waiting for the other shoelace to drop: 2013-2014 NBA regular season thread (part 2)

i'm happy to see Shump go at this point, he's been hobbled forever. whatever roids he took in january didn't last

Michael Wallace ‏@WallaceNBA_ESPN -- Now, wouldn't it be crazy if Sixers buy out Granger, he hits open market and signs with Heat? Does he have that in him?

lol

Granger doesn't really have anything in him anymore

yeah seems like a good move for the pacers

http://i.minus.com/ibqGEYNHllzOrg.gif
typical rubio 17 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals aaaannnnnnnnnd 2/10 shooting

What is the point of that trade for the Sixers.

Not only did they give up the best and maybe even the two best guys (in 2014) but they also took back more money!

lag∞n
Posted: February 20, 2014 at 12:24:55 PM
all the gms shd be automatically fired if there aren't enough cool trades

part of the new CBA iirc

shoutout to the pacers for making their team actively worse again this year

how so?

bynum and turner are not good

i don't see what evan turner does for them... i feel like the last thing they needed was "lance stephenson but much worse"

if they're not good vogel won't play them, he's not scott brooks

i guess as insurance for lance's impending departure it's not the worst idea in the world but i don't think it helps them vs the heat and might actually make them worse

why worse tho? granger was cooked

oh i guess all the second rounders the sixers got weren't all 2014s, only one was actually

2 i mean

yeah granger was cooked but i think having non-shooters on the floor against the heat can make you an actively worse team.

turner might be an overall better player than cj watson but i'm not sure i'd play off the bench first vs miami

i might have rolled the dice on granger fixing his shot and being able to stand in the corner and hit 3s than whatever turner brings to the table as a rebounder/defender

Turner will hit 3's in Indiana.

Grades: Pacers gamble on Turner
Kevin Pelton

ESPN Insider | February 20, 2014

The deal
Pacers get: Evan Turner, Lavoy Allen

Sixers get: Danny Granger, Warriors' 2015 second-round pick

Indiana Pacers: C-

Turner is averaging 17.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game this season. If you like arbitrarily drawn groups, just four players in the league are better than him in all three categories, according to Basketball-Reference.com: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook. Yet Turner also rates worse than replacement level by my WARP metric, implying the Pacers could have gone out and signed a better player off the street.

How can we explain this discrepancy? First, Turner's per-game stats are inflated by averaging 35 minutes per game on a team that plays at the NBA's fastest pace. On a per-play basis, scoring is the only area of his game that has shown any real improvement this season. Second, while playing a slightly above-average role in the 76ers' offense (he's used 24.2 percent of the team's plays while on the floor), Turner has been far less efficient than average. His true shooting percentage is .504 (compared to a league average of .537), and his turnover rate (14.3 percent of his plays) is also higher than the average for wings (12.3 percent).

A star in college because of his ability to generate shots for himself and teammates, Turner has been unable to create those same good looks against NBA defenders. As Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry noted on Twitter, Turner has taken the 10th-most midrange jumpers in the league this season. Even if you feel the relative value of 3-pointers has been overstated, that's not a recipe for efficient offense.

As inefficient as Turner has been this season, Granger isn't much better if at all. Coming off the patella injury that cost him nearly all of 2012-13, Granger has made just 38.0 percent of his 2-point attempts, and his true shooting percentage (.491) is worse than Turner's. Granger has been less turnover-prone, but the strongest argument in favor of this trade is the Pacers can't possibly do any worse in that spot. Turner is also more reliable for the postseason than the banged-up Granger; he's missed just six games during his four-year NBA career.

Still, I think I would have stuck with Granger. His TS% in February is just as low as it was in January, but there's some hope that Granger's shooting would come around as he shook off the rust from his injury. Second, I think he's a better fit in a smaller role than Turner, who's not suited to play off the ball next to Lance Stephenson as part of the Indiana second unit. Spot-up shooting is the weakest part of Turner's game; he's a career 31.5 percent 3-point shooter who's made just 28.8 percent of his attempts this season. Granger has already made nearly as many 3s (31) as Turner (38) in barely a third as many minutes.

Despite Granger's own issues, the Pacers have been effective with him on the floor. According to NBA.com/Stats, he's the only Indiana reserve with a positive net plus-minus.

Perhaps Granger has chafed behind the scenes at playing a smaller role on a team that reinvented itself around Paul George in his absence. Maybe the Pacers coveted the younger Turner as insurance for a possible Lance Stephenson departure this offseason (though given his numbers, I'm not sure he qualifies). Possibly the salary savings (about $1.3 million over the remainder of the season) was meaningful. Whatever the reasoning, I'm not sure it justifies making such a big shakeup two months before the postseason for the leaders in the Eastern Conference. Turner simply isn't good enough.

Philadelphia 76ers: B

As important as this deal was to Indiana, it was probably the Sixers' least meaningful of the day. Turner was a goner in Philadelphia. There was no chance the 76ers would have tendered him the massive $8.7 million qualifying offer necessary to make him a restricted free agent, and it's unlikely that stats-savvy Sixers GM Sam Hinkie wanted him back at a lower price. So Philadelphia was going to trade Turner today if it returned anything of value. This deal did in the form of Golden State's 2015 second-round pick.

I'm sure the Sixers would have liked to get more for Turner. Even with his gaudy per-game stats, that market never materialized, presumably because the qualifying offer made suitors view him strictly as a rental.

The difference in salary -- Philadelphia takes on a little more than $4 million -- is completely meaningless because the 76ers were below the salary floor. They had to pay the money no matter what, with the amount below the floor getting divided among players currently on the roster.

Since Granger is on an expiring contract and probably not thrilled about the prospect of joining a team that trails his old one by 26.5 games in the standings, expect to see some kind of buyout. At the veteran's minimum, a wing-needy contender would surely take a look at Granger to see if he can help in the playoffs. He might make sense for the San Antonio Spurs, who could use a true backup at small forward. Depending where he lands, Granger might find himself squaring off with the Pacers come May or June.

huh, that's pretty cool. I forgot about the salary floor.

didn't know turner was that bad

he had a real good start to this season but yeah hes a bust

weird move by the pacers

All too harsh on a guy that hasn't really played in a well define role on a team with a real identity. I think he's always looked good out there (I doubt people would be so surprised to see how bad he's been statistically otherwise). The lack of consistency in his output from year to year says enough to me. He could be a great asset given the right conditions.

At least is wasn't OKC making themselves worse at the deadline this time

What is this weird thing Denver and Washington have for each other's terrible centers? I'm amazed andray blatche never found his way to the nugs

lol pelton and i made essentially the same argument

ha yeah meat to say

meant

Yah was thinking he was a sock

big baby getting bought out useful backup for a contender

that contract was so bad

Turner will hit 3's in Indiana.

― tsrobodo, Thursday, February 20, 2014 10:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you saying he doesn't care about looks when it comes to dating? because he won't shoot 3 point basketball shots very well.

Vesely can probably still be a good defensive role player (he kind of has been this season actually), this is a very Ujiri deal in a way.

I look forward to your extensive statistical defense of vesely the rest of this season since we don't have Javale to kick around anymore

big baby getting bought out useful backup for a contender

― lag∞n, Thursday, February 20, 2014 7:23 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's so obvious he should go to the clippers that it probably won't happen

How is there no pre-game inside the nba on draft deadline day??

Trade deadline I mean obv

javale's not really a guy who needed a year off to not work on his game huh

Looooool Matt "hittin 3s"

Big Baby was so bad this year on defense, really shockingly bad. The Magic as a whole are way worse than they have any reason to be.

that's a pure coaching/effort thing, glen is perfectly capable of playing some average defense

Yeah he just needs a psychotic person (ie thibodeau or kg) constantly screaming at him and he is totally serviceable

Oh nvm there are the inside dudes for some reason this was just listed as the game and not a separate program

russ lookin spry

Uh oh Lebron starting a "btw I am the MVP fools" game

- durant is playing some horrible ass defense
- Jeremy lamb looks a lil like Steve buscemi

really intrigued to see what kind of rotation the sixers have tomorrow:

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/depth/_/name/phi/philadelphia-76ers