Paul George: Return best suited for next season

Despite breaking his leg just six months ago, Paul George could be about a month away from returning. Still, George should delay his return to next season.

It seems it will take a lot for Pacers president Larry Bird to give up hopes on his team making the playoffs this season. After losing a good amount of talent in the offseason in Lance Stephenson (free agency) and Paul George (injury), Bird still expects his team to make the postseason in the weak Eastern Conference. It is hard to tell whether the Pacers’ roster will look the same by next month with the trade deadline coming up on Feb. 19, but whether Indiana is competitive or not, Bird is hoping George will make a return sometime in March. George seems to be on the same page, which could end up ruining a good opportunity for the Pacers this season.

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After three consecutive losses to the Miami Heat in the playoffs, Bird kept Indiana’s core together–along with small bench additions–hoping to eventually make the NBA Finals based off of continuity. With a great defensive coach in Frank Vogel, a team that bought into the system, and a similar roster throughout the years, the Pacers had what it took to possibly go all the way. While this really didn’t come about until last season, they even had that go-to guy in George. Of course, the clear chemistry issues that started to show around the All-Star break combined with facing LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh held Indiana short of yet another Finals appearance.

With George out, this season was the perfect opportunity to build a core around him that would help him play better. With plenty of pieces that would be useful to contenders, trading away guys like David West, Luis Scola, and C.J. Watson to help address bigger needs (both point guard and power forward are deep points of the roster, although Indiana would need a power forward in return if both West and Scola were traded) makes sense in the long term.

They still have no true point guard, who would certainly help George score more. And with a new point guard, George Hill would be able to shift over to his natural position at shooting guard, filling another void in Indiana’s starting unit. However, moving veterans that have been apart of the Pacers’ core in recent years would go against Bird’s ‘win now’ mentality, while it would help improve the club at the end of the day.

Jan 9, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (13) holds a ball during warmups before the game against the Boston Celtics at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports /

And really, worrying about winning now doesn’t even make sense, even in the East, at 18-32.

All of this may seem to go off course of George, but even if he can play, returning wouldn’t prove anything. Unless a healthy Hill sparks a big run, this team will not be competitive by the time George would be able to return. A George return this ahead of schedule would be a great story, as at the time he would return would be just seven months after breaking his leg in August.

While George is ahead of schedule, he is only doing small drills and has not yet participated in anything with contact nor actual practice. George hopes to return to practice Mar. 1, and if that were to happen, it would still takes weeks to get back in basketball shape. He thinks it may only take a couple weeks to get comfortable with his wind, but as Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star pointed out, that’s being very optimistic.

Even if George does return by mid-March, by the time he really got comfortable playing on the court like he did before his injury the season would be nearly over. And as mentioned above, this is no playoff team.

When you don’t play for all this time, you (clearly) tend to watch a lot. Missing time not only has given George the time to work on his physical size, but the opportunity to watch and understand the game better. Like a coach, you see everything differently from the sideline, and George is now able to see and understand things before they actually happen (via Candace Buckner):

"“I used to rely on instincts…now I see things differently. I see stuff forming, I can almost see the play happening before it happens. I think that’s where I’ve grown.”"

Team doctors would not let George return unless they truly believed he was completely healed and able to play, and he wouldn’t play if he didn’t think he was ready, but rushing a comeback for a month of play for a team that isn’t even very good makes no sense. A bone break isn’t as bad as an ACL tear, for example, as it is not permanently damaged even when healed like a ligament. But still, risking any chance of re-injuring himself, setting him back even further, is a risk that isn’t worth taking.

If the Pacers were a playoff team, George returning would make much more sense as he could really help this team shock the world and make some sort of a playoff run. But with the way Indiana is playing right now, there is no reason to return early besides the storyline.

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