The NBA’s 30 best go-to players (#13: Danny Granger)
(photo. Stephen Hill)
Who do you want your offense to run through with everything on the line? Counting down 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…
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For somebody who’s only been to the playoffs once — and that was as a reserve role player — Granger is as battle-tested as a young go-to guy can be in this League.
Last season, Granger’s first as an All-Star and where he finished fifth in the NBA in scoring (25.8 ppg), his Pacers played in 27 games that were decided by four points or less; 32 percent of their entire schedule. I didn’t know a sensible way to look it up without going through every team’s game log, but that had to be the most in the League. Although Indiana lost 16 of those close games, Granger benefitted by getting plenty of crunch-time reps, going shot-for-shot with everybody from Kobe to Ray Allen to LeBron. His most notable moments included a walk-off three to beat Phoenix on the road, game-winning free throws against Cleveland with less than a second remaining, and a tip-in to beat Houston at home. In other words, Granger can literally beat you from long-range, mid-range, or at the rim.
But as I’ve written in this column before, being a go-to guy isn’t strictly about hitting last-second daggers. In the other 47 minutes of the game, Granger delivers. He ranked second in the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring last year, averaging 7.5 points, right behind LeBron. He also lead the League in second-quarter scoring at 6.9 points per. On their way to finishing just a few games out of 8th place in the East, Indiana often built first-half leads as Granger attacked defenses with a steady stream of buckets.
The foundation of Granger’s game is his jumper. “The only thing I’m trying to do out there,” he told me in an interview for Dime #51, “is get enough space to get my jump shot off. I’m so confident in it, I know if I can get it off, it has a good chance of going in.”
He’s got a right to be confident, but at the same time, Granger is prone to rely too much on his J — sometimes he’ll rush or settle for jumpers when he could’ve done more to get a better shot. And while he has a good handle for a 6-9 forward, Granger doesn’t create his own shot as much as he could. Of the Top-11 finishers in that fourth-quarter scoring category, only Jason Terry and Kevin Durant had more of their buckets assisted than Granger, who was at about 54 percent.
Something also has to be said for the fact that Indiana blew a ton of those aforementioned leads in the second half; a lack of poise and an inability to finish that falls on the shoulders of the go-to guy. If anything, though, Granger’s most glaring crunch-time deficiencies are on defense. Having watched just about every Pacers game last season, I remember more than a few times where Granger was fouled out or on the bench in foul trouble in critical moments, or when he committed a silly foul in an inopportune time. Granger was very vocal about his renewed commitment to defense this season, but with his sometimes-shaky knees and the fact that he still has to carry Indiana offensively, he might not be able to deliver on that promise.
As a pure scorer/shooter, Granger is Top-10 in the NBA, no question. If he finds himself in as many close games this year as he did last year and continues to produce, he’ll move closer to the upper echelon on lists like this, but won’t make a big leap until he can get to — and show his maturation in — the playoffs.
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14. Steve Nash
15. Kevin Durant
16. Gilbert Arenas
17. Derrick Rose
18. Chris Bosh
19. Andre Iguodala
20. Tracy McGrady
21. Baron Davis
22. Michael Redd
23. Devin Harris
24. Kevin Martin
25. Al Jefferson
26. O.J. Mayo
27. Stephen Jackson
28. Nate Robinson
29. Boris Diaw
30. Rip Hamilton
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October 12th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
bill says:
granger higher than gilbert Arenas.
I will no longer read these articles. Thanks anyway
October 12th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
gilford22 says:
He’s higher than Chris Bosh??!!
October 12th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Zibala says:
As battle tested as a young go to player could be? Devin Harris is a lot more battle tested, shit even D Rose is at worst as equally battle tested. I see where you’re coming from though. Personally I like Granger, I think he has a lot of potential to be one of the top second tier players in the L. I like what the pacers are doing and they’re still missing a lot of pieces from being a contender but they have a good young core
October 12th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Alee-Mo says:
Higher than Bosh and Arenas? Umm, yeah. Don’t forget Granger’s team finished higher than Bosh’s team last year, and Granger had a bunch of game winners and/or shots he hit late that were trumped by somebody else’s game winner. As for Arenas, dude hasn’t even played at a peak level since 2007. Later for him.
October 12th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
chriscross says:
top ten as a pure scorer/shooter?
kobe
lebron
melo
wade
b. roy
durant
dirk
p.pierce
arenas AND/OR butler
parker and/or ginobli
ok. who on this list is a worse scorer/shooter than granger?
October 12th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Kevin says:
@chricross — Manu, Parker and Butler automatically go below Granger on that list. I don’t even know why you brought them up. You do realize Granger was 5th in scoring, right? That means he’s arguably Top-5, forget Top-10. Purely as a scorer, you could take Granger over aging Pierce and hobbled Arenas and I wouldn’t complain.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
chriscross says:
@kevin
put manu, parker, or butler as the #1 on a team and they’ll put up better numbers than granger. top 5 #1 options, no way. top 10 is a big streach.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Big Sia says:
PROPS for having vc higher than these scrubs
October 12th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
ProphetGK says:
@Big Sia Um I would assume Howard or Nelson would be the go to guy in Orlando…
And hell yea I’d take Senor Buckets over Arenas and Bosh, yes Arenas at his prime is definitely dangerous, but he’s lost one or two notches, and Bosh God knows I love him but he’s not Tim Duncan yet, and for sure if you’ve seen Granger play you know he can light it up whenever he wants and go bucket 4 bucket with the best of em.. no doubt that Granger is going to be a premier player for years to come…
October 13th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Ian says:
kevin
he takes more shots because he plays with scrubs id take any of the three players chris mentioned but then again two of them play for the spurs so im a bit biased on that one. more shots = more points.
he goes over bosh and arena.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:23 am
nola says:
yeahhhh you’re comparing granger who is practically the only reliable scorer on that team to manu and parker who are only one of probably 3-4 reliable scorers. Granger is a good player, but he’s DEFINITELY not best “go to” player. there are a lot more players i would go to before danny granger.
ps. i may be biased though because he used to ball in my frontyard after school and i used to whoop his every single day… then he grew 7 inches. that sucked.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Kevin says:
I’m not just looking at how many points he scores, I’m looking at how he’s scoring. Granger has more outside game than Parker, better in the post/high-post than Manu, not a straight jacker like Jamison and just overall better offensively than Butler. BTW, Caron has been Washington’s go-to guy most of the last two years while Arenas was hurt. In that time he showed he’s not close to a Top-10 pure scorer.
And everyone always says “Bad team, more shots” or whatever, but how come nobody on the Knicks is averaging 25 a game? Nobody on the Warriors? Nobody on the Grizzlies? Nobody on the Bobcats? Nobody on the Clippers? It’s not just that simple that you become an elite scorer if your team sucks. And if you think about it, it’s probably HARDER to get buckets on a crap team because everyone knows you’re the only scoring threat.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:38 am
skywarp says:
how the hell is he a better go to guy than steve nash i mean nash took his team a lot farther than granger has ever had and probably would have won a chip if it werent for the refs…
October 13th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Scott says:
Yeah I think Nash is getting snubbed here … Granger may be a better scorer but I’d take Nash in crunch time any day
October 13th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Abe504 says:
arenas hasn’t play in close to 2 seasons, of course granger should be higher. u gotta play to show that ur a go-to player.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
BiG ShoT BoB says:
@Kevin….great come back point. But if I’m in the fourth quater and Manu and Granger are on my team I’m throwing it to Manu. He’s a proven champion in three different leagues and the leader of team in two of those leagues. Granger not so much…
October 13th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
doc says:
I aint mad.He was 5th in scoring so all that Manu Tony shit irrelevant.