Danny Granger is willing to submerge his ego and relinquish the Indiana Pacers’ franchise-player role to Paul George.

Granger recently returned after a nine-month hiatus caused by a knee tendon injury.

“I think the biggest deal about it is the assumptions since I was coming back that there’d be a competition between us, when it’s actually the opposite,” Granger said. “The way he can break defenses down, the way he can create, I can just stand, catch and shoot, drive – it makes my job easier. He’s coming in at such a young age – he’s 22 now – I’m going to be 30 in a month and a half.

“I have no problem – I’ve been in the league eight years – I have no problem passing the mantle to him, to leave the team to Roy (Hibbert) and George.

“My whole team I watched get drafted. I’ve watched all of them grow. So I have no problem passing the mantle. At all.”

Granger has helped foster a true team environment.

“Sometimes on NBA teams you’ve got guys competing with each other,” Granger said. “That’s the thing about our team. We compete against the other team. Whoever’s scoring, whoever’s playing, whoever’s passing the ball, whoever’s doing whatever, we’re rooting for that person. I think Frank Vogel, he did a good job of instilling that in all of us. Play for your teammates.”

LeBron James concluded the month of February with a PER of 38.5, the highest single-month of his career.

James averaged 29.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 64.1 percent from the floor.

James currently has a career high 32.6 PER for the season, with his previous best coming in 08-09 when he had a 31.7 PER. The best month James had until February came in February 2010 when he had a PER of 35.1.

James had a PER of 27.6 in November, 32.1 in December and 32.0 in January.

The Heat went 12-1 during the month, losing on Feb. 1 at the Pacers.

The Miami Heat have won 12 straight games, duplicating their streak from 10-11.

The Heat have improved offensively late in the game, outscoring opponents by 101 points in the final five minutes of the streak.

“We’re getting better with that,” Chris Bosh said. “As many times as we run through the offense, we should be getting better.

“We’ve seen those situations so many times, especially early on, so we were forced to get our late-game packages together and really start building chemistry and knowing what we want to get to.”

Kevin Martin has played well with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s second unit, and already has developed chemistry with Nick Collison.

Collison has registered 78 assists this season, 42 of which have gone to Martin.

“Him and (James) Harden had a great two-man game, and me and Brad Miller, we had a great two-man game,” Martin explained. “So it's kind of like me and Brad divorced, him and Harden divorced and me and Nick got together — in a basketball way.”

Collison and Martin have been so effective working the two-man game that Collison leads the Thunder with a 7.9 assist-to-turnover ratio, according to 82games.com.

“His basketball IQ is very high, so he knows when to do something and when not to do something,” Martin said. “He doesn't force anything. He's just a high IQ basketball player.”

The New Orleans Hornets didn't make a trade this week, but Dell Demps was encouraged by the interest rival teams expressed in his players.

“I usually don’t like to talk about actual trade details but what I will say is we got a call on a number of guys but we really like our core, we like our young group and we want to see them grow,” Demps said on Friday. “It’s a good sign when players call on your team, it means they have value but we like our young group right now. It will be interesting to see how we finish out the season.”

Eric Gordon was mentioned in several trade rumors leading up to the deadline.

Glen Grunwald believes the New York Knicks will need to alter their offensive strategy over the remainder of the season.

"I think teams have adjusted to our offense a little bit," Grunwald said. "We need to evolve."

Grunwald is confident that the Knicks have the personnel to score from all areas of the floor.

"It’s a matter of putting them in the right situations," Grunwald said. "I’m very optimistic [Mike Woodson] is gonna’ get that right."

Grunwald also expressed concern about the Knicks’ defense, which has fallen to 19th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 22nd in opponent field-goal percentage.

"I think the players and coaches are working toward figuring why that is," Grunwald said. "Even at the beginning of the year, we weren't as good as last season when Woody took over as head coach. There is room for improvement on our defense, and I think everyone’s focused on trying to get to that point where we are one of the top defensive teams in the league again."

Daryl Morey parted with three frontcourt players, including Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris, in two separate trades that brought Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia, Tyler Honeycutt and a second-round draft pick to the Houston Rockets.

Morey is comfortable with the move to a smaller lineup.

“It’s sustainable,” he said. “Look across the league. Teams that play small play well. Your offense goes up and your defense goes down, but your offense goes up more than the defense goes down. A lot of teams are playing small. We’ve got the personnel to do it.”

Morey has high hopes for Robinson, who was the fifth overall pick in last June’s draft.

"Thomas is a guy people are going to love," Morey told Howard Chen of CSNHouston. "High energy, runs the floor, led the country in rebounding when he was at Kansas. He's a guy we really think has the potential to be our starting big man.

"When the coaches feel Thomas is ready to unleash him, I feel he's a guy who's really going to screen and roll, finish, very athletic, super high energy, runs the floor. I'm really excited with Thomas."

The Denver Nuggets opted for continuity at the NBA trade deadline.

“I know last two years, we've been accustomed to being the team that's always in there (making deals),” Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri said. “We're the third-youngest team in the NBA. We feel like these guys are growing. We feel like from the beginning of the season to now, we've made some progress.

“We're excited for this last part of the season. We'll go from there and deal with other issues in the summer.”

George Karl identified shooting as a void.

The Nuggets are tied for sixth in offensive efficiency, yet they rank last in free-throw shooting percentage (68.8) and 25th in three-point accuracy (34.4).

“I don't think there's any question that shooting the ball is something that we have to examine somewhere along the way,” Karl said. “A lot of the formulas we study say if we shot the ball better, we'd be tremendously efficient.”

Dwight Howard referred to an extended future with the Los Angeles Lakers when asked whether a balance can be found between the pick-and-roll game and the touches he needs in the post.

"It can be," Howard said. "It's just something that we all have to work on. Guys have to have more trust in what I can provide on the post. And I just have to get more comfortable down there playing out the post. 

"It's really the first year that I really haven't had an opportunity to really get as comfortable as I want to on the box -- to where I can really read the defense, read my man, make moves and play off of it, sort of like how I did in Orlando. 

"But there's still time for improvement. We have years to play with each other, so it's a learning process."

Monty Williams wants Anthony Davis to focus on fundamentals, and forget about making highlight-reel plays.

“You remember thrilling and home runs,” Williams said. “I’m trying to push solid. I’m more concerned with him setting solid screens or making sure he’s in the right spot on the weak side. The home-run plays and the thrilling plays are a lot easier.
“We’re stressing solid, singles over home runs. The ability to do that for a young guy is tough.”

Davis played in the rookie-sophomore game during All-Star weekend in Houston.

“They watch All-Star weekend with a bunch of nonsense, and they you try to get these guys back to playing winning basketball instead of the oohs and aahs,” Williams said. “He’s been that kind of guy. When those plays present themselves, he’s capable of making them, and he makes it look easy. He’s going to be a great player someday.”