Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird joined NBA TV's Summer League broadcast for an interview on Thursday, and he addressed Paul George's role on the team. He had previously said that next year's Pacers would play faster, and part of that might involve George shifting to power forward a bit.
"He’ll play a lot of the power forward and small forward and he might defend some 2s at times," Bird said. "Paul is going to play a lot of different positions for us this year. I’m the one that thinks he can play the 4 position. I think the mismatches on the offensive end is far greater than the defensive liabilities sometimes he’ll have against the strength. But I think he can handle it. Paul’s very versatile. He’ll do anything that we ask him to do to try to win basketball games. And he wants to play uptempo. He likes to handle and pass and get out and run a little bit."
Indiana's roster already looks extremely different than it has for the last few years because of the departures of Roy Hibbert and David West. You can pencil in George Hill and newcomer Monta Ellis as the starting guards, but it's unclear what will happen in the frontcourt.
The first option is starting George at his traditional small forward spot, with some combination of Jordan Hill, Ian Mahinmi, Myles Turner and Lavoy Allen next to him. The second is starting C.J. Miles and George at the 3 and 4, respectively, which would represent a true stylistic shift for the Pacers. If they do the latter, the Pacers would have much better spacing than they've had in years. They'd also be able to push the pace.
A lot of teams like to go small with their second unit rather than starting games that way, but that's arbitrary and might start to change soon. The concern here isn't so much whether George can play power forward -- why can't he be like a prime Shawn Marion? -- but rather whether it's best for his body. After missing most of last season due to a horrific leg injury, does Indiana want him guarding bigs and fighting for rebounds on the inside most of the time? While the old-school Bird doesn't seem worried about this, it's something to keep in mind when picturing a new, run-and-gun version of the Pacers.