Paul George had a strong preseason showing, leading the Pacers with 18.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. He played in all seven preseason contests and looked close to his old self.
Of course he was playing the four spot of the time though, a new change pushed by Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird. In that spot, he typically had a weaker defender on him and had mismatches that made it easier for him offensively.
Like against the Pistons, when he scored 13 points in 12 minutes. Or the second meeting, when he dropped 32 points in 24 minutes. Turnovers weren’t an issue for PG, except in the final exhibition game when he gave it away five times. He shot the ball well, 43.2 percent from the field and 39 percent from the arc.
His play, the numbers, and his comfort back on the hardwood isn’t surprising because of the effort he put in over the summer, spending so many days at Bankers Life Fieldhouse getting treatment, working with coaches, and getting shots up. That attitude was infectious, particularly late in the summer, as seven … eight … sometimes nine guys also came in for workouts.
Best of all, he easily passed the eye test. His shot is better, the high-flying dunks are back, and his defense is close to what it was.
It’ll be on George and coach Frank Vogel to do a lot of leading this season.
Chemistry — outside of injuries — may be the biggest determinant of the team’s success this season. They brought seven new players into the fold, and only one is now 30. Monta Ellis, who turned 30 on Monday. It’s a young, fresher, livelier team … and a group that will need more time to come together, more time to understand one another’s tendencies, and more time to, as Paul explains, get back to their strong play on the defensive end.
On Friday, one day after the Pacers’ seven-game preseason schedule concluded, I spoke with George about his preseason and the progress that the team is making. Read the Q&A below.
I think the biggest question for fans heading into the preseason was to see what you could do. Do you feel like you pretty much answered that question?
Yeah, that’s what preseason was for me. Just to get back to being who I was and all the work that I put in in the summer. This preseason and training camp, I just wanted to show it all in preseason and get my mind wrapped around what I have in store for myself in the regular season.
Beyond the highlights and social media buzz from a dunk, what do you personality get out the numerous big slams that you’ve already had? Additional confidence?
Yeah, that’s all. Just some additional confidence. I made plays like that through training camp, made plays like that in the summer. To do it in a game is just adding more confidence to myself.
With the preseason behind you, what is your feel for this team and the rotations at this point?
I think we have something special here. We have yet to play, what I think, great basketball yet but we’ve still put up big numbers offensively — and defensively we’ve still held teams to around 90, 80 points, and we’ve yet to cover defense on the scale that we usually do here. So I am very happy and satisfied with where we are at right now despite us not being fully fluent with what we’re trying to do just yet.
Paul George said more learning has gone on at this camp than any of his previous ones.
You’ve mentioned several times that the defensive end has been set aside for the new offense and only been briefly touched on. Where are you guys with that?
Ugh, it’s still progressing. The good thing about it is we have three guys that’s been here and knows what coach expects defensively, and then a lot of guys that came here have that respect for what we did in the previous years already. So it’s been easy and I think the biggest thing is a lot of guys care enough on the defensive end to not want to get scored on, to have our defense solid enough to where we can really focus on the offensive end.
When on defense, as part of playing the four spot, do you sometimes feel like a safety out there? There were a couple times in Fort Wayne where you moved down after a mismatch and blocked a shot.
Yeah, I think I can roam. Especially when we’re playing, I can roam a little more. Just having that freedom and a lot of guys being quick out there, if I roam I know I have the speed of other guys to pick up cutters and we can all just rotate and switch off. It gives me that freedom, more so than I have in previous years.
On a lighter note, no mouth guard for you anymore?
No, it’s just preseason. I’ll be back with my mouth guard.
And the 3-point celebration?
That’s the dab. And, we’ve playing around with Drake’s Hotline Bling Dance.
GRIII is not human… @GRIII ?? pic.twitter.com/bPVlZm1b7K
— Indy 'Cers (@IndyCers) October 23, 2015