No Rest for Georges Niang This Summer

Indiana Pacers rookie Georges Niang is taking a serious approach to the offseason.

In the Orlando Summer League, Georges Niang averaged 10.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists a game while looking better than his status as a second-round draft pick may suggest.

So what did he do after proving himself as an efficient scorer and defender in the Summer League? Last week you could find Niang working out in Haverhill, Massachusetts, according to Bill Burt of the Eagle Tribune.

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"Niang was supposed to be home relaxing this week after a few months of training in Southern California and then playing in the NBA Summer League made up mostly of rookies and second-year part-time players.Niang couldn’t do it. He couldn’t take a day off to rest.“What should I be doing, sitting on my couch watching TV?” asked the Methuen native when he was asked why he wasn’t taking some time off. “That’s obviously not going to happen. I’ve got work to do.”"

Niang has plenty of potential, but he’s got to make sure nothing stops him from reaching it. Niang knows he has to do more than the minimum required if he wants to stick around with the Indiana Pacers. With Larry Bird is running the show, Niang can’t give the team president a reason to write him off.

The rookie has had weight issues in the past that could be a real concern for him if he lets them be. It may have been two years ago that Niang was struggling to cut pounds, but we all know weight is much harder to lose than it is to pile on.

I don’t expect this to be a problem for him as much as something he has to monitor, and keeping busy working out during his down time is a great way to handle it. Not only does he make sure he’s in shape, he’s hopefully getting better, too.

It is easy to look at professional athletes and wonder how they sometimes end out of shape or aren’t as good as we realistically expect them to be. A Sports Illustrated story by Ben Reiter about NFL wide receiver Roddy White sheds light on how this happens.

For the TL:DR crowd, White got away with being freakishly athletic for most of his sporting career. That got him so far, but eventually, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t until a few years into his NFL career that he really started to dig in and become a student of the game, something that prevented him from being another draft bust and led to his renaissance as a player.

For many players, they’ve been a big fish in a small pond their entire playing career. It isn’t until they go pro that they suddenly realize they are no longer a big, or even a medium-sized, fish and they are in a much bigger body pf water. Even if they are still a freak athlete at an elite level, they can find themselves washing out sooner than expected when everyone else is athletic.

For Niang — who admits he will need to use his basketball IQ to survive in the NBA — keeping in shape is even more important, as he’s not going to overpower his opponents with his athleticism.

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Niang is a second-round pick, with only one season guaranteed in his recently signed contract. He doesn’t have the luxury of knowing if he’ll be around next year. Putting in offseason work is one way of increasing his chances of not washing out of The Association.