Yes, praise. Let's try something new.

Let us get this out of the way now: Granger has been shooting like absolute garbage this year. 30% fg, 42% ts, and 36% efg is downright uuuuuuuugly. He is also probably shooting too much but shooters are going to shoot. But let us be honest, his worst shooting year in the NBA (last year) was 42.5%. He isn't going to shoot 30% the whole year, it will come around.

Some positive news about his shooting? Although the sample size is small, he is shooting 50% fg with an efg of 65% in "clutch" situations, up from 30% fg and 36% efg last year. Once again, sample size is small but still. Oh, and we are 2-0 in those games so far.

But that isn't what this post is about. It is about some of the criticism Granger has gotten over the years for his defense. And when this year came rolling along, and we added some new weapons (West, Hill) and expected improvement from our other weapons (PG, DC, Hibbert), a lot of Granger fans and criticizers alike wanted him to amp up the defense to his pre-all star days and calm down the shooting. And so far, Granger has amped up the defense. Big time.

Defense is hard to quantify with stats but let me try. You can easily just use the eyeball test and see this too but stats are easier to type lol.

Right now, Granger is 5th in the league (and the first forward on the list) in steals per game, averaging 2.1. He is also adding a block a game to go with it. Do steals mean you are an awesome defender? Absolutely not. But this is double the amount he averaged last year.

But, now let us look at his defense outside of steals. Last year, the small forwards opposing Granger had a PER of 15.2 against him, averaging 20 points per 48mins while shooting a eFG of 51%. This year? Granger's opposing small forwards have a PER of a whopping 8.5, averaging 14 points per 48mins while shooting an eFG 33%. How is that for some improvement for you? (For comparisons sake, praised defender Paul George's opponents at SG have a PER of 14.7, with 20 points per 48mins while shooting eFG of 51%).

And although a very crude method, here is how the opposing small forwards have faired against the Pacers:

Pierce: 10pts, 3/17 shooting

L. James: 33pts, 12/21 shooting (pretty sure PG guarded him though)

D. James: 10pts, 4/9 shooting

Prince: 12pts, 5/13 shooting

Casspi: 4pts, 1/6 shooting

Butler: 3pts, 1/4 shooting

Prince: 6pts, 3/10 shooting

Not everything is doom and gloom so far with Danny. When his shot comes back and if he continues playing defense like he has been, we are going to have a very good player on our hands.

Tyler Hansbrough still has not registered a single assist all year. In fact, I am not even sure if he has passed the ball when he has had it within 18 feet of the basket. And it isn't because Tyler is shooting the lights out either. Although by looking at the posts and fanposts around here you would think only Danny Granger is shooting the ball horribly, Tyler is shooting a whopping 37% while getting up 11 shots in 28 minutes off the bench.

Just so you know how bad this is, Foster has 2 assists in the 15 minutes he has played this year. Admuson also has two assists this year. D Jones has a whopping THREE!!.

So the game is simple. Pick the game Tyler will register his first assist. The winner gets a "Make a Danny Granger Trade Thread for Free" card, which means when it is put up, we have to actually take it seriously instead of going in there and hating all of humanity.

My Pick: January 20th @ Golden State.

DC is quietly showing some improvement this year and I don't think it is being appreciated enough.

To start, our offense runs 100x better when he is on the court. It isn't just yesterday in Miami where this has happened. When DC leaves the court, our bad offense gets 100x worse and really starts to stagnate. DC is doing a MUCH better job this year being a floor general and keeping the offense moving. This will become much more apparent when we actually start hitting our shots.

Defense is hard to look at quantitatively, but to me, it seems like he is trying a hell of a lot harder this year. His defensive rating is better so far this young season (103 vs 108) and there seems to be fewer moments where he acts like a doorman.

But let us look at his offense, statistics wise. He is currently averaging 10 ppg, down from 13 ppg last year. But he is doing that on only 7 shots a game, hitting 50% of his fga and 55% of his 3pt fga. His assists per game are at 6.2, an improvement from the 5 he registered last year. And it isn't just because he is playing more minutes, as his ast% is up from 29 to 34. And he is doing all of these while his usage has plummeted from 22% to 15%.

So while he may be no Derrick Rose or Steve Nash, Collison is playing solid basketball and should be the least of our worries at the moment.

Our roster is all but set and the preseason is upon us FINALLY.

So what are some of your expectations for the 2011-2012 season? Both good and bad. Some of my expectations are after the jump...

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Source:

WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski Free agent forward Mike Dunleavy will sign a two year, $7.5 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, league source tells Y! Sports.

Dunleavy started off his Indiana Pacers' career with a bang, averaging a career high19 ppg on career high 47% shooting while playing the full 82 games. Unfortunately he was never able to match that production again for the Pacers.

I always thought Dunleavy was a decent player who was just paid way too much. The offense did seem to run better with him on the court last year.

I won't miss him though. He has been overpaid for years, is a horrid defender, and is constantly hurt. And, fair or not, every time I saw him on the court, it reminded me of that awful trade that netted Dunleavy, Diogu, and Murphy and cap strapped us for years.

Best of luck to him, when he isn't playing the Pacers.

Nene is a good player, don't get me wrong. But he is commanding over 10 million a year. Why is he worth that. Does this look like someone that should make over 10 million a year:

- He has never averaged over 15 ppg

- He doesn't have a back to the basket. post up game

- He has never averaged over 8 rebounds a game

- He averages one block a game

- He has never made an all star team

- He has a bad knee

Is Nene a good player? Yes. But why is such a gifted, huge athlete averaging less than 8 rebounds a game? Why is such a gifted, huge athlete averaging only one block a game? Why is someone with no post up game commanding so much?

Nene has peaked. He isn't going to get any better than he is now. Do we really want to pay 13 million a year for 15/8 AT BEST? And this isn't even getting into the fact that many (including me) don't think he will fit next to Hibbert.

Paying huge money for mediocre talent is how small market teams get stuck. I don't want to hand cuff ourselves when we are so close to relevancy for a player that is as limited as Nene is.

What say you?

With the whole Jorgensen/Curran not being on the Main Card (but now they are) debacle, some were questioning why people cared. I mean, all the fights are shown anyway in one capacity or another so it doesn't really matter to the hardcore, BE community because we would see them fight anyway. 

But is this true? Does everyone on here really devote there entire afternoon, evening, and night to a UFC card. So it really doesn't matter to people at BE who is on the main card, who is on Spike, and who is on Facebook?

To me, hell yes it matters. I don't usually watch all of the FB cards. I will devote a night to MMA, but I am not devoting nearly all of my Saturday to it. I just don't have time for that as I have other things I need to be doing. Especially not to watch a shitty stream on a computer monitor that is usually fuzzy or skips. 

Plus, if I want to watch fights at the bar due to price, I have to get there early enough to get a seat and the FB fights are never shown. So I miss out on some good fights due to the UFC's incompetence. 

So to me, hell yes it matters. But what about the rest of BE? Are you religiously devoted to FB so card placement doesn't matter?

21.5 ppg- first on team

3.5 apg- second on team

4 rbg

1 turnover pg

50% fg, 40% 3fg

PER of 22.4

He is scoring at the same rate, with a higher shooting percentage, and his turnovers are down big time. All against Deng, an awesome defender and against the best defense in the league.

Why are we blaming and criticizing him right now? Why aren't we praising him for stepping up his game from the regular season?

We know he has faults: you can't give him the ball at the end of the game at the top of the key and say "score." We realize that. But maybe we should be asking why we keep putting him in that position. Why not move him around more, try running him off screens, put him in the post... anything.Maybe we should be yelling at the coach to try something else.

You can recognize faults without blaming and calling for a player to be traded, especially when he is the best player on our team by a long shot and is playing pretty dang well. Our starting 4 is shooting under 40% and averaging only 5 rebounds a game yet I don't see post after post complaining he sucks and isn't starting quality?

Let me get this out of the way now: Hansbrough and McRoberts are much better than I thought they would ever be already. Especially Tyler.

The problem with these two is that, although they are good NBA players, you don't want one of them starting for your team if you really want to contend. The power forward position is a murderous row of talent. We are talking about players like: Bosh, Garnett, Boozer, Smith/Horford, Stoudemire, Brand, Gasol/Odom, Duncan, Dirk, West, Milsap/Jefferson, Aldridge, Randolph, Scola, Lee, Griffin, and Love.

Both of them would be good-to-great backup 4's. Both are really too small to be a back up 5. We don't yet have that starting 4 that can compete with those guys that we desperately need.

So, let us say Bird stuns us all and gets us that PF after the lockout. Who do you want to stick around and who do you want us to trade for assets? We don't need both... who you like more... Hans or McBobs?

After the jump... the stats.

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Let me start out with some praise. The Pacers are a LOT better than I thought they would be at this point in the season. Hibbert is playing great and there is still room for improvement with him so he is only going to be getting better. McRobert's is doing the little stuff we needed him to do. Granger's shot is back (don't be fooled by his lower PPG... he isn't shooting as much. As soon as he gets to the line some more his PER will shoot back up) and he is playing the best defense of his life. All the Pacers are actually trying to play defense and it is showing.

But one thing that is grinding my gears is the fact Collison isn't playing 35 minutes a night and isn't finishing games. He is the future at the position. Oh, and he is light years better than TJ Ford.

But people will scream "but TJ Ford is better this year! He is accepting his role off the bench! He has been a good back up point guard. You are just a hater!" Which is really weird because whenever I see him on the court I just wish Collison was playing more and Price got off the pine.

So after the jump, the cold hard facts about TJ Ford's "good" year.

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This was done by fan vote and I think I remember someone linking it because I know I went and voted.

The choices to vote on were: Danny Granger, Mike Dunleavy, T.J. Ford, Dahntay Jones, Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush.

A pretty "meh" team for NBA Jam standards, but still... Granger shooting the lights out with Hibbert underneath smashing people and D. Jones with more smashing and dunking on people would be a useable team. Then throw in some legends (who we didn't vote on) like Reggie Miller and Rik Smits and that team could be aweome.

Instead, we get this: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=NBAJam-100907

Danny Granger

Mike Dunleavy

TJ Ford

Legend: Detlef Schrempf

WHAT!!!!!!

First off, no Reggie is a killer, but that isn't anyones fault as "Contractual obstacles prevent EA from making the obvious selection of Reggie Miller as Indy's legend -- apparently because Reg isn't an active member of the NBA players' association..." but still that sucks. Then instead of Smits or Mark Jackson somebody, we get Schrempf! WTF! Just because he was in the first game. That is stupid.

Secondly.. people somehow voted Dunleavy and Ford in. Over Hibbert. Heartbreaking. I hate our fans.

This line up is awful, in real life, and especially in NBA Jam.

Let us take a break from the off the court drama and the fantasy trades (we aren't getting Josh Smith people) and take a look at the actual product on the floor. Is the off season over? No, but there aren't even rumors at this point involving the Pacers so I think it is fair to at least look at the starting line up at this time. Better than arguing about Brandon Marley right?

After the jump: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Ranking-the-centers-21-through-11?urn=nba-265420

"Hibbert has had his growing pains, for sure. From fouling too much in his rookie year to serving as Pacer coach Jim O'Brien's go-to screaming post in his second. But the Georgetown product has significant skills in the pivot, and don't be surprised if Roy comes out of nowhere in 2010-11 to act as one of the better passing big men in the NBA. His growing ease with the high post, combined with his already potent low post play gives Indiana a real up and comer."

Please remember, this is for NEXT year. He is trying to predict for NEXT year. Not last year. Not for the next 10.

The list isn't completed yet, but I already have some qualms with a couple ahead of him. First... Varejao being two spots ahead of him is wrong IMO. If this is next years rankings, how is he going to be without James getting all of the attention? I think I would take Hibbert over him 100% of the time next year. Also, although I know he is talented beyond belief, I don't like Yao ahead of Hibbert. For ONE GAME, yes I would take Yao 100% of the time. But do you really expect Yao to make it through the season at this point?

What say you IC?

If you go to Ball Don't Lie, you would have seen Kelly Dwyer's 1-30 player position rankings. 

He has finished the small forwards and Danny Granger came in at #6. Please remember, this means he expect Granger to be the 6th best small forward NEXT year as these are projections. What he said:

"Indiana's go-to guy slipped a bit in 2009-10, dropping his points per game average down nearly two ticks and shooting the worst percentage of his NBA career. The good end to that is that Danny still dropped over 24 a game, and that at age 27 upon entering October's training camp, he'll be just about ready to enter his prime. Now all he needs is some help. Lots of it." 

The small forwards ahead of Granger? Iggy, Gerald Wallace, Carmelo, Durant, and Lebron.

What say you IC... is this a fair ranking? Too high? Too low?

Personally I say he is at worst 6th best, but could easily be as high as number 4 and I think should be above Iggy at number 5. But he is definitely in that 2nd tier... you got Lebron/Durant/Carmelo, and then you got Wallace/Iggy/Granger/Pierce.  (well to be honest, I think Carmelo is in tier 1.5... not near lebron and durant but better than the next 4.)

Lets just start with true, straight to the point statements:

Danny Granger has been very disappointing so far this season and does not look like the franchise player we signed to a nice fat contract last off season.

His shooting percentage is by far the worst of his career.

His 3pt shoot percentage is the worst it has been since his rookie season.

That statement is 100% true in my opinion. The real questions are:

1. Why?

2. Should we be worried that this is the Danny Granger we have designated our franchise player?

After the jump, a couple thoughts on both... and of course a poll.

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A good amount of people around here (or many just the vocal ones) want the Pacers to tank the rest of the season to get the best shot at getting Kentucky PG and phenom John Wall.

The New Jersey Nets are in fact tanking this year. They have the worst team in basketball and are on pace to have the worst record in NBA history. They have virtually no hope of winning any game they play.

If you have magic powers and can switch places with the Nets, would you? Lets say we had a team of Granger and Hibbert (similar to their Harris and Lopez)  surrounded by a bunch of of absolute scrubs. We would have virtually no shot at winning a game and would routinely be blown out by 15+. We would win 7 games (what NJ is on pace for). Because we are in Indiana, like New Jersey, we have virtually no chance of pulling in any good free agent with our cap money unless we overpay. Obie would still be our coach and BIrd still our president, because you can't fire someone when a team is that void of talent.

But, you have a 25% chance at Wall.

Would you do it?

I like most of Dwyer's blog posts. His attitude/tone is a bit off putting sometimes, but overall I like him. And he posts for a large sports website (yahoo) so his opinion... matters.

Tuesday  was bash the Pacers day! At least you think he could wait until after a horrible loss not a win. But none the less, after the jump, notable quotes from Mr. Dwyer.

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Some People were wondering why we gave Jones as much money as we did. He got 4 years 11 million, which averages out to 2.75 million per year.

So after the jump, there are a list of players who made will make around 2.75 million this year. I went through every team using HoopsHype, however players on their rookie contracts are not counted obviously as they are the best value in the NBA.

I will let you draw your own conclusions, but I think the Pacers used their money wisely. 2-3 million doesn't get you a lot in the NBA and the Pacers got a playoff starter who fills a very big need for them.

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According to ESPN

The salary cap as been set at $57.7 million, which is about a million lower than last year ($58.68M). The luxary tax line dropped to $69.92 million, which is over a million less than last year ($71.2M). This sets the Mid Level Exception to be $5.85 million a year. This actually happened even though the NBA made 2.5% more money last year. Odd.

So what does this mean for the Indiana Pacers?

Well using the numbers found at HoopsHype, the Pacers have $55,744,996 in salary IF we lose both Jack and the "Bearded One" to free agency. As we know, both are restricted free agents and both have been offered the qualifying offer ($2,899,798 and $1,000,497 respectively). If both take the qualifying offer, we will have $59,645,291 in salary.

There is no way in hell the Pacers pay the luxary tax. Not when the brothers are losing money and not when the team isn't any good. We are not the New York Knicks. However, this does give us roughtly $10M to play with before we cross that line this off season (if Jack and McRoberts just except the qualifying offer).

This news will also scare other teams from spending money and/or giving the free agents this year crazy amounts of money. Gives us a better chance of finding the bargains with are looking for.

I can definitely see McRoberts just getting the qualifying offer or something similiar for multiple years. I am against paying him the million as we could use it elsewhere and he is behind Murphy and Hansbrough on the depth chart, but he has looked awesome this summer league so I am warming up to it. Jack will likely cost us more than 3 million.

According to  Ball Don't Lie via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mike Bibby has resigned with the Atlanta Hawks for the MLE for 3 years.

Why is this such good news for Indiana fans? Because it was rumored the Hawks had interest in Jack. Remember, Jack played college ball at Georgia Tech so he had ties with the city of Atlanta. This move also eliminates another team that was looking for a point guard this off-season.

This does beg to question of how much Jack is going to get paid this off season. As Cornrows posted (here), the little used, back-up PG Shannon Brown got 2 years at 2.1 million per season with the Pacers offering more. An over-the-hill Bibby ended up with 3 years at the MLE. Jack will obviously end up between the two as no team is going to offer more than the MLE in this economy, but will it be closer to the 5-6 million Bibby got or closer to the 2.1 million Brown got? And will the Pacers match?

From RealGm:

Things have been relatively quiet in Indiana, but the Pacers have contacted free agent guards Luther Head and Shannon Brown.

Neither of these guys will light the world on fire. I really think Brown isn't a true PG but more of a "Laker's PG" aka he can take the ball up the court but really Kobe runs the show. But his size is intriguing for the position and should/can defend. Head showed some promise in Houston his first few years int he league but was awful last year. He could be had for nothing more than the minimum.

Luther Head 6-3 Guard

 Career Per Game: 8.6 ppg - 2.3 apg - 42% fg - 39% 3fg - PER 12.3

Shannon Brown 6-4 Guard

Career Per Game: 4.2 ppg - 0.7 apg - 41% fg - 33% 3fg - PER 10 (15 last year)