The Lone Granger Gets Back on His Saddle

Written by Erik

Monday, 16 March 2009 00:15

danny granger

Danny Granger is back in action! He played a reasonable eighteen minutes and change off the bench and scored 10 points through 3 of 11 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from the charity stripe. His not-so-impressive return can hopefully be attributed more to rust (11 games worth) rather than an incomplete healing of the partially torn tendon in his foot. Now unless you're an Indiana Pacers fan or a fantasy basketball owner of Danny's, why should this bit of news be significant to you? Brendan of 2RR had this much to say about Danny and his significance less than a week ago.

To me Danny and his progress over the course of the remainder of the season represents a chunk of key research in terms of where fantasy managers should be drafting him in next season's fantasy draft. He is Top 10 material, that's a rhetorical no-brainer right there. But the bigger question which still remains in pundits' heads is "How high up the Top 10 should Danny be drafted next season?"

Arguably, he deserves a spot somewhere between 5th-7th; and that's just based on his totals thus far, with his 11 games missed being imputed into the assessment. His biggest asset is his three-point shooting, but the fact that he is capable of chipping in so many other statistical categories is what has made him a fantasy favorite of many a fantasy hoops manager (myself included).

How Danny performs from here on out will provide us with critical information as to his potential production both for the Pacers in real life and for his potential fantasy owners next season. Last season we saw him do well on his "third-year bump," this season has been all about his 4th year explosion! Speaking of which, and pardon the intermission, I wonder what Kevin "Wonder Boy" Durant will be like once he hits his third year bump...

Anyway, I digress. Back to Danny and the Pacers. Troy Murphy's meteoric rise to fantasy stardom has paralleled Danny's season performance and popularity spike. Once Mike Dunleavy Jr. eventually returns from his knee injury, then the Indiana Pacers will have their Big 3 in full force. Mike playing alongside Danny will only serve to improve both of them from a fantasy perspective. They are both very potent offensive threats and will be able to ease the defensive pressure off each other, and in the event that that is still a problem Troy "King of Small Ball" Murphy will be there to be more than happy to lob some bombs from downtown or to grab those boards in the shaded area to help out. Once this big has had experience playing together, unlike the L.A. Clippers "Triple Towers of Triage" (Camby, Randolph, and Kaman) who have yet to share the court (and playing time) together.

As of now, I have Danny penciled in at 6th for next season's rankings. I just want to see how the rest of this season plays out for him before I put it to ink.

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites