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The Lone Granger
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I'm a huge Indiana Pacers fan, and watching Granger's play the last few years has been great, but also leaves me desiring more from him. Granger has the potential to be a star in the league, and lead the Pacers to great things, but there are just some major flaws in his game that he has to improve in order to reach that potential. In this article I am going to try to break down what Granger needs to do in order to take his game to that next level, and become an elite NBA player.
1. Make Defense a Priority
I'm not sure how many of you guys have watched Granger throughout his career, but during his rookie and sophmore seasons in the NBA, he used to stress defense to himself. After those first two years though, his focus on defense has gone steadily down, to the point where he's almost a liability on defense at times.
There are three possibilities on why this is happening in my opinion. One possibility is that he's just losing interest in playing defense and wants to get back on offense so he doesn't put forth effort. Two, is that he just isn't that defensively talented, and maybe we're just now seeing it as he gets older. Three, he doesn't care about defense. I'll wrap this up by saying that Pacers fans better hope it's either option 1 or option 2, or else they might not be seeing much defense from Granger for quite some time.
2. Better Shot Selection
While he is the best player on our roster, he makes things so much harder on himself by taking difficult shots. More often than not, coming down the stretch in close games you'd see Granger try to take his defender and pull up over him and try to drain a contested three. Those of you that do watch Granger know that he could take the ball to the rim just as easily and either draw the foul or finish the play, but yet he continues to insist on shooting the contested jumper.
If Granger does cut back on those stupid shots, you'll see his percentage go up very quickly. After Frank Vogel took over coaching last season, he cut back on them a decent amount, but I believe the Pacers are still hoping he backs off even more this season.
3. Improve His Passing
I have absolutely loved watching Granger's passing game improve over the last year, but it still needs some work. Since he is the best player, he gets double-teamed quite a bit, or gets jumped at and then a second defender switches off on him. There have been numerous times where the Pacers could have had a layup or dunk if he'd been looking to make a pass, or had the ability to make a pass through traffic. I understand making passes in the NBA is harder than it looks, but still, if Granger could improve that pass he'd have to be respected even more.
I'll give him credit that he improved his pass quite a bit last season, but if he can take that part of his game just a little farther, it will go a long ways towards him making his teammates better, and also getting better looking shots with defenses having to respect his pass.
4. Ball-Handling Needs to Improve
Granger is great at taking the ball from the three-point line, putting it on the floor, and getting to the bucket but that is about as far as his ability to handle the ball goes. What I look for in my star player is the ability to take the ball up near the mid-court circle, and run the offense when your team really needs a bucket.
I'll admit that this kind of comes into the same category as improving passing does, because to be able to be the star of the team, you have to handle the ball, and also to run the offense you have to pass it. If he can get these two things down, he'd be able to lead the Pacers so much better. At the end of games when they need big shots, just clear out and let Granger go to work. If they want to double-team him, he'll learn to pass the ball to the open guy, and you'll get open shots rather than working hard for a bad shot.
5. Improve Leadership Role
Granger just hasn't stepped up into the role he's normally talked about as. Most people think that he is the "leader" of the Pacers, but to be honest, the only real things I've seen him do to lead his team are score the most of course, but also talk about Barbosa shooting a shot at the buzzers when Toronto was already up 9 at the end of a game last season, and push LeBron James for shoving one of his teammates. He hasn't been a vocal leader at all for Indiana, and he doesn't really lead too much on the court either. If Indiana wants to be a solid Playoff team next year, they need leadership, and Granger needs to be the one providing it.
Overall Danny is a great player right now, but he's not at the level that he needs to be for the Pacers to succeed. If he wants to become a star in the NBA, these are five things that he needs to improve to do so. Hopefully he's able to work on them and get them done, but only time will tell.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what Granger needs to do. Agree or disagree with me? Let me know about. Hope you enjoyed the read, and hope to hear some comments on this article.
1. Make Defense a Priority
I'm not sure how many of you guys have watched Granger throughout his career, but during his rookie and sophmore seasons in the NBA, he used to stress defense to himself. After those first two years though, his focus on defense has gone steadily down, to the point where he's almost a liability on defense at times.
There are three possibilities on why this is happening in my opinion. One possibility is that he's just losing interest in playing defense and wants to get back on offense so he doesn't put forth effort. Two, is that he just isn't that defensively talented, and maybe we're just now seeing it as he gets older. Three, he doesn't care about defense. I'll wrap this up by saying that Pacers fans better hope it's either option 1 or option 2, or else they might not be seeing much defense from Granger for quite some time.
2. Better Shot Selection
While he is the best player on our roster, he makes things so much harder on himself by taking difficult shots. More often than not, coming down the stretch in close games you'd see Granger try to take his defender and pull up over him and try to drain a contested three. Those of you that do watch Granger know that he could take the ball to the rim just as easily and either draw the foul or finish the play, but yet he continues to insist on shooting the contested jumper.
If Granger does cut back on those stupid shots, you'll see his percentage go up very quickly. After Frank Vogel took over coaching last season, he cut back on them a decent amount, but I believe the Pacers are still hoping he backs off even more this season.
3. Improve His Passing
I have absolutely loved watching Granger's passing game improve over the last year, but it still needs some work. Since he is the best player, he gets double-teamed quite a bit, or gets jumped at and then a second defender switches off on him. There have been numerous times where the Pacers could have had a layup or dunk if he'd been looking to make a pass, or had the ability to make a pass through traffic. I understand making passes in the NBA is harder than it looks, but still, if Granger could improve that pass he'd have to be respected even more.
I'll give him credit that he improved his pass quite a bit last season, but if he can take that part of his game just a little farther, it will go a long ways towards him making his teammates better, and also getting better looking shots with defenses having to respect his pass.
4. Ball-Handling Needs to Improve
Granger is great at taking the ball from the three-point line, putting it on the floor, and getting to the bucket but that is about as far as his ability to handle the ball goes. What I look for in my star player is the ability to take the ball up near the mid-court circle, and run the offense when your team really needs a bucket.
I'll admit that this kind of comes into the same category as improving passing does, because to be able to be the star of the team, you have to handle the ball, and also to run the offense you have to pass it. If he can get these two things down, he'd be able to lead the Pacers so much better. At the end of games when they need big shots, just clear out and let Granger go to work. If they want to double-team him, he'll learn to pass the ball to the open guy, and you'll get open shots rather than working hard for a bad shot.
5. Improve Leadership Role
Granger just hasn't stepped up into the role he's normally talked about as. Most people think that he is the "leader" of the Pacers, but to be honest, the only real things I've seen him do to lead his team are score the most of course, but also talk about Barbosa shooting a shot at the buzzers when Toronto was already up 9 at the end of a game last season, and push LeBron James for shoving one of his teammates. He hasn't been a vocal leader at all for Indiana, and he doesn't really lead too much on the court either. If Indiana wants to be a solid Playoff team next year, they need leadership, and Granger needs to be the one providing it.
Overall Danny is a great player right now, but he's not at the level that he needs to be for the Pacers to succeed. If he wants to become a star in the NBA, these are five things that he needs to improve to do so. Hopefully he's able to work on them and get them done, but only time will tell.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what Granger needs to do. Agree or disagree with me? Let me know about. Hope you enjoyed the read, and hope to hear some comments on this article.
