After trading Roy Hibbert and letting David West walk, the Pacers didn’t make a concentrated push to replace their starting big men. The small ball approach will force George to play the “four”. But, is he willing to do it? “It’s definitely a change”, George said. To start it out and to begin with, I’m open for the change.
Advertisement
“I feel great”, George said while promoting his being on the cover of MyNBA2K16, the companion mobile app to “NBA 2K16”.
“We’ll see how it goes”.
After several years of staying big, the Pacers are following the rest of the league by going small and shifting their best player, who happens to be one of the best at his regular position, to a new one.
“It’s just being outmatched strength-wise with guys at the four spot is really the only concern”, the former Most Improved Player stated. It’s not really the concern for one game. I wasn’t extremely thrilled about it when they first presented it to me”, George said, “but the way the league is going and my playing style, I think I can fit right into it. We’ll see how it goes during camp whether I’m comfortable with it or not, then we’ll just make that decision from there. “I’m not too thrilled about it, but I’m open to it”, George said. But we’ll see. But again, I could very much end up loving it, so it’s all up in the air. And while he’s open to helping the team, you can understand why he’d be hesitant to move out of his natural position.
If Vogel’s able to manage rotations to avoid George getting pounded early, and the Pacers get off to a fast start with the revamped offense carrying the day, we could wind up thinking this preseason hemming and hawing was much ado about nothing. But George has been working on his all-around body strength so it is a good risk to play him at power forward.
But keeping George in there at power forward for the season is risky.
George, a two-time All-Star who returned from a broken right leg to play six games at the end of last season, has been a strong rebounder throughout his career and can defend multiple positions.
According to UpRoxx, as George gets his body back to normal after his gruesome injury, Pacers’ Team President, and former Celtics star Larry Bird, wants George to switch his position from Small Forward to Power Forward. Whether he is truly sold on the small-ball approach with George at the 4 or whether he’s following orders from Bird is anybody’s guess, but it’s the hand Vogel has been dealt and he’s showing his willingness to adapt to it. The cold hard truth is whether George or Pacers fans like it or not, there’s simply not a better option at the starting power forward position if the Pacers are truly hoping to embrace the trending small-ball approach the league is adopting. He came off the bench, played limited minutes and missed a dunk in his season debut.
Now, with George largely healthy and the massive frontline of West and Hibbert gone, the Pacers are looking to play a different style of basketball under coach Frank Vogel.
Vogel has a thought of how his new starting five will look, which should help the Pacers achieve their goals of becoming a high-volume offensive team.
Advertisement
Unfortunately, just because it seems to be the only route that “makes sense” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best idea.
