For me, this year, I definitely have to say that “I HEART Danny Granger.”

The “I HEART Chris Paul” thing… that was just so last season. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t fault you for loving CP3, he’s still a fantasy stud, but Danny G is the latest  fresh and awesome fantasy monster to join the list of the fantasy elite this year!

At an average draft pick of 13.8, which translates to pretty much a 2nd-4th second round pick in a standard 12-man league, Danny (SG/SF, Indiana Pacers) is currently Yahoo-ranked 3rd based on season totals! He’s also 4th and 3rd in GMTR’s 8-cat and 9-cat player raters respectively. That right there folks, is AWESOMENESS to the nth degree!

Sadly, I didn’t get to draft Danny in any of my drafts at the start of the fantasy season. I was, however, able to trade my Josh Smith (pre-ankle injury Josh) for him in 2nd day of the season in one league. In another league, 3 weeks ago, traded Emeka Okafor and Josh Smith for Danny and Fransisco Garcia. So after all of that wheeling and dealing, I’m glad to say that I am one proud fantasy owner of the latest and hottest thing in fantasy basketball since, well Chris Paul and LeBron James.

So what’s there to love about Danny? Well he wouldn’t be where he is on fantasy basketball player rankings everywhere if he wasn’t a multi-cat monster.

Danny Granger: A Rashard Lewis with Benefits!

Let’s start with what he does best. There is only one player in the NBA who averages more three-pointers made per game than Danny G, and that’s Rashard Lewis. Shard’s knocking ‘em down from downtown at 2.9 per game while Danny’s raining down those bombs at 2.7 per game. It’s 0.2 less treys per game but at more categories contributed. Like I said, Danny is Rashard with benefits. It’s actually rare, not since the likes of Larry Bird, can fantasy managers consider building their team around a 3-point shooter. The bottom line with Danny nailing so many treys and contributing in so many other stats is that you need less guys to fill in to compete for the 3PTM cat. He makes small ball or well-rounded ball so efficient and easy to build around.

Ok, I’ve done the treys comparison with Rashard. Let’s do a 12 things I love about Danny Granger, just to put things into better perspective.

1. As I mentioned, he shoots only 0.2 less treys per game than Rashard Lewis.
2. He is currently blocking only 0.1 less blocks per game than Josh Smith.
   
3. He’s can score from anywhere on the court.
4. He’s been doing a heck of a job being the Lone Granger while Tonto has had to deal with knee problems.
5. He is averaging only 3.2 less PPG than LeBron James.
6. He is playing in the All-star game! I wish he decided to rest his aching knee instead though.
7. He has only 1 percentage point less than Kevin Martin in terms of EFT at 93%.
8. He is averaging the same TOs per game as Josh Smith and less than Kevin Martin by 0.1
9. He makes being a good player on a bad team look good and be fantasy viable.
   
10. I own him in 2 Yahoo fantasy leagues.
11. I called him out to have a HUGE fantasy year back in Points in the Paint.
12. He’s got clutch! Remember his game winner vs. Phoenix?

If we had to a post all-star weekend fantasy draft, then Danny Granger would be in everybody’s Top 4-6 options. What’s not to love?

Worried about his declining FG%? Well, it’s most likely a side effect of his knee bothering him. The sooner he gets to rest his knees, the sooner he can regain his above average (for a 3-point shooter) FG%.

Here’s to you Danny, thanks for stats, the cats, and those awesome games! … and for crying out loud, rest your knee so we can have more of those monster games!

By the way, I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Cheers!

Dont miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock  right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or join the Give Me The Rock Room on FriendFeed to get posts, Twitters, and Midnight Snacks all in one place. You can even become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We’re so social!

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Honorable Mentions: LeBron James (1.01) had 33 and 7, and – more remarkably – made 13 of 13 free throws. Yao Ming (1.00) had 28 points (on 75 and 100), 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Danny Granger (1.00) also had 28 points including 4 three-pointers.

He’s Back of the Night: We know Yao Ming is back now, but Carmelo Anthony (0.87) has returned to form with 35 and 9 on 59% from the field and 93% from the stripe. You don’t want to know what this means for JR Smith. (But I’ll tell you in a second)

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Watch out! Ryan Anderson (0.83) (plays for the Nets) looks like he’s going to become one of those guys who plays pretty well every other game. Last night he had 19 and 7 with 3 three-pointers. Shades of Matt Bonner anyone? Last time I checked, though, the Nets still have Vince Carter, Devin Harris, and Brook Lopez lined up to score ahead of Anderson. Oh, but speakng of Matt Bonner… (you can click on the image for the larger view)

The Biggest Loser: This was a real battle last night. Jamario Moon (-0.62) just wanted it more with his 1 point, 1 rebound performance. Moon is only owned in 61% of Yahoo leagues, though, compared to JR Smith (-0.49), who’s holding strong at 70%. Smith went 1-10 from the field and 3-6 from the line for 6 points. At least he made a three-pointer, since that’s what those 70% of managers hired him for. He also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and a block, but turned the ball over 3 times.

All Eyez On Me: The Destroyer of Worlds goes into Toronto tonight, just after the other Destroyer of Worlds (LeBron) pounded the Raptors into submission. Who at the scheduling office thought that was fair? Aren’t we trying to make people in Toronto want to watch basketball?

The Clippers may have Marcus Camby back, but the Magic still bring Dwight Howard to the game tonight.

The Golden Ticket: Golden State hosts Phoenix tonight, so Jason Richardson should have a good opportunity to continue his hot streak.

Meanwhile, Cleveland heads to Madison Square Garden where LeBron will attempt to score 62 points.

Dont miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock  right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or join the Give Me The Rock Room on FriendFeed to get posts, Twitters, and Midnight Snacks all in one place. You can even become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We’re so social!

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From a fantasy point of view, there is all kinds of goodness spewing out of this trade.

Big Winner

Jose Calderon: He was a beast for the Raptors last year, averaging over 8 assists in only 30 minutes a game. Thanks to injuries to TJ Ford, Calderon started 56 games. Although by the end of the season the Raptors had reinserted Ford into their starting lineup because his ego had trouble coming off the bench. Now with Ford gone, the starting gig is all Calderon’s. Imagine what the guy will do with 5+ minutes a game next year. I think he’ll easily average over 10 assists a game and be the fifth best PG in the league behind Paul, Nash, Arenas, and Billups.

Winners

Jermaine O’Neal: It’s difficult to see how a trade can improve someone’s health, but as John Hollinger reports, “he’s reportedly spending his summer in Las Vegas, working out with noted trainer Joe Abunassar.”

I have no idea who that is or what that means. Regardless, the move will probably help O’Neal’s motivation; to say he was stagnating in Indiana for the past few years is an understatement. O’Neal will slide into the center spot for the Raps, replacing the 7-foot granite stone named Rasho Nesterovic. O’Neal should see the ball enough to maintain his 19-20ish PPG and he’ll bounce back to pre 07/08 rebounding level of 9 a game. Kelly Dwyer writes:

Even at 60 games a year, O’Neal is a needed defender and finisher on the break or in Toronto’s preferred slow-down set. He can run a screen and roll and the two bookends of Jermaine and Chris Bosh will be a tough cover on either end.

As Dwyer hints at, I believe O’Neal’s appearance will also help…

Chris Bosh: Normally, when a team trades for a very good player, the teams other good players don’t stand to benefit from it stats-wise. And I don’t believe that Bosh will. With O’Neal in the frontcourt, Bosh could see his rebounding numbers slide down even further than they were last year. However, I happen to agree with Hollinger’s assessment:

It also eases the wear and tear on Chris Bosh, who has suffered from having to play in the middle for much the past two seasons. Now Bosh is free to play where he belongs, at his natural power forward spot. And Andrea Bargnani is free to go back where he belongs: the bench.

I love the major Bargnani slam. Now, Bosh’s stats aren’t going to benefit significantly from O’Neal’s appearance (slightly more efficient offensive negates less defense from Bosh?), but hopefully the wear and tear and his ability to stay on the court will. Of course, he’s also playing in the Olympics this summer, so maybe all bets should be off.

TJ Ford: Ford vs. Calderon was a fight that TJ was eventually going to lose. With the trade, Ford moves to a team that is in desperate need of a PG (unless you think Jamaal Tinsley) is the answer. There are still a lot of questions here, like Ford’s health, what will the Pacers do with Tinsley (a trade, if they find any takers) and what they are going to do with their 11th and 17th picks (rumors say they are still interested in point guard D.J. Augustin). But for now, Ford will get a chance to run the show in Indiana instead of dueling it out with Calderon in Toronto.

Possible Winners

Troy Murphy? Nah, forget it.

Losers

Jamaal Tinsley: Tinsley is a worthless piece of shit nauseating frustrating fantasy player who has skills (8.4 assists) if you’re cool with getting 40 games out of him. The Pacers are looking to shoot trade the guy, provided they can find an idiot a GM who actually wants him. Trade or no trade, the Tinsley era is over in Indiana.

Big Loser

Andrea Bargnani: For the reasons mentioned above. He’ll struggle to even play 20 minutes a game next season.

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Line of the Night: Mike Dunleavy Jr. with a world-ending 6.04. See, this is the kind of crap that happens when the fantasy playoffs go until the end of the regular season. Not to down MDJ, but Ramon Sessions was #4 last night. Is he really going to average 18 assists a game next season?

You will be seeing a petition here soon (maybe) for the standardization of fantasy basketball, and I hope that you will help me in refining it to get everything just right so we can send it to the Yahoo’s at Yahoo who won’t let you change the end of the season for your fantasy leagues.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Um, it’s over dude. There’s no more waiver wire.

The Biggest Loser: I’d be tempted to say the Miami Heat, but really, they’re going to get a good draft pick and hopefully have a healthy D-Wade and Shawn Marion next season, so things aren’t all that bad. Really, I guess it goes to the Warriors whose 48 wins would have put them at the number 4 seed in the Eastern Conference (not to mention that in the East, they probably would have won more than 48 games).

Yeah, I know I need to do some sort of season recap, and even though I don’t feel like it right now, this is pretty much the only chance I will get to talk about it, so here goes…

GMTR Readers League: Champion: I Heart Chris Paul, managed by Patrick of GMTR. Patrick won the Championship by a single turnover because he is the awesomest manager there is. Interesting to wonder what would have happened if it had ended up a tie…

DroppingDimes Experts League: Champion: GiveMeTheRock – Nels, managed by Nels of GMTR. No offense to most of the people in the league, but this one actually seemed less competitive than the GMTR Readers League. But, I always say (or have been known to say at least once) people who love basketball and people who are good at fantasy basketball are not necessarily the same people. I can’t gloat much really, though, because I finished 9th in the Readers League. I was also 10th in another league, and I can’t even figure out what in another league because NBA.com’s playoff bracket doesn’t work, but I was probably 10th there too.

Reader S. Bibby sent this to prove that it truly is the end of the world as we know it.

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Line of the Night: If you filled in yesterday’s madlibs with anything along the lines of Mike Dunleavy (5.18), You Are Win!! That’s right, Dunleavy (Jr.) continues to mindfuck everyone and their grandmothers, this time with 9/16, 10/10, 5 threes for 33 points. He added 6 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal, a block, and no turnovers! Dunzo!

Honorable Mentions: Usually when the NBA.com numbers drop below 5 after one player, it’s not a good sign. Let’s see if that holds up… J-Rich (4.81) had 34 points, 4 threes, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. If it wasn’t for the 13/28 from the field, the 4/7 from the line, and the 3 turnovers, I’d say that was just as good a line as Dunzo’s. Ricky Davis (4.72) was 9/15, seven of which were three-pointers, for 28 points. He also had 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Anyone playing 45 minutes for Miami is a fantasy goldmine right now! Zydrunas Ilgauskas (4.62) had 29 and 15 with 2 blocks on 13/19 from the field. Kevin Garnett (4.50) must have been tired from scoring his 30 points, since he only had 3 rebounds. He did manage 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks, though, and didn’t turn the ball over. Not even once.

Okay, apparently the low scores are not due to poor performances, but more due to a parity situation. Evidence: Devin Harris only pulls a 4.49 with 22 points, 3 threes, 15 assists, and 2 steals. And if you’re counting on Brad Miller for your playoff run, now was a great time to make that gamble. Miller (4.48) had 15/17/8 with 2 steals and 2 blocks. This is good because now people will probably overvalue Miller going into draft’s for next season, and that means you (or I) can avoid his every-other-season-is-good ass and get some overlooked player with Tremendous Upside Potential.

Okay, there’s bunch of other good games, but I’ll stop just short of actually having to mention Andrew Bogut (4.43) and Gerald Wallace (4.38).

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I can’t see Ricky Davis being available at this point, so let’s look a little deeper… Okay, Louis Williams (4.11) had a pretty good game last night, with 23 points on 5 threes, along with 4 rebounds and 5 assists. He’s really streaky, though, so he’s only really the WWLotN in absolute terms. If you’re in the Championship Bracket of your league, you probably don’t need someone like Williams increasing the risk of your lineup.

To give you an idea of the state of Waiver Wire players, Thabo Sefolosha (3.75) had 20/5/5 on 8/11 and 4 threes. Of course that was in an tremendously efficient 28 minutes, 2 games after he played 7 minutes. This is good for the Championship Bracket owners because it probably means the All Star type players who got your there are performing like they should.

The Biggest Loser: In absolute terms, I’d suggest that Spencer Hawes (1.28) has taken the biggest fall… 2 games after playing 38 minutes and getting 19/12 and 3 blocks, he played only 9 minutes going 0/1 with 1 rebound.

Leandro Barbosa (1.42) is at number 57 on the player rater right now, but last night, as the Suns got blown out by the Celtics, L-Barb played 23 minutes going 0/4 from the field, scoring 2 points on free throws, and only adding 1 assist and 1 steal versus 2 turnovers. Short bus!

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I think this post is now actually 1101 since Patrick has been cranking them like he’s… turning a crank. Like on a machine. That has a crank. That you turn.

Anyway… Thanks to the Fantasy Basketball Group on Ballhype, I was treated (Halloween reference) to this gem. Gilbert Arenas dropped Jamaal Tinsley’s face. Then Tinsley won the game for the Pacers. Oh well. Face was dropped. Face was picked up. Gil’s just getting the Hibachi warmed up.

Speaking of treated, check this headline from Slam Dunk Central. Mostly the “Mavs Have Lots of Tricks” part.

Points in the Paint has some actual fantasy stuff about some teams he drafted… I don’t know if it’s too late for that now, but I wanted to show some love. I’m loving all the new fantasy basketblogs people are starting this year. I think there’s more new fantasy basketblogs than there are social network developer platforms. Haha! Yeah right. < -- Geek.

While I'm on the geek tip... Just wanted to alert people that Melissa is using you to help spammers create fake email addresses. Just be aware. Cause eventually she’ll probably use you to break into bank accounts. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Maybe it just says something about my perspective on the league that when a guy misses three games in a row I don’t expect him to back for another 3 or more. Well, that, and there wasn’t any news or anything about Jermaine coming back.

But he did come back last night for 24 points and 7 rebounds on 7-14 and 10-15 with 2 blocks for good measure. Now I just have to decide if he’ll stay healthy enough to put him back in my lineup for next week (starting on Sunday). Feel free to help me out in the forums.

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“The question is when I am going to get back onto the court. Hopefully I can play in the next few games,” he said. “I’ve been trying to stay with it, but it hasn’t really gotten any better. It’s gotten worse.”

Uh. Not the most encouraging words. The free agent option until O’Neal returns is Jeff Foster, which, as Fantasy Basketblog explains, is indeed no option at all. Jeff Foster and fantasy basketball championships go together like hand puppets and Harlem. They exist in different planes of reality and trying to put them together will result in confusion and anger.

As I’m sure you’ve thought to yourself by now, Jermaine O’Neal injuring his knee is hardly an unexpected event, and to feign surprise about it is an insult to your intellect. Fair enough. More of a surprise is Joe Johnson, who is likely out for the season with a bruise in his right calf. And, really, with a record of 23-39, there’s no reason for Johnson to rush back to the Hawks. I just found out how the injury happened, though:

The injury apparently occurred in Monday’s game against the Miami Heat, when Johnson was accidentally kicked in the leg by teammate Esteban Batista

That’s spelled E-S-T-E-B-A-N, if there are any Joe Johnson owners out there who feel the need to send hate mail. Anthony Johnson played 44 minutes for the banged up Hawks in their last game, and I guarantee you that he’ll be more productive than Jeff Foster if you were pick him up. On a scale of 1 to 10, that’s some level 2 praise right there. A step ahead of “well, he tries harder than Michael Olowokandi”, which can be said of everyone with the possible exception of Lebron James.

Esteban Batista, Quality Teammate

In related news, you sold high on Wally Szczerbiak after his hot start to the season, right? Well, after missing 24 games so far this season with 5 ankle sprains, Szczerbiak “underwent season-ending surgery on his left ankle Thursday.” That’s 5 ankle sprains THIS season, not in his career. A good fact to remember when you’re thinking about drafting Szczerbiak next season.

I’ve been waiting on Andres Nocioni’s return from plantar fasciitis since before the All-Star break and now it appears that he might not return at all this season. Well, it’s a keeper league, anyway. Although, I’ll probably end up keeping Nocioni’s teammate Deng instead, who’s put together a great low-key year for me and is one of the only guys on my team who can actually put the ball in the hoop over half the time.

To end on a positive note: Mark Madsen returns for the Timberwolves tonight, setting up the huge Shaquille O’Neal/Mark Madsen grudge match showdown. Dance, white boy, dance.

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Granger, 23, is in his 2nd season with the Pacers, has alternated between starting (30 games) and coming off the bench as a 6th man (25 games). In the last game, he’s switched back to being a 6th man after starting 13 games in a row, causing some worry that his role is about to be reduced. However, Granger played 34 minutes in that game against the Kings and overall he has played well off the bench this year (12.6 pts and 5 rebs a game), where he becomes a focal point of the second unit. Granger drew comparisons to Scottie Pippen coming out of college, a team player with good range on his shot, an athletic build, quick hands, and solid defense. Keep an eye on Granger for your draft next year, as he could be in for a breakout year.

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