Scoot McGroot wrote:GHOSTofSIKMA wrote:boomershadow wrote:I suspect he is talking about Bird.
could you shed more light on that? saw somebody make mention of that on the wiretap article and came here for some perpective?
Bird had a press conference the season before he demanded out where Bird mentioned that he was planning on PG playing the 4 more and using his skills to his advantage there. Paul hated the idea, and then magically loved the idea when he went to OKC.
Otherwise, Paul George was all in on Indy less than 2 days before he demanded out. Paul has always said whatever he wants to say when he wants to say it to try and make life easier for him in that moment, with no deep understanding of the truth. I imagine that’s what all this was, as well.
PG really pushed back on the idea of playing the 4... at the time I thought Bird had the right idea, but remember that smallball 4's weren't a regular thing yet, more like a change of pace lineup. In any event, I think PG proved himself as a scoring superstar 3 the last couple of seasons, something he never achieved here. So personally I would concede the point to PG.
From a certain perspective, PG could have hurt the Pacers even more, for example if he had kept quiet during the season and then simply left at the end of it, similar to the way Hayward treated Utah. It's true that the timing was awkward though, and it was pure chance that the Pacers managed to salvage Oladipo and Sabonis out of the situation. But it could have been worse.
FWIW, I remember the rumor was that PG wanted reassurance from Bird that the Pacers can retool the team around him, and the plan that Bird presented was that they would recruit Jrue Holiday and Gallo as his sidekicks in FA. In hindsight that doesn't seem too bad - Jrue had a star turn himself, but Gallo's career has been plagued with injuries - but PG wanted to play with someone more on LeBron's level. And fairly or not, the Pacers have never tried to recruit guys of that type, possibly with good reason.
