Paul George's Ultimate Training Camp Checklist for 2013-14 Season

Indiana Pacers forward Paul George turned a lot of heads during the 2013 playoffs, helping lead his team to a seventh game against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Obviously, he turned some heads within the Pacers organization, too, as Indiana recently rewarded him with a five-year extension (per Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports).

George captured the attention of NBA fans everywhere with incredible defense, clutch shots and rim-rocking jams that now have many likening him to Tracy McGrady.

While that comparison may be a bit premature, George certainly has the tools and the ability to become a perennial All-Star and an elite force on both ends of the floor.

Still, for him to ultimately reach that next level, improvements to his overall game must be made.

On the surface, George's 2012-13 numbers look pretty good. The 23-year-old averaged 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game, demonstrating his versatility by filling up the box score night in and night out.

However, a more thorough look at his numbers reveals that the Fresno State product was not all that efficient: he shot a career-low 41.9 percent from the floor and recorded a less-than-stellar effective field-goal percentage of 49.1 percent. Plus, while the .145 win shares per 48 minutes he posted is a very solid mark, McGrady once tallied .262.

Comparing and contrasting George's statistics with McGrady's may not necessarily be all that fair to the Pacer forward, but that is the standard to which some are holding the 6'9" George, so drawing parallels is somewhat applicable.

That being said, George is still very, very young, and a few adjustments here and there could help him eventually become that type of elite player.

1. Become More Efficient

Generally, as players mature and get some experience under their belt, their shot selection improves and their shooting percentage increases with it. That has not been the case with George, whose numbers took a rather alarming dip during his third season.

Fortunately, there are methods George can take to get better.

The first would be to slow down the three-point shooting. George attempted 5.9 triples per game in 2012-13, by far a career high. Now, George shot them at a respectable 36.2 percent, but a look at his shot chart reveals that he is much more apt to hit trifectas from the corners than from any other area of the floor.

As you can see, George shoots the three-ball very well from either corner. Overall, he took 122 threes from those spots, hitting on 51 for a clip of 41.8 percent.

On the other hand, George attempted 343 bombs from straightaway and the wings combined and only converted on 34.7 percent of them.

Yes, threes from the those spots are definitely more common than threes from the corners, hence the massive differential in attempts, but if George focused on taking smarter three-pointers and curbed the number of triples he takes from straightaway and the wings, his efficiency would almost certainly benefit.

What would truly be best, however, is if George put more of his energy into taking the ball to the hole rather than settling for long jump shots. The 32.7 percent he shot from downtown in the 2013 playoffs while taking 5.5 triples a contest is concrete evidence of that. 

2. Become a Better Ball-Handler

While the lack of efficiency is a bit of a concern for George, perhaps the most noticeable hole in his game is his shaky ball-handling.

This is likely not news to NBA fans, as it is essentially common knowledge that George's handle is not exactly that of Kobe Bryant's. The 6'9" forward posted a turnover percentage of 15.4 percent while averaging 2.9 turnovers per game in 2012-13, and those numbers ballooned to 18.4 percent and 3.5 turnovers a contest in the postseason.

Check out this video of George's dribbling skills (or lack thereof). The third turnover at 17 seconds is particularly amateurish, as he simply loses control of the basketball.

The good news for George is that a large number of his turnovers are simply a result of poor decision-making.

For example, the first time he was stripped in the above video was when he tried to drive through some congestion. Showing more discretion in such situations will come with experience.

Then, in the second turnover of the video, he attempts to split two players, an ill-advised move considering the positioning of the defenders.

Some of his miscues are also a result of carelessness.

It's difficult to grasp just what George was thinking with that pass above, but, hopefully, it can be chalked up to raw youth rather than an ugly pattern that will persist throughout his career.

For now, we should give George the benefit of the doubt and just ask him to be more prudent with his decisions. While he does occasionally look uncomfortable handling the rock, he should be able to improve as he gets more battle tested.

George is considered by many to be the Pacers' best player, so a spike in his judiciousness with the basketball is imperative, especially considering that Indiana ranked 28th in turnovers during the 2012-13 season.

It can also be argued that turnovers were the main culprit in Indy's series loss to the Heat. An elite team should not be that sloppy with the ball, and improvement in that area all starts with its top member.

In this case, that's George.

3. Get More Aggressive

We talked earlier about George's tendency to fall in love with the three-pointer, so it's no surprise that this item would pop up on his checklist.

The proof that George is not aggressive enough off the dribble is in the pudding. He only averaged 3.5 free throws per game in 2012-13, and he really hasn't gotten better in that area over the course of his three years in the league.

Take a look.

Clearly, George is spending too much time hanging out on the perimeter and not enough time putting his head down and trying to create something inside.

It's hard to understand why someone with George's athletic ability would settle so frequently for long-range shots. After all, this is the same Paul George who put Chris Bosh and Chris Andersen on posters during the Eastern Conference Finals, and in his dunk on Andersen, he actually beat LeBron James off the dribble and took it to the rim with authority.

If that isn't McGrady-like, I don't know what is.

Of course, George's precarious ball-handling likely plays a part in him not being as aggressive as he should, but that's why he needs to improve in both areas.

An encouraging sign is that George's free-throw attempts per game went up drastically during the 2013 playoffs, as he nearly doubled his regular-season output with 6.7 foul shots a contest. Perhaps that is the Paul George we will see in 2013-14.

Given the fact that George has a very quick first step, it may only be a matter of time before we see him start doing things like this on a regular basis:

Once again, George easily beat LeBron off the dribble, and let's keep in mind that James is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. However, in the last two videos, No. 6 didn't have a chance.

Let's see more of that in 2013-14, Paul.