Sure, the completely uprooted their entire offensive scheme and the identity of their team that had made them Eastern Conference contenders when healthy over the past three years. And sure, in doing so the team , , that brings with it more physicality and a different set of priorities. And yes, George made it pretty clear early on he wasn’t “thrilled” with that idea, a , despite Bird openly saying .
The important thing to remember is that George is a professional, and everyone involved has the patience and perspective not to overreact if things are a little awkward early on. You know, like after the first of the year. Oh, wait, hold on:
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for a four spot,” George said after the Pacers’ 110-105 up winner, who has recently been linked with Juventus and Real Madrid, was a huge fan of Arsene Wenger’s side, which was largely filled up by his countrymen.He told The Times’ new Life Times podcast: “I was an Arsenal fan.”Arsenal and the French natiloss to the , a game in which he started matched up against 6-foot-11 All-Star .“I don’t know if this is my position. We’ll sit and watch tape and I’m sure I’ll talk with coach (Frank Vogel). I’ll talk with Larry (Bird) as well to get both their inputs on how the first game went but…I’m still not comfortable with it regardless of the situation. It’s still something I have to adjust to or maybe not. Or maybe it’s something we can go away from.”
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And we’re off.
So let’s start with this question. Getting aside the fact that it’s preseason and any results should be taken with a huge grain of salt, how did George actually play in this new system? From 8 Points, 9 Seconds:
In a lot of ways, stretches of the first half were the worst case scenario for a Pacer transition to the new smaller-faster style. What we saw was a team that couldn’t control the paint (outscored 34-18 in Points in the Paint) or their defensive glass (13 ORBs allowed, 21 Pelican Second Chance Points), while being unable to execute, offensively (5-for-23 from three, 10 turnovers).Paul George’s results were decidedly mixed. He clearly struggled guarding Anthony Davis, who scored 18 points and had 6 boards in 15 minutes. George’s lack of experience at the 4 also contributed heavily to the Pelicans’ success on the offensive glass. However, the Pacer star looked healthy and confident – perhaps the most important news of the evening – and scored most of his 12 first quarter points against an Anthony Davis that struggled to keep up with him in space.
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George spoke a lot about not only the size differential giving him problems, in that he’s just not strong enough to box out, but the actual requirements, hedging on the pick and roll, then recovering on the roll man, then boxing out, were taking energy away from him. Energy is precious for lead offensive players. If you drain an offensive player’s energy too much, it lowers their endurance and efficiency. It’s a two-way street, and George knows that.
This is a bad game to take significant takeaways from, however. First off, it’s the first preseason game for crying out loud. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Heck, Muncie, Indiana wasn’t built in the time the Pacers have had in this system. Meanwhile, in this particular game, George was facing arguably the best power forward in the league in Anthony Davis. Of course he struggled, he was playing the Brow.
Still, George is basically calling it quits on this idea one game in. How serious was he? He told the media that he’s not the only one with problems with the changes, a pretty serious thing to levy:
“Honestly, I’d rather build on what we’re going to do going into the season,” he said. “We’re playing around with this style now, trying to figure things out. But, it’s not just myself. Four other guys out there, it’s an adjustment for them. We all talk. A couple othreer with Manchester United.The Sun says the £505,000-a-week flop has stalled over a loan to Roma for the season after falling out of favour under boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.The Italians are now looking at other targets as Sanchez, 30, drags his heeler guys are uncomfortable with how we’re going to run things.“It’s new to everyone. It’s new to everybody,” George said, acknowledging a very important truth. “This is what preseason’s for. It’s Game One. We’ve just gotta build off it.”
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Overall, this is not good. Larry Bird and Frank Vogel can work to defuse the situation and in time, maybe George will come along. This started off badly and has only gotten worse, though, and at some point keeping the players, especially their best player, becomes a priority. The Pacers need to get everyone on the same page. The tried testing out new ideas when Dave Joerger took over in the 2013-2014 season, and they basically revolted a month in.
Best laid plans in the can be laid to waste simply by the fact that the players don’t buy in. Right now, Paul George is pulling all his money from the investments, cashing out, and burying it in his back yard. Indiana has some damagenchester United are stepping up their interest in Bruno Fernandes.United have been linked to the Portuguese midfielder for the past months.However, no formal bid has arrived to Sporting.The Independent reports that United will start with a £50millio control to do this week.
