NBA News 2013: Old Style Pacers Are Built To Contend

Pacers Paul George (Photo credit: IsoSports)

Last season, Indiana Pacers head coach Frank Vogel’s “smash-mouth basketball” took the surprising Pacers to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, where they led the Miami HEAT two games to one before dropping three in a row to the eventual NBA champions. This year, Indiana is back stronger, tougher and nastier than ever and proving that last season’s 52-win pace was no fluke.

“[The Pacers] are big time,” Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said. “Tough, physical, nasty – they play playoff basketball every night. They are not into up and down, up and down. They just try to come down and carve you apart. They hit, bang and bump you. Any time they get a chance, they bump you to get you off your constitution a little bit. Anything to rattle you physically and legally, they put their hands on you. Just like playoff games are played and they play that style each and every night.”

Vogel assumed the reins midway through the 2010-11 season from Jim O’Brien and took a losing program to the playoffs that April. He had a philosophy that matched the talent then-president Larry Bird had assembled. Vogel wanted a big team that played tough defense and rebounded.

“When I took over, I felt this was the style that was winning in the playoffs at the time,” Vogel said. “We have seen some teams that have gone small, like Miami and Oklahoma City last year, have succeeded at the highest level, but when I took over it was [Andrew] Bynum and [Pau] Gasol in L.A., [Kevin] Garnett and [Kendrick] Perkins won it, and [Tyson] Chandler and Dirk Nowitzki won championships. So I like playing with two bigs and winning the defensive rebounding battle and then trusting the pass offensively. So that’s the style we are trying to play and hopefully it wins at playoffs. If you don’t have the players to do that then you have to adjust and play whatever style your personnel dictates, but give Larry Bird credit for putting together a team that can play this style.”

The Pacers made immediate improvements in their defensive ratings with Vogel running the show, improvements that have continued into this season. Currently the Pacers lead the league in rebounding differential at plus 4.7 boards per game and hold opponents to a league-worst field goal percentage of 41.5 percent.

“For us it starts on the defensive end,” David West said. “We are trying to win as many games as possible. We are in a tough playoff race. We understand that our defense is going to give us a chance. We are aggressive defensively. We play together defensively and try to protect the rim and guard the three-point line and force teams to score over us.”

The Pacers play this style with pride. It has become the team’s identity and something they can hang their hat on every night. This level of defensive intensity isn’t common throughout the NBA, but the Pacers have the size and depth of talent to make it work. Former All-Stars Roy Hibbert and West are backed up by the seven-foot Ian Mahinmi and Tyler Hansbrough. The return of Danny Granger to the lineup just adds to this team’s depth.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/old-style-pacers-are-built-to-contend/

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NBA News 2012: Granger's importance

Indiana Pacers logo 1990–2005. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about Danny Granger’s true importance to the Indiana Pacers. As the Pacers rose from the wreckage of four-straight Lottery appearances, Granger became the default No. 1 on a balanced roster built around depth and continuity.

Just nine games into the season, Granger’s value has been revealed to a team that was projected to be among the Eastern Conference elite. He is expected to miss a total of three months with a knee issue. A midseason return can’t come soon enough for the Pacers.

Despite a youthful roster, Frank Vogel’s crew featured a plodding offense (19th in pace) that scored 104.6 points per 100 possessions (ninth) in 2011-12. That may have been a product of the compressed 66-game schedule combined with the team’s depth and athleticism. From 2007-08 to 2010-11, the Pacers ranked 19th, 15th, 26th and 22nd in offensive rating. They are supposed to be a defensive-minded team with an average offense.

Without Granger, the Pacers' offense has been horrible.

The Pacers are scoring just 95.5 points per 100 possessions, better than only the 76ers and winless Wizards. They have maintained a very slow pace (89.8 possessions per 48 minutes, 28th in the league), but their effective field goal percentage has dipped significantly. They rank dead last in eFG% (.433), down from .475 in 2011-12.

Vogel took the ball out of Granger’s hands a bit last season with the addition of George Hill and David West, as well as the emergence of Paul George and Roy Hibbert. His usage rate hit a three-year low of .261, still the highest among the team’s rotation players over the full season. Leandro Barbosa beat him out by a few percentage points as the lead guard off the bench following a midseason trade.

The coaching staff has had to distribute more than a quarter of the team’s possessions in the wake of Granger’s absence. He entered the league as an athletic, defensive-minded wing player, but his improved range allowed him to become a fringe All-Star and pseudo-franchise player.

There have been questions about Vogel’s play-calling and the invisibility of Roy Hibbert after signing a big contract, but Granger’s injury is clearly the team’s biggest problem. Indiana was 11.7 points per 100 possessions better with Granger on the court last season.

He was one of three Pacers to post more than eight WARP in 2011-12. He contributed 8.5 wins above replacement player, ahead of Paul George (8.2) and slightly behind Roy Hibbert (8.7). When news broke that Granger would miss significant time, the belief was that Hill, George and Hibbert would absorb his touches and as emerging talent they would do so effectively. The reality is that their effectiveness has taken a hit.

George had a True Shooting percentage of .555 last season, but through the first two weeks of the season that number has dipped to .479. His usage rate has jumped from .195 to .208.

Hill has seen his usage jump from .173 to .209 without Granger. He posted a TS% of .557 in his first season with the Pacers, but that has dropped to .494 in the early stages of this year.

Hibbert, who came into the season with the highest expectations, has actually used fewer possessions (.212 to .192). His TS% has dropped from .539 to .391. He is averaging fewer than two free throws per game despite a career-high 4.1 offensive rebounds per game. His block percentage (6.1%) is also a career-high, but his numbers of the defensive glass have fallen considerably.

Nine games is a fairly small sample size over the course of an 82-game season, but the panic button is within sight. With just three wins, they are in the bottom third of the NBA despite stellar defense. They have also played just two clubs that qualified for the playoffs last spring, making their record even more alarming.

It is also worth noting that they have already played six games that were decided by five points or fewer, an extremely high rate and performance in those games typically regresses to the mean. The schedule will only get tougher after a rather vanilla first two weeks, especially with the absence of the even more appreciated Granger putting everything into question.

The trio of George, Hibbert and Hill has had time to adjust to basketball without Granger. They now need to step up with increased importance or suffer the consequences. For the team, those concerns relate to playoff status. Hibbert and Hill, they have their multiyear deals, but George is next in line. Instead of increasing his value, his play sans Granger might reduce it.

http://basketball.realgm.com/blog/224513/Granger%E2%80%99s_Importance_Becomes_Clear

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NBA News 2012: Granger Out Three Months

BOSTON, MA - MARCH 16: Danny Granger #33 is pulled away from the referee by teamamte Tyler Hansbrough #50 of the Indiana Pacers on March 16, 2011 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Granger was called for a techical foul. The Celtics defeated the Indiana Pacers 92-80. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Danny Granger received an injection on Tuesday to treat left patellar tendinosis. The procedure was performed by Dr. James Andrews.

The Indiana Pacers' medical personnel are looking at a recovery time of approximately three months.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/224364/Granger_Out_Three_Months_Following_Injection

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NBA News 2010: Who's Really the Best Point Guard in the Class of 2009?

Image via Wikipedia

Beyond the three lottery PGs, this draft class also happened to have a number of quality PGs buried in the late-teens/early-20s of the draft, namely Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Darren Collison and Eric Maynor. Already, Evans, Curry, Jennings, Holiday and Collison will enter the season with the starting role of their respective teams; that means 1/6 of the NBA's teams will be led by this draft class already. 

Evans, the Rookie of the Year, should enter this season as the tentative favorite, but Curry's Team USA experience gives him a unique advantage in the race. Considering the upgrades to Jennings' Bucks team, it'd be foolish to count him out, and with Darren Collison getting a fresh opportunity in Indiana to pair alongside All-Star Danny Granger, he could officially become the surprise of the class this coming season.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/441970-nba-2010-11-the-100-biggest-questions-facing-the-nba-this-season#page/65

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NBA News 2010: Who Will Be The Most Surprising Team?

Image via Wikipedia

This year, once again, some team will emerge from their apparent wreckage and blossom into a legitimate NBA contender for years to come. In the East, an early favorite could be Indiana, who finally found a real point guard in Darren Collison to pair with Team USA participant Danny Granger on the wing. 

The West has an obvious choice in the Houston Rockets, as Yao Ming returns from a year-long injury hiatus, but for a deeper sleeper, what about the Sacramento Kings?  With Tyreke Evans, last year's Rookie of the Year, paired with the Kings' suddenly beefy frontcourt (Carl Landry, Jason Thompson, Samuel Dalembert and  DeMarcus Cousins), the Kings have real potential for a breakout season, even if they don't make the playoff leap in the always-competitive West.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/441970-nba-2010-11-the-100-biggest-questions-facing-the-nba-this-season#page/63

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NBA News 2010: Pacers Delay An Inevitable Trade On Draft Night

Image via WikipediaThe Indiana Pacers didn’t get the point guard they so desperately need on Thursday night, despite rumors linking them to a number of passers in the days leading up to the NBA Draft.
Pacers president Larry Bird admitted earlier in the week that he was considering trading the No. 10 pick in exchange for a point guard, but he and general manager David Morway never pulled the trigger.
Instead, they drafted Fresno State’s Paul George and added him to their stable of wing players.
George has been compared to Danny Granger and even worked out with the former All-Star in Los Angeles recently.
The decision to take George, who Bird insists they will keep, sure seems like a precursor to a trade in the coming weeks.
“We could've made some deals with guys that we felt were backups and we had a couple offers (but) it was just too much so we decided to wait till the summer and see what we could do,” said Bird. “We'll get something resolved this summer, I'm sure of that. There's no guarantees of anything but we've got ourselves in position to do some things this summer.
Ed Davis could have been groomed as a replacement at power forward for Troy Murphy, who will either be traded over the next eight months or leave as a free agent next summer. The Pacers have Roy Hibbert at center, but Jeff Foster is aging and has an expiring contract as well.
George joins Granger, Mike Dunleavy, Brandon Rush and Dahntay Jones on the wing, a pretty strong top-five for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons.
By comparison, they have just T.J. Ford and A.J. Price at the point and Murphy, Hibbert, Foster, Tyler Hansbrough, Solomon Jones and Josh McRoberts in the paint.
If they opt to move Murphy this summer to get a point guard, without getting a big man in return, they’ll be left with only Hibbert as a certainty. Foster and Hansbrough are coming off injury-plagued seasons and the latter hasn’t had to play any kind of significant minutes at the professional level.
That could mean the Pacers will swing a pair of deals.
Obviously, Murphy is a top contender to be dealt. Dunleavy has an attractive expiring contract, but Brandon Rush has higher value as a younger, healthier and cheaper option.
http://pacers.realgm.com/articles/195/20100627/pacers_delay_an_inevitable_trade_on_draft_night/

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