@Pacers: Bird, on if Paul George will return this season: "If he gets healthy and they say he can play and he wants to play, we'll let him play." @Pacers: Bird was clear that he has "no idea" if Paul George will play this season. "I think it's important if he can play, he should be out there." @CandaceDBuckner: The 7-month marker for Paul George will be in March. Apparently his leg injury only takes 7 months to heal. I personally think their is no point of him returning this year.
If he's ready to come back, I don't see any point in sitting him, but he should definitely be taking it slow -- get the rust off, jack up some shots.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Pacers guard Paul George tells Yahoo that he is eyeing a mid-March return from his leg injury that could include a 3/14 return vs Boston.</p>— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/566356069924872192">February 13, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If he's healthy, he can go into the summer more confident if he's able to play now. It will help him going into next season.
The Indiana Pacers are healthy now and they are only one game behind Miami who is currently holding the 8th seed right now. I don't see Miami making the playoffs and Boston has a tough schedule coming up - two against Toronto, two against Cleveland and one against the Bucks. I don't see Boston winning any of those game unless if those teams rest their starters on one of those games. Indiana is healthy now and the whole team together healthy can pull and win all of their 6 games remaining. The Indiana Pacers are a good team they just weren't healthy all year long.
As much as it is good for the NBA that PG is returning , I really hope he is completely healed up. I am a big fan of his all around game.
Or, you know maybe he can just take a rest and then play in the NBA preseason, he can even play in the summer league if he wants to. It's really stupid why rush him back early when there's no point, if he plays bad it might mean he's rushed too soon and could lead to further injury. If he plays great then it actually means less chances for the lottery. There's literally no benefit to playing him now, and you risk further injury. Really dumb move IMHO.
If the Pacers were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, then it would've been dumb and pointless to bring George back this season. But since they're only 1.5 GB of the 8th seed, with six games remaining, I don't have a problem with their decision. Assuming that he's 100% healed up, of course.
I'm sure they wouldn't risk it unless they were sure. If I'm the Hawks this is the last team I'd want to see in the first round with a returning Paul George though.
Just carried off the floor (non-injured leg) <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Per <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pacers?src=hash">#Pacers</a>, Paul George has a sore left calf. Questionable for return.</p>— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) <a href="https://twitter.com/CandaceDBuckner/status/588545495926079488">April 16, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
