Pacers are ones making seriously play for No. 2. Granger is being mentioned. So are Rubio and Beasley. Again, more later on FOX.

That should get people talking.

Royce Young of CBS’ Eye on Basketball, for instance:

According to a tweet from Sam Amico of Fox Sports, the Pacers are “making a seriously play” for the No. 2 pick. By “serious,” the word is that Danny Granger is part of a proposed deal along with Ricky Rubio and Michael Beasley.

In other words, wow, that would be a pretty major deal.

It’s all talk at this point, but maybe there’s a bit of fire to go with this smoke. Granger has been rumored to be on and off the trade block in Indiana a couple times in the past year and with Derrick Williams from Arizona being the likely prize at No. 2, Larry Bird is willing to trade his franchise player for a shot at a new one.

According to a tweet from Mike Wells, however, it seems as though a hypothetical deal — as it was presented by Amico anyway — is unlikely.

Kahn via text on the Minny/Indy rumor: “You mean we don’t have to give them (Kevin) Love too?”

This doesn’t mean the Danny for #2 still isn’t being discussed but it certainly does make it seem that Kahn is not interested in giving up that much for the Pacers best player.

More to come, I’m sure.

Related posts:

1. Would the Pacers Trade Danny Granger?
2. Wolves Offer Al Jefferson for Danny Granger. Larry Bird “Immediately” Turns It Down
3. Why Danny Granger Wears Number 33

Here are the lineups for the Rookie/Sophomore Game.

Really, the only second-year guy that Hibbert may have even had a shot of displacing from a talent standpoint is Kevin Love, but even though he missed significant time, Love’s numbers ultimately dwarf Roy’s. Honestly, had AJ Price started getting playing time back in November, it’s probably more likely that he could have beat out Jonas Jerebko or Taj Gibson than it is that Roy would have made the team. (Then again, more minutes for AJ could also have exposed him as not ready for prime-time. I like the kid, but the jury is still definitely out. And realizing as I type this that Ty Lawson didn’t even make the squad, the previous sentence I just typed is patently absurd.)

More important than some silly exhibition game that no one watches, however, is finding out what this team actually has in Roy Hibbert. That’s the larger issue for the team, obviously. So this does provide us with a nice opportunity to look at “Roy Hibbert: Season 2.” Is he the next great offensive big man in this league? Is he a potential All-Star? Is he good enough to build around? Is he a starter? Is he a good big off the bench? Is he a slow, non-rebounding bum who will be an also-ran in three years?

Who knows?

To begin delving deeping into “Roy Hibbert: Season 2,” let’s start by comparing him to the rest of his peers statistically. The following are a bunch of numbers to show how Roy stacks up next to all the second-year guys playing in this year’s sophomore game.

Here are the straight production stats per game, broken up into two charts:

Interesting. From a points and boards perspective, he’s clearly not lighting the world on fire. But as I’m sure you’ve noticed, Roy gets the fewest minutes of any of these guys, so this probably isn’t the ultimate barometer of how he has fared versus the others, even when we factor in that he’s the oldest of the bunch — a notable distinction.

So let’s equalize the minutes and look at the number per-36 minutes:

Things look better here. His rebounding numbers are still not impressive, but we already knew that. His scoring per-36 also doesn’t suggest that he’s out-pacing his peers, but he is right there with heralded young guys like Danilo, OJ, Westbrook, Love and even Indiana’s own Eric Gordon. The blocks are clearly the most promising category here, and he is significantly better than everyone, including Brook Lopez, who has played well enough this year to make some people even talk about him as an All-Star candidate despite that fact that he plays for perhaps the worst team in NBA history.

Moving on, for those into this type of stuff, here’s how they all stack up according to “advanced stat” metrics:

Looking at PER, everyone aside from the cream of the crop (Brook, Kevin Love and Derrick Rose) is between 15.5 and 16.9. And Roy is right there at 16.1. Roy’s defensive rebound rate of 16.7 is again troubling for a 7’2″ 23-year-old, particularly when we see that he is being bested here by even Michael Beasley — a much shorter, more perimeter-oriented guy who is routinely criticized for his inability to rebound. Then again, these numbers reinforce the fact that Roy has been the best shot-blocker of any second-year player listed here so far this year. But on another negative note, Hibbert also turns the ball over at a disturbing rate.

Something else I find interesting that he’s 5th out of these nine guys in usage, which shows that despite many of us in Pacerland’s complaints, he is actually getting just as many touches as many of his peers, yet is still unable to score as well as as guys like Brook, Beasley, Love or Mayo. This suggest that his shooting percentages need to go up if he wants to become a guy who demands a double team.

So that’s what the numbers say.

We’ll continue looking at “Roy Hibbert: Season 2″ as the year goes on and we’ll have some better qualitative assessments from some other notable NBA minds before the week is out. Look for that later today or tomorrow.

Often described as a dinosaur playing in a league of quicker, smaller mammals, Roy Hibbert’s numbers are in some respects comparable to his draft class. But in other ways, we can clearly see why he is still a step below the others.

Related posts:

1. Game #34 Recap: Hibbert Leaps Over Superman With a Single Bound
2. Tyreke Evans: The NBA’s Deadliest Rookie
3. 8p9s Contest: You Give Roy Hibbert a Nickname, We Give You Free T-Shirts

As has been noted, the season opener in Atlanta was tough to watch at times. Still, there was a lot of good offense early when the team wasn’t turning the ball over. The Pacers will try to put the lesser moments from the last game behind them as they go up against Dwyane Wade and the Heat, who should be feeling good about themselves after thumping the Knicks in Miami the other night.

I’m not going to lie to you, guys: Flash is damn scary. He could go off for 40 against the ’85 Bears so, against a mediocre-at-best defensive team like Indiana that is still struggling to incorporate a few new offseason pieces, there is always the possibility that he just walks on the court and takes this thing over. He’s that good.

Jermaine O’Neal is not that good. Not anymore. And, indeed, never even was. Still, he produced like the JO Pacer fans once adored the other night, dropping a very efficient 22 points on 12 shots while also finding the time to nab 12 boards.

If that’s not enough to worry about, Michael Beasley, fresh off some offseason personal issues that landed him in a Houston-area rehab facility, looked a little bit like the guy Pat Riley thought he was taking second overall in the draft two summers ago. All told, Michael finished with 21 points on 9 of 14 from the floor. I’m sure Eric Spoelstra would have expected more than 3 boards out of SuperCoolBeas on a night where the Knicks shot an embarrassing 37.9%, but he had to be happy with the 20-year-old’s scoring in the opener.

Given that the Pacers coughed up 25 turnovers on Wednesday, 16 of which were credited as Atlanta steals, they will also have to worry about Mario Chalmers jumping the passing lanes. Chalmers finished fourth last year in the entire NBA in steals per game with 2.0 per game. Combine that with that Dwyane Wade guy again, who finished second in the league in steals last year with 2.2 thieveries per, and the Pacers best be cautious with the ball or we could see the team hand the game away yet again.

One last note: Daequan Cook might not play. He’s not a huge piece of Miami’s gameplan, but he is a potent three-point weapon, so Jim O’Brien is likely happy to see him in a suit in case this turns into a shootout.

Enjoy the game. Here’s the rest of the particulars.

Miami Heat @ Indiana Pacers
Conseco Fieldhouse
8:00 PM EST

Starters

Pacers

TJ Ford
Brandon Rush
Danny Granger
Troy Murphy
Roy Hibert

Heat

Mario Chalmers
Dwyane Wade
Quentin Richardson
Michael Beasley
Jermaine O’Neal

And just for old time’s sake, here’s some Jermaine highlights over one of my favorite songs of all time, “Paparazzi” by Xzibit. Both conjure a lot of positive nostalgia. It was nice to see JO play well the other evening and here’s to hoping he stay healthy and put together a solid year.

Except for tonight. How about a nice little 4/16 performance again, my man?

Is that something you’d be interested in?

Related posts:

1. Game #1 Preview: Sekou Smith Talks Hawks