Paul George’s Return A Bonus, No Longer Pacers’ Only Hope

If you were looking around the NBA’s Youtube account last night, you may have noticed this Paul George video posted there.

Ah yes, another clip of video to breakdown, overanalyze, and generally spend too much time on.

Except I don’t think most Indiana Pacers fans are doing that.

With the Pacers playing as well as they have as of late (winning 13 of their last 15), Paul George’s return doesn’t hold the same urgency it did just a month ago. Yes, he’s still the key to the franchise’s future, but his return isn’t the only thing Indiana’s fans have to hope for this season.

That exchange on Twitter highlighted exactly how bad things had gotten last season. A year ago the death spiral had began and fans (including me) were trying to convince ourselves, even during the playoffs, that things were fine. The signs were there: the fighting, the body language, and the underwhelming performances, but no one within the fan base really wanted to acknowledge the writing on the wall. It was much like watching the Beatles “Let It Be”: The individual players were there, but the fighting amongst everyone was sure to doom it all.

But now in this season, as @JayNilla pointed out, the team feels connected. The starters haven’t had their best stretch of games lately, but the bench has picked up the slack and everyone still seems on the same page. Even in this season’s worst moments, there never was “selfish dudes” comments, or even a feeling that things were wrong. Frank Vogel has guided a team that was missing all five of last year’s starters at times into the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. Yes, the Eastern Conference is terrible, but the Pacers were D.O.A. when the season started as George Hill and David West missed significant time.

Now, respectable sports writers are asking if Frank should be considered for the award, and I’d argue Rodney Stuckey is making a similar push for 6th Man of the Year. Neither will happen, but both are making their best effort to enter the conversation. Despite being 15-30 at one point, the Pacers have a good chance to finish above .500 and maybe as high as the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference.

This all puts Paul George in a better place when he returns. He doesn’t have to be Indiana’s savior, he just has to get used to playing basketball again. A debate earlier in the season was if he should come back if the Pacers were close to making the playoffs. Some worried about him pushing himself and maybe hurting something else before his body was 100% ready. That concern is alleviated by the Pacers’ current situation. PG won’t have to push himself any more than needed, only what he’s comfortable with. He isn’t the Indiana Pacers only hope this season, he’s part of one of the hottest teams in the NBA since the beginning of February.

Paul George is still the future, but the present doesn’t look so dire.