Official: Bird says Paul George is our PF

Post #1 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Thu Jul 9, 2015 8:20 pm

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2015/07/09/larry-bird-im--one-who-thinks-paul-george-can-play--four/29919533/

Sorry guys. Looks like he's going to predominately play the 4.

Larry Bird wrote:"He'll play a lot of power forward and small forward," Bird said on NBA TV Thursday at halftime of the Pacers' summer league game against one of Orlando's teams. "I'm the one who thinks he can play the four. I think the mismatches on the offensive end are greater than the defensive liability he'll have. I think he can handle it."

glasket · Post #2 » by **glasket** » Thu Jul 9, 2015 9:56 pm

What about the wear and tear of battling in the inside on defence?
I agree the 4 in short bursts but not the majority of minutes.

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Boneman2 · Post #3 » by **Boneman2** » Thu Jul 9, 2015 10:17 pm

"He'll play a lot of power forward and small forward,"

Did Bird actually say he'd predominately be our 4 or is this your read on the situation? He really doesn't specify either position in the excerpt, of course I haven't read the article yet so I could totally be missing it.
All I know is there will be games when guys constantly murk PG down low. Remember West overpowering LeBron?

As a stretch 4, yeah he'll do fine, but I hope Larry doesn't intend for him to battle in the blocks with the likes of TGibson, Millsap, Cousins, Zach, etc... I think his usage will still be predominately from the perimeter.

When PG is playing the 4, in reality it'll be 4 wings and a big.

mikepacernation · Post #4 » by **mikepacernation** » Thu Jul 9, 2015 10:18 pm

When PGs body start wearing down at the age of 28 he's gonna regret playing PG starting power forward

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basketballwacko2 · Post #5 » by **basketballwacko2** » Thu Jul 9, 2015 10:47 pm

Scoot McGroot wrote:http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2015/07/09/larry-bird-im--one-who-thinks-paul-george-can-play--four/29919533/

Sorry guys. Looks like he's going to predominately play the 4.

Larry Bird wrote:"He'll play a lot of power forward and small forward," Bird said on NBA TV Thursday at halftime of the Pacers' summer league game against one of Orlando's teams. "I'm the one who thinks he can play the four. I think the mismatches on the offensive end are greater than the defensive liability he'll have. I think he can handle it."

I saw the game Joe Young looked great pacer won it, but Turner and Solo didn't play. We'll have to see how PG does at PF.

Post #6 » by **boomershadow** » Thu Jul 9, 2015 11:17 pm

I don't have a problem with PG playing PF. It's just that, since he is such an elite perimeter defender, I just don't want him to play MORE 4 than 3.

If you got Monta guarding wings and PG guarding the ZBo and LMAs of the league, we are gonna have to score a lot more than 5-6 more ppg.

SmashMouthRod · Post #7 » by **SmashMouthRod** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:07 am

Im thinking the idea is to play like the 7 seconds or less Phoenix Suns offense. That offense featured Shawn Marion at the 4 and I must admit he played dam good at the position. Bird's probably thinking along those lines that if guys like Marion (6'7) and Diaw (6'8) can play it that well then you can expect Paul to be a big problem for everyone involved.

Post #8 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:24 am

basketballwacko2 wrote:
Scoot McGroot wrote:http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2015/07/09/larry-bird-im--one-who-thinks-paul-george-can-play--four/29919533/

Sorry guys. Looks like he's going to predominately play the 4.

Larry Bird wrote:"He'll play a lot of power forward and small forward," Bird said on NBA TV Thursday at halftime of the Pacers' summer league game against one of Orlando's teams. "I'm the one who thinks he can play the four. I think the mismatches on the offensive end are greater than the defensive liability he'll have. I think he can handle it."

I saw the game Joe Young looked great pacer won it, but Turner and Solo didn't play. We'll have to see how PG does at PF.

Turner had the day off for rest. Solo returned to Indy and is done for summer league.

SmashMouthRod · Post #9 » by **SmashMouthRod** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 5:31 am

SmashMouthRod wrote:Im thinking the idea is to play like the 7 seconds or less Phoenix Suns offense. That offense featured Shawn Marion at the 4 and I must admit he played dam good at the position. Bird's probably thinking along those lines that if guys like Marion (6'7) and Diaw (6'8) can play it that well then you can expect Paul to be a big problem for everyone involved.

Dan Burke confirmed my assessment in his quotes after todays game.

“We don’t want to go helter-skelter,” Burke said. “But get it up quick and get into our stuff quick. Look to score in the first eight seconds.

pacers33 · Post #10 » by **pacers33** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 6:31 am

Whyyyyy he's better as a 3 than a 4. Small-ball bullcrap.

xBulletproof · Post #11 » by **xBulletproof** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:45 am

How does saying he's going to play 'a lot' at 2 different positions mean he's going to be our predominant power forward? "A lot" is a really loose term. He could think 10 minutes a game is a lot. Over the course of a season, it would be 'a lot' of minutes.

This is just hearing what you want to hear, really.

Post #12 » by **boomershadow** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:25 pm

I don't see this quote really saying anything more than we already knew: pg is gonna play some at the 4 and some at the 3.

It doesnt say which position he will play more often or where he will start or anythingat all really.

Post #13 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:48 pm

xBulletproof wrote:How does saying he's going to play 'a lot' at 2 different positions mean he's going to be our predominant power forward? "A lot" is a really loose term. He could think 10 minutes a game is a lot. Over the course of a season, it would be 'a lot' of minutes.

This is just hearing what you want to hear, really.

Read the article fully. Notice there's a point where the writer says "It's clear that he's a PF". What that means is that Bord never came out and said it, so there's no exact quote, but emphasized the idea with the author enough that it can be assumed.

I'm not saying he's solely a PF. But even 10 minutes (a minor amount of his 35~mpg) is a chunk.

Post #14 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:49 pm

pacers33 wrote:Whyyyyy he's better as a 3 than a 4. Small-ball bullcrap.

You say small ball, I say this is just the new NBA. We were one of only 5~ teams laying "big ball". I think we were the outlier, not the norm.

pacers33 · Post #15 » by **pacers33** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:50 pm

Scoot McGroot wrote:
pacers33 wrote:Whyyyyy he's better as a 3 than a 4. Small-ball bullcrap.

You say small ball, I say this is just the new NBA. We were one of only 5~ teams laying "big ball". I think we were the outlier, not the norm.

I'm not convinced that small ball is the only way to win in the NBA.

Post #16 » by **Scoot McGroot** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:19 pm

pacers33 wrote:
Scoot McGroot wrote:
pacers33 wrote:Whyyyyy he's better as a 3 than a 4. Small-ball bullcrap.

You say small ball, I say this is just the new NBA. We were one of only 5~ teams laying "big ball". I think we were the outlier, not the norm.

I'm not convinced that small ball is the only way to win in the NBA.

I'm not saying it's the only way to win. I'm just saying that there's no such thing as playing "small ball" right now. That's just where the vast, vast majority of NBA teams are playing now. We were by far an outlier when we played West/Hibbert. Next year, there looks to be only a few teams that will play "traditional" or "true big men" in their system. Sacramento (Cousins/Stein/Koufos), Memphis (Randolph/Gasol), San Antonio (Duncan/Aldridge/West), and then maybe Washington (Nene/Gortat, though Nene has played less and less and they look like they'll play faster as well like us), and maybe Utah (Favors/Gobert). Pretty much only 5 out of 30 teams.

Clearly, there's more ways than one to win, and if Pop is playing with 2 big men, clearly you can still win that way. But, was it worth holding on to Hibbert to do so? After that, who were we signing on the market? There's just very few "traditional" big men left anymore anyway. If Paul George were a rookie today, he'd have been drafted as a PF, not a wing.

Call it what you will, but we're just catching up/matching up to where the rest of the NBA has been for several years. We're not being edgy or new. We're just fitting in.

xBulletproof · Post #17 » by **xBulletproof** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:30 pm

Scoot McGroot wrote:
xBulletproof wrote:How does saying he's going to play 'a lot' at 2 different positions mean he's going to be our predominant power forward? "A lot" is a really loose term. He could think 10 minutes a game is a lot. Over the course of a season, it would be 'a lot' of minutes.

This is just hearing what you want to hear, really.

Read the article fully. Notice there's a point where the writer says "It's clear that he's a PF". What that means is that Bord never came out and said it, so there's no exact quote, but emphasized the idea with the author enough that it can be assumed.

I'm not saying he's solely a PF. But even 10 minutes (a minor amount of his 35~mpg) is a chunk.

I did read the article. That's his inference, doesn't make it a fact. Many writers are wrong all the time. However to say he's 'predominantly' our PF implies he should be starting there and playing PF more than anyone else.

Nothing here really says that. It just says he will play some PF which we've known for months. Also how did Bird emphasis anything with the author when it was an NBA TV interview he got the information from? He wasn't talking to the author.

Post #18 » by **boomershadow** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 2:56 pm

This would never happen, but...

What if we signed a legit threat at the 3 next year. Then we play Paul George exclusively at the 4 and the 2, never the 3. Mismatches all game every game on offense. Either use his quickness against traditional power forwards or use his strength to bully opposing 2 guards like Jimmy Butler does.

Edit: like i said, wouldnt happen. But I been trying it on NBA2k and it is super fun. And that is probably where this idea belongs :-)

Moooose · Post #19 » by **Moooose** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:53 pm

I think the positioning is just all on paper. In actuality, I think Solo and PG are interchangeable as Solo seems to be the more "ready" to take on the physicality of battling in the paint.

I actually expect PG to be more lenient towards taking threes instead of grinding it out in the paint. Like when DRose first went down with the ACL tear, when he came back, he was taking better threes, maybe because mentally, there is this lingering fear of hurting the same injury again. It took DRose some time to be able to gather all the confidence back to attack the basket like the DRose of old.

With this, I think we would need a rebounding 3/4 to go with Jordan Hill, who is by the way the roster stands, is our best rebounder.

8305 · Post #20 » by **8305** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:00 pm

I've come to the conclusion if you are going to play this way then what we need is another wing with size. GSW plays can play small but they have some nice size wing/tweener guys. Tayshaun Prince, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Robbie Hummel, Danny Granger would allow the team to still match defensively with a 4 while having the luxury of moving Paul down to the 3.