Player Spotlight: Paul George

The Pacers have established themselves as an elite team in the NBA.  A combination of youth, elder leadership, and an All Star big man has made them a threat that no team in the Eastern conference can deny.  One key behind their emergence has been the maturation of shooting guard Paul George.

Signed on to the Pacers for his scoring ability and athletic prowess, they were pleasantly surprised to see George immediately fall back into a defensive mindset despite his other gifts.  For a couple years now, George has established himself as a premier defender on the wing, but now he needs to become the total power that he can be.  George has immense potential but the gift that made him appeal to teams has become somewhat of a weakness: His unselfishness.  George gives up open shots to try and create room for other shots from teammates.  Instead of creating his own shot, as he has more than enough talent to do, he passes the ball off into the hands of others.  Although this is not a bad trait with players like Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert on the court, George is holding himself back.
          

                                                          George, the next elite shooting guard.


     Paul George is 6'8" tall at the shooting guard spot, which makes him loom over most other guards in the NBA, he is fast, strong, and has tremendous athleticism.  He can also shoot the ball with the best of them, as is shown in his 38.5% rate from behind the arc last season.  So what is keeping George from becoming the next NBA star?  For the Pacers to enter that next level and potentially play for a championship in the future, they are going to need George to unleash is scorer side and put up the 20+ points per game that he could easily accomplish. For now, he is Prince George, but most NBA fans are hoping he can become the King he truly has the potential to be.

     The Pacers organization cannot complain about how George has played and grown the past couple seasons.  He has shown that he can be an efficient scorer, lock down defender, and high flier.  He has a shooters touch but the power of a forward.  His potential is through the roof.  The only thing the organization can do is roll the dice and hope that he breaks out of his shell and becomes a star instead of a defensive specialist.  And I wouldn't bet against Paul George.