Eric P. Mull-USA TODAY Sports
The Indiana Pacers have made both Danny Granger and Gerald Green available for trade today as they try to clear cap space. The team signed veteran power forward David West to a three-year, $36 million deal on Tuesday, tightening up their salary cap. Indiana seems to want to make more moves in free agency, and getting rid of Granger’s contract seems to be the way they want to go.
Granger was the team’s star for years until he suffered a knee injury last summer, causing him to miss all but five games last season. Paul George has taken over as the team’s star, so shipping Granger isn’t much of a surprise.
Trading Granger isn’t a bad idea as keeping their starting lineup from last season would be good chemistry-wise. Also, the team would have more room to add any players they need to the bench. Indiana signed point guard C.J. Watson yesterday to help out the bench, but they still need a backup power forward and it wouldn’t hurt to add a small forward to the bench as well.
Indiana has just put Granger and Green on the market today, and they currently have no takers in either of the two. After Granger’s injury last season and Green simply lacking some needed skill, it makes sense why neither have drawn interest from other teams. They don’t have any interest yet, but I’m sure some desperate team(s) could use the two, especially Granger. Granger is coming off of an injury, but he should still be able to put up 16-18 points per game, if not more.
Within the next week or so, I’m sure teams will start expressing interest in Granger and/or Green.
