Paul George is fully healthy and excited to play next season. That’s nice and all, but what position will he be playing? The Pacers are changing their style of play for next season. They’re getting smaller and faster. They signed Monta Ellis, traded away Roy Hibbert, and David West skipped town for San Antonio.
The Pacers’ starting lineup for next season is a bit murky right now. George Hill and Monta Ellis will likely start in the backcourt, but the team has several options in the frontcourt. They could play Paul George at small forward, the position that he’s used to, and put rookie Myles Turner at the 4 with Jordan Hill lining up at center. They could also play George at power forward, keep Hill at the 5, and start C.J. Miles or Rodney Stuckey at shooting guard. The team has other options as well, and it’s hard to predict what Indy’s starting lineup will look like at the start of the season.
One thing is for sure though: Paul George is not going to be playing only small forward this season. He’s been working on playing power forward, and according to GM Larry Bird, George will be playing “a lot of” positions next season. How much time will George spend at power forward? We don’t know, but what we do know is that it’s not up to him.
Larry Bird spoke with reporters on Tuesday about the Pacers’ new style.
“I want to run a little bit more,” Bird said. “What I really mean when I say that is I want to score about six to eight more points per game.”
That means going smaller and faster. George at power forward makes a lot of sense given that approach. However, when George was asked about playing power forward, he said that he didn’t think that power forward would be his primary position. Larry Bird may disagree with George on that one.
Bird said:
“He don’t make the decisions around here. But I [played power forward] and I loved it after I did it.”
Bird added more on the subject later, saying:
“I know what it did for my career and coming off this injury, I think it would be a good thing because he can still guard some threes, but he doesn’t have to do it all the time.”
I am of the opinion that George would be very effective at the 4. He has the size to play stretch-4, but with his skill-set almost no power forwards in the league would be able to effectively guard him. George is also a terrific defender, so I believe that he’ll be able to adjust to guarding bigger guys.
