The Indiana Pacers offense is expected to be much better this season, even if Paul George’s preseason estimate might be ludicrous.
Larry Bird wants the Indiana Pacers to score more points. He has set lofty goals. But not even The Legend himself, one of the top few offensive players in the history of the sport, is thinking as ambitiously as Paul George.
With Nate McMillan instituting an offense with more freedom — less play calling, more player decision making — the team’s superstar is expecting big things.
I mean, very big things.
Preposterous things.
Paul George thinks the Pacers will be scoring 115 points per game in no time, or at least that’s what he told Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star.
"“Everything was just free flow and we’re still trying to figure that out,” George said. “We’ve been so used to a set or calling of plays and now we’re getting that freedom. I think that’s going to take some time, but once we get it, we could easily be a 115-point team a night.”"
For context, last year’s Golden State Warriors won a record 73 games. They probably had the two best 3-point shooters of all time, and Steph Curry hit 402 triples by himself, waaaay more than anyone else has ever made in a season. (He broke his own record in fact.)
Their offense was unstoppable in the regular season. They stomped all comers with a spread, 3-point-happy attacked that proved impossible to defend.
They averaged 114.9 points per game.
So Paul George thinks Indiana, albeit only slightly, can outperform the best offense in modern NBA history and probably ever.
Teams have scored 115 points before, even without the help of statistical rounding. The last one did so in 1991-92, however, according to Basketball-Reference. Oddly enough, it was also the Warriors, whose Run TMC incarnation ran its way to 118.7 points per outing.
Jeff Teague is good. He is not Tim Hardaway.
Monta Ellis is good. He is not Chris Mullin.
Paul George is better than Mitch Richmond.
The point here: Obviously, PG wasn’t really predicting 115 per game and we’re having a bit of fun here at his expense.
His intention stands though. Indiana is widely expected to run a lot more and score a lot more points this year. After the team’s first preseason game, as pointless as preseason games are in terms of predicting the future, McMillan noted the team’s 25 assists. Last year, the Pacers averaged 21.2 assists per game.
"“We did a good job of attacking the basket and we had 25 assists, so we’re moving the ball,” McMillan said after Tuesday’s game. “That’s what we wanted to do and I thought our guys committed to that.”"
Also on note is that this good-passing game, which was played in the preseason, came even though everyone on the team admitted they were still figuring things out. Because obviously. It’s the preseason.
But the outlook is good so far and it’s nice to see everyone around the team setting high expectations — even if Paul George’s estimate is a bit ludicrous.