The Pacers are flying high this year after starting 13-1 through their first 14 games, including a 9-game winning streak to open things up. Everyone knew they improved their bench, but not many were expecting Paul George to make such a dramatic leap in his fourth season. But the Pacers’ wing has improved his ball handling, cut down on his turnovers and become more efficient shooting the ball, all of which means we need some funk.
Through the first 14 games of the season, George has a career high true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage and PER (player efficiency rating). About that latter point, last season’s ho-hum 16.8 PER was only the third best on the team! This season’s 24.1 is seventh best in the league! Not only that, but George’s usage rate is at a career high while his turnover percentage is at a career low.
While Roy Hibbert, Lance Stephenson, coach Frank Vogel and others can all take partial credit for helping the Pacers get off to such a fast start, George is now Indiana’s unquestioned leader and his improvement is the biggest reason they’ve got the best record in the Eastern Conference.
Paul’s ability to snake the ball from unaware post men while he’s on defense while also recovering in time to get a hand in the face of shooters is why he’s considered one of the best wing defenders in the league. But when that defensive effort and balance is added to a blossoming offensive repertoire, it means George is among the top half-dozen all-around players in the NBA today.
The only way to celebrate that sort of year-on-year improvement is to drop James Brown‘s “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” as a backing track for some George highlights. Enjoy.
[vid via YouTube user Rich Kraetsch; h/t Indycornrows]
What do you think of Paul’s season so far?
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