Indiana Pacers: Paul George Should Wait Until Next Season

It wasn’t long ago that the Indiana Pacers were the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and Paul George‘s return seemed imminent. Suddenly, what should have been a lost 2014-15 season seemed like it could have a much happier ending.

Fast forward a few weeks and it seems pointless for Paul George to return now, for multiple reasons.

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Just a few days ago, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst was reporting that the Pacers were targeting “next week” as a potential return date for PG-13. But according to the Indiana Pacers yesterday, George doesn’t know where that speculation came from.

Hold on there a second though, because we’re not done with the conflicting reports. ESPN’s Mike Mazzeo talked with team president Larry Bird who said he believes George has been cleared to play and that he expects him to before the season is over.

Now, before people go crazy and take those words out of context, Bird also acknowledged that George isn’t 100 percent and that he shouldn’t return until he’s comfortable with his conditioning and some of that rust wearing off.

The conservative, less than scalding take here is that George should only return when he’s ready. But since we’ve gone through this (multiple times) with Derrick Rose already, it bears repeating: Paul George shouldn’t rush his return to help his team with their playoff push unless he’s 100 percent healthy.

The obvious difference between Rose and PG-13 is at the time when everyone wanted to hammer D-Rose for taking the more cautious, patient approach, the Chicago Bulls were potential title contenders in the East. This version of the Pacers, though they’d be a tough out in the first round, don’t fit the same bill.

It’s also worth mentioning that with Rose, a former MVP playing for a major sports market like Chicago, nostalgia and downright selfishness on the part of the fans may have played a factor in most people condemning his prolonged return process.

Though George has developed into one of the best two-way players in the NBA, he’s not quite at Rose’s level in terms of his adoring fans. Everyone wants to see him back and healthy as soon as possible, of course, but whether it’s because he’s never reached MVP levels or because we’ve learned better from watching Rose’s ailing health, most of the sports world isn’t clamoring (or straight up demanding) his return.

That’s probably for the best, not just for George, but for the Pacers as well. The return of a franchise player from such a devastating injury is not a process that should be rushed. It was easy to hope he’d be healthy when Indiana had won seven straight games to move up to seventh in the East, but now that the Pacers have lost six consecutive games, reality is kicking back in.

What would be the best-case scenario for the Pacers, exactly? They’re only one game out of the East’s final playoff spot, but they wouldn’t be able to climb higher than sixth in the standings, which would mean a first round matchup with the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors or Chicago Bulls.

Only the Raptors and Bulls would qualify as “vulnerable” first round matchups for the Pacers, which would require them to climb all the way to sixth in the standings. Spoiler alert though: Paul George will be rusty after not playing basketball for nearly a year.

We saw the same thing with Derrick Rose. Although Rose’s body has proven to be much more fragile than what we hope to see with George, it’s hard to throw a star player back into the mix at this time of year and expect them to not only contribute, but also to avoid throwing off the team’s groove that it’s spent all season developing.

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That means that even the Raptors and Bulls, who haven’t looked like guarantees to make it anywhere in the playoffs, would have the upper hand, and that’s in the ideal scenario where Indiana shakes off its recent skid and starts playing tremendous basketball while reintegrating a completely healthy George.

If all that sounds like a gigantic stretch, that’s because it is.

At this point, there are very few benefits of throwing George back into the fire. Yes, it’d be nice to see PG-13 back on the floor and yes, a Pacers team with a healthy superstar is one worth watching in the postseason. The sooner the better, right? After all, it was only last season that he put up 21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game as one of the best two-way forwards in the league.

But he’s also only 24 years old. It’d be a shame to risk long-term injury by rushing his return for a first round playoff exit.

For those reasons, Paul George really should think about postponing his return for the 2015-16 season. If he’s fully healthy, that’s one thing. But in a delicate situation like this, where there’s temptation and external pressure to return and play the part of hero for his teammates and his fans, it gets easy to rush the process. Here’s hoping George doesn’t let that happen.

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