Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

[Ace E.Anderson]

http://www.indystar.com/article/20131024/SPORTS04/310240052/Danny-Granger-unlikely-play-when-Pacers-open-regular-season-Tuesday

Danny Granger’s return to the Indiana Pacers likely will be delayed a bit longer — although no one knows exactly how long.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel said after practice Thursday that the strained calf suffered by Granger last week is worse than previously thought and he doubts the former All-Star forward will play in the team’s regular-season opener against Orlando on Tuesday.

“There’s a chance he could play (against the Magic), but it’s probably unlikely,” Vogel said.

Granger did not play in Tuesday’s 107-89 preseason victory at Atlanta and will not play Friday night in the Pacers’ preseason finale at Dallas. He missed all but five games last season because of a knee injury.

The calf strain, suffered Oct. 16 against Dallas, is not directly related to the knee injury, but Granger has not practiced for more than a week and Vogel is concerned that has kept the knee from being as strong as it needs to be.

“That could be what makes this more than a day-to-day thing,” Vogel said.

Granger refused to rule himself out for Tuesday, however.

“That’s why we keep saying ‘day to day.’ ” he said. “They’re kind of bringing me in to see how I’m feeling, so I don’t know.”

Granger had been the Pacers’ leading scorer for five consecutive years before last season. He is in the final year of his contract. Entering camp, he was in a close battle with Lance Stephenson — who replaced him in the starting lineup — for the fifth starting spot this season.

The setback with the calf ensures Stephenson will start, Vogel said.

“We’ll see where Danny is as he heals and that could change down the road,” Vogel said. “If Danny was healthy and playing great, and Lance is healthy and playing great, I could see stretches throughout the season where Lance was starting, and I could see stretches where Danny is starting.”

Those plans are on hold for now for the Pacers, who started the preseason with five losses before winning their past two.

“I’m real happy about my knee, honestly,” Granger said. “The calf is just a muscle strain. That’s not a big deal. ... I’ve been real happy because my knee has been just fine up till this point, so if I had to get hurt, I was glad that it was just a muscle strain, honestly.”

Vogel said he will stick to the regular lineup and rotations Friday night at Dallas, similar to what he will use during the regular season. There could be a few tweaks, though. Chris Copeland, whom the Pacers signed away from the New York Knicks, will get a look at small forward after being used at power forward for most of the preseason.

Starting guard George Hill said the Pacers are tired as the preseason concludes.

“I think it’s only because of the Global Games,” Hill said of the Pacers’ two exhibition games in Asia against the Houston Rockets. “I think it kind of messed (up) the schedule there, going over there, re-catching up on your sleep and the time difference.

“We’ve had six road games and just two home games. It’s been tough. But you want to use things like that to teach you how to fight through adversity.”

[Pacerized]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

http://www.indystar.com/article/2013...season-Tuesday

Danny Granger’s return to the Indiana Pacers likely will be delayed a bit longer — although no one knows exactly how long.
.”

That's a real shame. I'm in Indy for just a few days and just bought tickets to the home opener. The only other time I'll get to see the Pacers this year will be at Denver. I was really hoping to see Granger play Tues. I hope this is a very short term thing for him and he's able to move into the lineup within a few games.

[Deadshot]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

That's a real shame. I'm in Indy for just a few days and just bought tickets to the home opener. The only other time I'll get to see the Pacers this year will be at Denver. I was really hoping to see Granger play Tues. I hope this is a very short term thing for him and he's able to move into the lineup within a few games.

Same here. I'm flying to Indy today for the first time in years to see family, which also means my first game at BLF in 10 yrs. Will see him on the road at some point but I wanted to see the home crowd reaction.

[vnzla81]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

Vogel is massaging somebody's ego with his comments, good strategy to keep the locker room together too.

[Hicks]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

After reading those Vogel and Granger quotes, I'm leaning towards this just being exactly what it looks like at face value: A minor injury. We're all paranoid because of what he's just been through the past 12 months, but to this point everything suggests this wasn't a knee setback beyond not being able to finish his rehab due to the other (calf) problem.

[Ace E.Anderson]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

Vogel is massaging somebody's ego with his comments, good strategy to keep the locker room together too.

The team went to the ECF without Granger last year. No need to massage anyone's ego to "keep the locker room together". If he thought different, and truly wanted to keep Danny on the bench he could easily say that and there wouldn't be an issue.

If Danny didn't like it, tough. (Though I doubt he'd make much fuss if this truly was the case)

[Derek2k3]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

While I agree this is likely just a minor injury...this still really bums me out.

[Sollozzo]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

After reading those Vogel and Granger quotes, I'm leaning towards this just being exactly what it looks like at face value: A minor injury. We're all paranoid because of what he's just been through the past 12 months, but to this point everything suggests this wasn't a knee setback beyond not being able to finish his rehab due to the other (calf) problem.

But the question is how many minor injuries will he have this season?

[cinotimz]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

But the question is how many minor injuries will he have this season?

Well wouldnt we just love to know that about every player on the roster?

[Sollozzo]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

Well wouldnt we just love to know that about every player on the roster?

I'm not worried about the other players on the roster. Sure, something freaky can always happen on the basketball court, but only one of our players played in just 5 games last year and then couldn't even make it out of the pre-season without suffering a setback injury.

Let's hope that this injury heals and that he's fine for the rest of the season. But a minor injury here and a minor injury there would eventually turn into a major problem.

[Speed]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

I hope he can come back and be an outside shooting threat that gives them 12 points a game and can give you some defensive mins against the Carmelo's and Lebron's of the league/bigger Small Foward types, so Paul doesn't have to . I hope that's everyone's expectations, cuz I think thats the best case scenario after such a long lay off. 24 quality minutes, that's all I hope for.

[Since86]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

I'm not worried about the other players on the roster. Sure, something freaky can always happen on the basketball court, but only one of our players played in just 5 games last year and then couldn't even make it out of the pre-season without suffering a setback injury.

Let's hope that this injury heals and that he's fine for the rest of the season. But a minor injury here and a minor injury there would eventually turn into a major problem.

But it's not a set back injury. The calf strain doesn't have anything to do with the knee. The fact that Danny got injured, and no one else did, doesn't say anything about Danny's potential future injuries, nor does it say anything about any of the other players.

Which is why I think it's silly to say that Lance should start, because he'll be healthier. There's absolutely no way of predicting that. Lance could get hit by a bus tomorrow, or he could break his ankle tonight. You cannot plan for injuries, and thinking one player should start because one player might miss time in the future is a pointless exercise. Sure Danny might have a setback, but there's absolutely no way of knowing and whether or not he does he'll still need to be replaced in whatever role he does have.

[Eleazar]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

I hope he can come back and be an outside shooting threat that gives them 12 points a game and can give you some defensive mins against the Carmelo's and Lebron's of the league/bigger Small Foward types, so Paul doesn't have to . I hope that's everyone's expectations, cuz I think thats the best case scenario after such a long lay off. 24 quality minutes, that's all I hope for.

He has been more than that in the preseason so far, but a good margin.

[Sollozzo]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

But it's not a set back injury. The calf strain doesn't have anything to do with the knee. The fact that Danny got injured, and no one else did, doesn't say anything about Danny's potential future injuries, nor does it say anything about any of the other players.

Which is why I think it's silly to say that Lance should start, because he'll be healthier. There's absolutely no way of predicting that. Lance could get hit by a bus tomorrow, or he could break his ankle tonight. You cannot plan for injuries, and thinking one player should start because one player might miss time in the future is a pointless exercise. Sure Danny might have a setback, but there's absolutely no way of knowing and whether or not he does he'll still need to be replaced in whatever role he does have.

I'm just using Vogel's words. Vogel called it a setback:



Vogel: "[Granger] was on track to maybe have a role with the starting unit where he's still finding his timing & Lance is running the bench"

"With this setback, we'll see where he's at almost on a day-by-day basis."

"There's a process of [Granger] getting back in there, testing the calf again, make sure it's strong. So it's going to be some time."

http://www.indycornrows.com/2013/10/24/5025320/danny-granger-injury-update-miss-season-opener-nba-pacers

Sure, Lance could get hit by a bus or struck by lightning. Or aliens could take over the planet tomorrow making this debate a moot point. But nothing changes the fact that at this moment, Lance is a healthy injury-free 23 year old, whereas Granger is a 30 year old who played in just 5 games last year and couldn't even make it out of the pre-season without suffering a setback (Vogel's words) injury. You can't predict if someone will get struck by lightning, but you can use anecdotal evidence to make a logical inference that clearly one of these guys is healthier than the other. If Lance gets hit by that bus tomorrow, then yeah that changes things, but nothing like that has happened yet.

Instead of running Granger into the ground early just so we can show the world that he can play, I'd prefer to bring him around slowly against other team's bench players so that we can preserve him for the playoffs. We'll see what happens.

[Derek2k3]

Re: Danny Granger unlikely to play when Pacers open regular season

It's a setback in the sense of "Danny Granger being healthy at the start of the year."

It isn't a setback in terms of his knee.