Hayward vs P George in Indy Pro Am

[retiredcoach]

Goodman (a pro Am team from the DC Area with Paul George, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins etc) played the Indy Pro Am team on Saturday. Like most of these games, it was run and gun with little D.

Most of the night Gordon Hayward was matched up against Paul George. It was the only defense played in the game. One commentator described it this way. "Paul George and Gordon Hayward had some interesting battles and seemed to take their matchup personally. George's ball handling is still a work in progress. Hayward will start for Jazz this season."

You have to love Hayward, playing D in this kind of game!

George had 24 pts and 11 rebounds, Hayward had 21 pts and 10 rebounds.

John Wall was MVP with 41 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. Eric Gordon led the Indy with 40 points. Jeff Green had 35 and 13. DeMarcus Cousins 33 and 15.

[Soul Patch]

The Hayward/George matchup should be a lot of fun to watch throughout their careers. I think they'll be about the same skill level wise and role wise.

[d-will8]

I'm pretty happy with the Hayward pick at this point, but I also really like George. I think he's going to be a really solid player and it'll be interesting to watch how he and Hayward compare down the road. George and Ed Davis stand out as two guys we passed on who might end up being better than Hayward, but it's obviously too early to say and I think Hayward definitely has a chance of being as good or better than those guys, especially for us.

For now, I'm just happy that Hayward held his own in a meaningless pickup game. George probably wanted to take it to Hayward after what happened the last time the two played(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4go5PXDzC_o) and I'm glad Hayward didn't let him.

[countrybama24]

George will be the better defender, and Hayward will be the better ball handler / playmaker. My hunch is haywards ball handling skills will make him a better iso scorer, but George's athletic advantage could narrow the gap, so I could see that one go either way (from my limited sample size of pacers games).

I liked george better as a complement to dwill, but I think hayward is a better fit for our team at this point. Watching the two throughout their careers will be interesting tho.

[Xsy]

There's never enough highlights of these things.

[UTJazzFan_Echo1]

I haven't seen a whole lot of P. George but in the end I think Hayward is going to be the better overall player. I think George is built more in the mold of a T-Mac (pure scorer) while Hayward is more like a Granger (well rounded/balanced).

Again, I could be wrong about George being a pure scorer. From when I watched him, he seemed more offense/scoring oriented than defense but maybe I'm underestimating his D.

[babyjax13]

He is a very good defender for a rookie, but so was Hayward. I think they are pretty comparable in overall talent/skill/etc. I really wanted George with that pick, but for our team at the time I think Hayward was a better fit, and I am certainly not dissapointed in him now.

[MilBucksBackOnTop06]

He is a very good defender for a rookie, but so was Hayward. I think they are pretty comparable in overall talent/skill/etc. I really wanted George with that pick, but for our team at the time I think Hayward was a better fit, and I am certainly not dissapointed in him now.

You made the right pick for the team, not for DWill's talents. But that is water under the bridge. Both will be great players at a position SG that is being overhauled across the NBA...with a new wave of SG for the next 10 years.

It's a changing of the guard position...those two will rival to be top 10 in the entire league.

[daschysta]

I'm a butler fan and I love me some Hayward. I think both will be really good players for their respective teams.

Gordon is more polished than george on offense right now, and is underrated offensively with a very crafty game and great handles (used to be a point guard before his growth spurt). He is also a great passer for his size and position, and can play a bit of point forward. More athletic than he appears to be as well. He shot very well the second half of last season, but jazz fans can attest to the fact that he is incredibly streaky with his jumper, he isn't a "shooter" in the traditional sense of the word, but much is much more consistent as a slasher, which combined with his great ball handling and high iq makes him a dangerous threat that enables the offense to run more smoothly simply by feeding off his motion. He has some intangibles that won't show up in the box score, but will net wins. Honestly one of the better basketball comparisons that I can come up with is a higher bbIQ Stephen Jackson, Good defender, Streaky Shooter, talented passer and ball-handler for his size. That is no insult, Captain Jack is a great player when his head is screwed on right (his runs leading Charlotte to the playoffs, and his great first season in Golden State attest to this) and obviously gordon's is, he's a great kid (sweet starcraft II player too, i've played him before).

Paul is an athletic freak with ridiculously developed defensive instincts and smooth jumper that he just has to extend to NBA 3 pt range (was a great shooter in college for their 3pter) He was literally the guy that we would throw even at elite point guards like Derrick Rose and Chris Paul and achieve pretty good results, he could be all-Defense first team someday. In the playoffs we moved Paul George matchup with Derrick Rose defensively after the first half of game two when Collison got injured, for the rest of the series rose shot .353 from the field averaging 24.75 ppg 6.25 assists and 4.25 rebounds turning the ball over 4 times per game as opposed to what he was doing before we made the switch (39 ppg 6apg 6 rpg 3 topg and .44 from the field) George averaged 2 bpg and 1.75 spg matched up with rose and more importantly was visibly frustrating the young MVP with his length and lateral quickness forcing him to chuck up an embarrassing # of 3 pointers, chicago often purposely ran rose through multiple screens just to match rose up against another player. in fact despite his poor offensive showing his defense was so impactful on the series that i'd easily call him our co-mvp of the first round series with granger (who was our only consistent offensive option). Having watched Ron Artest nightly during his DPOY run in the early 2000's contending pacers team i'd say george has a shot to be nearly as good as artest on that end someday (he's faster than artest, but artest was such a powerful physical specimen that he could just simply physically dominate offensive players more than george) Offensively he's developing, but we had conducted some experiments last year allowing george to be our go to 1v1 player at the ends of quarters etc... he showed a great aptitude for creating his own shot that leads me to believe he'll be very good at it in the future (even if not quite as good a ball handler as gordon). He began to assert himself much more once JOB was canned and he stopped standing in the corner, but i'd still like to see him be more aggressive, since he has at least as much offensive potential as anyone on the team other than granger and maybe hibbert.

Personally I'm happy with Paul George for the Pacers, and due to his athleticism he has the higher ceiling, there isn't a limit to what he can do on the court in the future. However unless george improves his handles quite a bit (supposedly this has been his big focus this summer) Hayward will have the better 1v1 offensive game, and gordon is a pretty crafty defender himself.

I see paul george someday being a 23-24 ppg 6-7 rpg 3 or so assists with 1.5+ blocks and steals player with elite defense due to his strong work ethic, atheticism and length, he could be the pacers franchise player.

Hayward will be good too, I could see him putting up a 21-7-5 season with good intangibles, great value at the 9 pick. The kid is a winner, and could make a few all-star teams during his career. you'll be happy with him, and hopefully the two will have some epic matchups in the future (paul has to get gordon back for that facial last time they played

Obviously i'm bullish on george, but it's been a while since the pacers have had a swingman with his combination of length athleticism, attitude, and great work ethic. I truly believe he can be a perrenial all-star top 10 player, but i'll be following haywards career too, he has a way of proving his doubters wrong and he's so fun to watch.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEEJDh2HJuI&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]

Like the OP said not much defense was played, but you can see that Gordon and George were at least putting forth marginal effort into their personal matchup in the few clips they are guarding eachother. wish gordon got shown more in it, but it is mostly focusing on the Jaw Dropping moves, overlooking mr. fundamental gordon unfortunately.

[The59Sound]

I think we'll find Gordon to be a quite consistent shooter...