Indiana Pacers' Offensive Evolution Will Start with Paul George
With a stylistic overhaul on the horizon, the Indiana Pacers have made it crystal clear they're focused on playing a faster brand of ball with smaller personnel next season—and Paul George is going to be at the forefront of the team's preferential shift.
While the Pacers have been known for plodding in the half court during the entirety of Frank Vogel's tenure as head coach with Roy Hibbert manning the middle, the organization appears ready to ditch its status as an NBA Luddite and embrace analytical convention.
"I was talking to coach earlier; we'd like to play a little faster tempo," Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said following the season, according to The Indianapolis Star's Candace Buckner. "And that means we've got to run a little faster, maybe at times play a little smaller. We just got into it, so I don't know what style, but we'd like to change it a little bit. …But I would like to score more points, and to do that, you've got to run."
| 2011-12 | 106.7 (9) | 90.7 (19) | 12.9 (16) |
| 2012-13 | 104.3 (20) | 90.2 (25) | 10.9 (21) |
| 2013-14 | 104.1 (23) | 92.5 (20) | 9.5 (28) |
| 2014-15 | 103.5 (23) | 93.2 (19) | 9.5 (27) |
Picking up the pace will require ditching a bigger front line right off the bat, which means George—ideally—will see plenty of run at the 4. Now, that's a new concept for the 25-year-old, considering 68 percent of his career minutes have come at the 3 while 31 percent have come at the 2.
But if the Pacers are serious about turning over a new leaf, sliding George up a spot in the frontcourt is a surefire way to precipitate change.
That's why he's already committed to honing his skills in the new role.
"I'll be ready for it," George said, according to The Indianapolis Star's Dana Hunsinger Benbow. "I'm working on making that change and being prepared to play some forward this year. I understand what Larry (Bird) wants as far as playing the faster pace. I mean, I'm for it. That's the way the league is going nowadays."
Although playing a different position sounds easier in theory than it likely will be in practice, George has all the physical tools necessary to make the adjustment. At 6'9'' and 220 pounds, he has the length to defend opposing power forwards. Plus, he can use speed to create mismatches on the other end.
Since he's cut from the same cloth as versatile combo forwards like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kawhi Leonard, George can use his triple-threat offerings on offense to keep defenders on their heels at all times.
Despite appearing in just six games last season after suffering a broken leg, George used his first four seasons with the Pacers to demonstrate proficiency in an array of areas. Not only does he stroke the three at a 36.1 percent clip, but he has the strength necessary to post up smaller wings and the foot speed to blow by slower defenders off the dribble.
However, just because George is slated to see minutes as a small-ball 4 doesn't mean he's going to eat up all the time at power forward. Bird has been adamant that David West ($12.6 million) and Hibbert ($15.5 million) are going to exercise lucrative player options for next season, per Buckner, which means Vogel will need to experiment with a variety of lineups in order to maximize the team's foot speed.
And if that means pushing Hibbert—and perhaps West—into marginalized roles, the Pacers appear ready to move their slower bigs to the bench in favor of units led by George's more appealing modern skill set.
"We'll have to see how it all plays out and what the roster ultimately looks like, but there's a possibility that Roy's role will be diminished, if we're trying to play faster and trying to play smaller," Vogel said, per Buckner. "But a lot of stuff is going to happen this summer. We'll see how the roster shapes out coming into next season."
That all sounds promising, but implementing new schemes under a coach who's only known how to grind opponents to the bone will represent a form of culture shock.
"The risk in going that way is that the team will get away from its defensive identity—which is what propelled the Indiana Pacers to back-to-back Eastern Conference finals—and instead strive towards a style that Vogel may not be the right man to lead," Jared Wade wrote for 8points9seconds.com.
Since Vogel assumed the job on a full-time basis in 2011, the Pacers have never ranked higher than 19th in pace. And last season, Indiana ranked 24th in transition efficiency, scoring 1.07 points per possession, according to Synergy Sports.
The Pacers also ran on a meager 11.5 percent of their offensive possessions, per Synergy, which was better than only the New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets. By comparison, the Houston Rockets graded out first in that regard, pushing the pace on 19 percent of their trips down the floor.
Evidently, Indiana hasn't been armed with personnel conducive to ideal diversification of its portfolio. So in that regard, one broad stroke like moving George to the 4 isn't going to change the complexion of the offense entirely. A gradual overhaul needs to occur, and it will require a bit of offseason tinkering.
Whether that means making a move up in the draft for a mobile big man like Willie Cauley-Stein—whom Bird referred to as a "$100 million player," per The Courier-Journal's Kyle Williams—doing some exploratory work in free agency or a combination of the two, Indiana can't sit idly by and hope for George's positional conversion to alter everything.
His acclimation to life as a 4 will be the impetus for more significant restructuring, but ultimately, it should mark the beginning of a top-to-bottom reformation.
Passé operations yielded prosperous results during a stretch that saw the Pacers make four straight playoff appearances—and capture back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals berths—but an on-court revolution is taking the NBA by storm.
Playing smaller and faster can expose the Pacers to a tremendous breadth of new possibilities, and with George ready to accept new responsibilities amid a turning tide, Indiana has a chance to set itself up for future success by clinging to new-age tactics.
All statistics are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless noted otherwise.
Alec Nathan covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AlecBNathan.
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