years & I won’t have any real complaints. I’m realistic enough to know that he isn’t going to ever be the best center in the NBA but I have no doubt he will be in the top 5 for several years to come.
Will he be an all-star? Maybe
Ok that’s enough for this first one. I’ll try and get the rest out over the weekend and hopefully be done early in the week.
I’ll say this; it sure is a heck of a lot easier doing this after this season than it was two years ago.
Here let's think about happy times in the Shire
I thought about breaking it down by players we will keep, should keep, need to keep, players we need to trade, cut and even players we need to go get.
But I think instead I’ll just do it player by player and see how that goes.
Before we go into this though I guess it’s my turn to do the annual complimentary statements regarding the team’s success and standing in the season. Yes, there is no doubt that certainly in the regular season they exceeded almost universally all of our expectations. To end the season 3rd in the East and better yet 5th overall was just way more than we ever hoped for going into the season. Getting to the second round of the playoffs also was a step forward and even taking the Miami Heat to 6 games was a step forward considering how the season started against them.
However as good as the season was and as fun as it was to watch we now are officially at 0-0 for our next game.
So in other words other than experience, both good and bad, this season is now over and it no longer means a thing.
Sadly because of Birds idiotic year to year hand shake agreement we now once again will be left for the next couple of weeks wondering if he will or won’t return. In the past frankly I didn’t care all that much because I have always assumed Morway was the brains of the outfit anyway. But now there is even a good chance he might leave the franchise to take over Portland.
So the truth is if they both depart we have absolutely no idea what the next G.M. will do with our club. I mean if Bird stays Granger is pretty secure here because I think there is a mutual loyalty between them from when Danny didn’t leave and didn’t demand an even bigger contract than he was given. But if he’s gone a new G.M. will not necessarily feel the same loyalty and Danny for the first time in his career may end up on the trading block. There is just now way to know for sure.
But all we can do for now is look at the team we have with the current leadership/management structure we have.
With that in mind let’s just start with the starters.
Danny Granger:
This was the third lowest scoring average of his career. One of the reasons for that is because he shot a career low 42% from the floor (his career avg. is 44). In fact although I don’t have the actual numbers in front of me Danny’s field goal % for the season was saved and brought up that high by a late season surge in both scoring and field goal %. He has been amazingly consistent as a rebounder over his career and although technically his 5.0 rpg were his third lowest of his career it really is in line with what he had been averaging. Now while his shooting % certainly affected his overall scoring the other thing that had a big impact was that he just didn’t get up that many shots because he was trying to fit his game into the teams overall game plan. As an example in the 09-10 season he only played in 62 games as well (same as this year) but he shot the ball 1,139 times compared to only 941 this season.
The odd thing is that Danny Granger is generally the most controversial Pacer player that we have. The reason this is odd is because this is a guy who has never ever been in trouble with the law, the league or our team. From all reports he is an upstanding citizen and while that may not mean much today believe me over the past 5 years it wasn’t just an important thing it probably was the important thing. But the fact of the matter is he is a peripheral level all-star talent player (meaning he has made the team once but may or may not ever make it again) and at the end of the day he is a boring jump shooter who brags about his old man game. Let’s face it that really isn’t going to sale tickets to certain fans who want to see the high flyers and exciting plays.
But beyond that the one thing that Danny Granger is guilty of is that he is the best player on our team, yes even today after the additions of West & Hill and the improvements of George & Hibbert, Danny Granger is still the best player on our team.
A lot of people don’t think that he is good enough to be the best player on a good team and that is a fair criticism. But where I tend to part ways with them is that they tend to blame this on Danny and do not realize that he can’t be held responsible for the fact that the team has not brought in a better player. He can only be the player he is and no he is not ever going to be a Dwayne Wade or Derrick Rose type of high flyer. That just isn’t his game. I think it is more than safe to say that Danny is a good soldier for our club (another reason there is loyalty there) and I feel that he would have no opposition at all to us bringing in another player that was better. I think a lot of people tend to forget that this is a guy who was a rookie right after the brawl, in other words the year he got here the team collapsed because of what happened the year before and Reggie was already gone. This is a guy who had no mentor and no other true veteran presence to help guide him along or even help him with the team. So really it is actually somewhat surprising that he turned out as good as he did.
One of the other criticisms of Danny is that he does not always appear to be engaged on the defensive end. I think that this is a fair assessment as well. I think some over state it but there are times where it does appear he takes a play or two off, which frankly is not good. But there are times when he locks in he can be an almost elite level of defender who denies position with the best of them. Obviously the playoffs were rough but I contend there is nobody on the planet that could really guard him one on one.
Passing is just average and while 5 rebounds a game isn’t bad for a small forward this is the one area that he drives me crazy because this is where we often times catch Danny leaking back trying to sneak out on a fast break all the while our other four players are having to slog it out to try and control the glass. What sucks is when he wants to he can be an almost outstanding rebounder for his size.
Overall I think the fact that he was trying very hard to metamorphosis his game to accommodate the rest of the team and the new coaching staffs philosophies speaks well of him and I am not concerned about his game declining, I just believe he was trying to fit the system.
Now having said all of that I want to say this. I think the playoffs from Danny were a disappointment. Honestly I may have been setting myself up with to high of expectations for him but I really thought that we would see him step it up to another level and frankly while he had a couple of decent games against the Magic not once did I ever feel like we had a special game from him. I really thought we might, but it just never happened. Now how much his knee hurt him we’ll probably never know? It may have been a little or a lot or none at all but since he sat that final week of games to rest for the playoffs he never came back the same.
Predictions: He will be a Pacer as long as Bird is here. He will be back next season and I think we will probably see a slight overall production in his scoring.
What I would like to see: Shoot 10% fewer threes and drive the dang ball. His free throw attempts were down this year but that may be because nearly 1/3 of his shots were three’s.
Will he be an all-star: No.
David West:
Just like Granger this was the third lowest scoring average of his career as well. Also like Granger he was trying to fit his game into a new coaching staff and in the overall structure of the team. Unlike Granger he was actually trying to do this with a new team.
This was also his third lowest rebounding total of his career as well and he grabbed a full less rebound a game than he did the previous year.
He was the most significant addition to our team last year and frankly the argument could be made that he was the most significant addition via free agency to any team this year. There really can be little doubt though that he was the most significant free agent signing in Pacers history. I can’t think of another player that we have signed via free agency that came in and had the impact on the club like he did.
He immediately established himself as one of the locker room leaders if by doing nothing other than showing the team how to act and prepare for each game. Several players have made the statement that West did not tolerate any type of distractions in practice and in the locker room. Not saying he was a hard nosed person and made the team miserable, quite the contrary by all reports. But he had the one thing that you can’t buy and you can only earn and that is the respect of the locker room. So even if he didn’t make an on floor contribution (which he certainly did) he was very valuable to the club as a leader.
On one end of the floor West maintains an almost all-star like ability. On the offensive end in the low post he has a very high ability to get his shot off and not only get off the shot but make the shot. He is far stronger than I ever dreamed he was and he physically can punish a defender who tries to body up to him. He still has a nice mid range game and can make a decent if not fancy pass to a cutter or open man.
Then we come to the other end of the floor and this is where we start to see a problem. David is not a bad man to man defender and as long as he has a low post player he usually will not be burned. Obviously the crappy stretch fours of this world give him some problems because this take him away from the glass and he will never be confused with a gazelle running the floor. But it is in help defense and protecting the rim that we find David having the most problems. He can not rotate laterally to save his life and thus when Roy is not in the game or when he has rotated out to slow up a pick and roll (which is a mistake every time it’s done but that is for later) this leaves nobody at the rim. This often times is where you find Granger feverishly attempting to run in and protect the rim only to have the pass go to his man for a layup because nobody rotated to help him.
As long as Roy maintains any form of quickness and out of foul trouble it is manageable but the moment he is out and West is in with Tyler it usually is not a pretty site.
Predictions: He will continue to start on our club and will probably even take a bigger leadership role next season. Will probably produce more points as this is a contract year for him.
What I would like to see: Rebound the ball more often. I really would like to see him consistently control the glass. I understand he isn’t going to be a shot blocker but he is big enough and strong enough that he should control the backboards more often than not.
Will he be an all-star? No.
Roy Hibbert:
He’s going to get paid. He may not get the league max, we better hope not, but he is going to be the highest paid Pacer next year and for years to come. Whether we like it or don’t like it agree with it or don’t agree with it, it is going to happen.
I have no doubt in my mind that the Pacers will match almost any offer that is thrown Roy’s way. I suppose they might let him walk for a max contract but short of that I think he will get almost whatever David Faulk asks for.
Here is the thing; there were times when Roy was probably the 2nd or 3rd best center in the NBA. Then there were times that he acted like the 2nd best center on our team. This has always been the case with Roy; he has stretches of good play and then stretches of bad play. But what made this season different? His poor play stretches lasted only a few games at a time not weeks at a time like it has in the past. Simply put he is still young, he is a legitimate 7’2” tall and he has a high work ethic, high character person who is also becoming a legitimate low post threat.
What is making Roy more special as a player is something that none of us expected at all. Sure we all thought he could block some shots but none of us and I mean none of us expected him to become the rebounder that he has become. People sometimes ask me to compare him to Rik Smits and there are some similarities but one area where Roy is already starting to take a clear edge on is the rebounding because Rik just never was that good on the boards.
Also while we expected Roy to be a good shot blocker I think most of us would admit that he has far exceeded our expectation of not only being a shot blocker but just in general guarding the interior.
Our entire defensive scheme when he is on the floor is to filter people at him, no matter their talent level. Because Roy has the respect of the officials (he earned it by being very respectful when he was a rookie and 2nd year player) so that now when Roy jumps straight in the air with two hand extended up, even if it is in the restricted area, this is not a foul. That is just a huge advantage because that gives you about a 10’ wall that you have to shoot over if you are the opposition. We saw in the second round how the Heat adjusted to that but I said at the time and I’ll say it again, they are probably the only club in the NBA that has two players who can hit that one handed running tear drop shot routinely.
Now because I’m gushing over Roy at the moment doesn’t mean that he was without faults. He is the worst pick and roll player in the world (ok that might be hyperbole but not by much) and there are times when he fails to establish a strong post position.
He really needs to work on how to deal with a player with a lower center of gravity.
But with Roy that is the one thing so far that we can count on, if there is something to work on he will do it. Guy has been dedicated to improving his game since he arrived in town.
His playoff status was a mixed bag of nuts in a way. I will not say a bad word about his rebounding because generally when he was in and he was around the ball he would grab it which made me very happy. But in both series smaller less talented players would take him out of the game by not allowing him position. Now the fact that we could not make an entry pass didn’t help any but Roy does have to work to get to the spot so they can make an attempted pass at least.
Predictions: Did I mention he is going to get paid? He will be a Pacer and will anchor the club for at least another 7-8 years.
What I would like to see: Keep on keeping on basically. Improve again for the next couple of years & I won’t have any real complaints. I’m realistic enough to know that he isn’t going to ever be the best center in the NBA but I have no doubt he will be in the top 5 for several years to come.
Will he be an all-star? Maybe
Ok that’s enough for this first one. I’ll try and get the rest out over the weekend and hopefully be done early in the week.
I’ll say this; it sure is a heck of a lot easier doing this after this season than it was two years ago.
Here let's think about happy times in the Shire
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