Alright, Sports Illustrated. I’m fully aware of how bad the Pacers are.
But, c’mon, Chris Mannix … it’s going to take at least 5 more years for Indy to reach 253 losses. (His power rankings have now been fixed, but you can check them out anyway. Power rankings are by definition stupid, but I like Mannix so his are at least insightful for what they are.)
(Screenshot via @dv140)
At least the Pacers are still up 55 games on the Wolves in the loss column. Plus, I think they have the tie-breaker if it comes down to that for home court advantage in the Finals.
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Minnesota Timberwolves,
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According to NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!, the Wolves offered up the promising big who is still recovering from ACL surgery for Indy’s franchise SF, who is himself still recovering from a torn plantar fascia.
Talentwise, this could have been one of the more “our talent for yours” rather than financial-based trades in the NBA of late, but Larry Bird isn’t having any of it. Nor should he, in my opinion. Even though Danny’s struggling badly this season, his two-way ability and his pure shooting stroke are significantly more valuable to an NBA team than Al Jeff’s ability to score and draw a double-team in the post.
And apparently Wolves GM David Kahn feels the same way.
While Pacers president Larry Bird remains determined to build around Granger, sources say Kahn has become increasingly dubious on making Jefferson a cornerstone for the Timberwolves.
So far, Kahn has tried to undo almost everything from the Kevin McHale regime, and trading Jefferson would be another significant step in that direction.
Woj has some other info on any other potential Pacer deals before the trade deadline.
The Pacers, who are tied for the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference, could be dealers before the trade deadline, but league executives believe Indiana has all but ruled out any moves that would include Granger or center Roy Hibbert. After missing a month with a foot injury, Granger returned to the Pacers’ lineup on Friday. He has become one of the league’s best young scorers, averaging 24 points a game.
Seems pretty obvious. Talentwise, Granger obviously isn’t untradeable. But considering that he represents the one truly positive thing that has occurred in Indiana since November 2004, any deal that allowed Danny to leave the state would probably have to be a much better offer than any other team is likely to make.
Larry Bird not targeting Al Jeff. Get it? “Targetting”? Cause there’s a Target logo in the photo? See it? Whatever. You try writing this crap everyday.
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Danny Granger,
David Kahn,
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Indiana Pacers @ Minnesota Timberwolves
Friday, January 8
8:00 PM EST
Target Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota
————-
Granger’s back (says Mike Wells).
The Pacers destroyed Minnesota just a couple of days ago as Roy Hibbert embarrassed 10,000 lakes and Luther Head dropped 20+ points in his second straight game (which turned out to be the second of four games where he scored 18 or more).
So there’s not really a ton to go over that we don’t already know. The Wolves have only played one game since then and they lost to the Warriors. At home. The Pacers had that embarrassing 43-point loss in Madison Square, but they got back on track against Orlando. And now they have Danny and Troy Murphy back.
So, ya know what that means?
TGIWMF
Thank God It’s Wolf-Murdering Friday.
(I’m not going to bother to copy over all the stats for this one. The rankings haven’t changed much in a week, so if you care to see just how bad both teams are in numeric terms, just check the post from last Saturday. In fact, if you missed it, you should actually check it out since it has a pretty good “State of the Wolves Q&A” with Zach Harper, who knows more about Minny’s sad, sad squad than most.)
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