Paul George’s playoff struggles highlight huge win for Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers won the Paul George trade, and the postseason highlights it

The Indiana Pacers aren’t necessarily the team with the brightest future in the NBA. Heck, they were bounced in the first round of the postseason in an upset by the fifth-seeded Miami Heat who have gone on to shock the entire NBA by then bouncing the Milwaukee Bucks in five games.

Nate McMillan was fired following the loss and the team’s future is in flux. Victor Oladipo is rumored to be unhappy and it feels like a trade request is possible from the All-Star. The idea of that happening feels reminiscent of what happened with Paul George.

Paul George put the Pacers in a tough spot when he requested a trade in 2017. The request leaking to the public, likely from George’s agent, hurt the team and their chances of getting fair market value for a player of George’s caliber. Their leverage was lost completely.

Looking back on it, here’s what Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard had to say.

"“It couldn’t have come at a worse time for me,” Pritchard said. “Had we known this a while ago we could have been more prepared. And then the way it got out…we struggled with that.”"

The bad blood is still definitely there. Paul George has talked about the trade since, revealing that the team had a chance at gaining a top power forward, which was reported to be Anthony Davis. George has been clear in stating that he feels the front office had no desire to win.

Indiana Pacers got a solid haul for Paul George, in retrospect

Despite having nearly no leverage, the Indiana Pacers landed former Hoosier Victor Oladipo and rising big man Domantas Sabonis.

Both players have grown into All-Star selections with the Pacers, Oladipo even earning Most Improved Player of the Year honors in 2018.

Injuries have kept Oladipo from showing what this team is truly capable of, but two All-Stars in return for George isn’t a poor haul, especially considering how public the trade request was.

Paul George’s struggles show how Indiana Pacers came out on top

Since getting traded away from the Indiana Pacers, Paul George has struggled. George has advanced past the first round of the postseason just once, only to give up a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in this year’s postseason.

This year, he hit playoff rock bottom for a player of his caliber. After averaging over 26 points per game in the regular season George averaged just 20 points per game in the postseason. He shot worse than 40 percent from the field and fell below the league average in 3-point shooting accuracy in the two rounds the Clippers participated in.

Not all of the Clippers failures and tire blowouts over the last two weeks are on George’s shoulders. Head coach Doc Rivers deserves a fair amount of the blame, as do Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams, who also failed to show up in the Western Semifinals. But George is one-half of the star duo for the Clippers, and star players are expected to pick up the slack when the role players are slipping.

Instead, George was one of the ones slipping. And it’s not uncommon. He failed to lead the Pacers to the ultimate goal. He failed to get the Thunder past the first round. And now he’s failing with the Clippers.

It’s always going to sting a little to think about what could have been with George. Considering, however, that George might have hit his playoff ceiling in Indiana, it’s great that they were able to gain two future All-Stars before they hit their prime on his way out.

The Pacers have their own issues to sort out and have not been able to muster up much playoff success themselves, but when it comes to Paul George, well, maybe it was for the best that he requested out.