NBA teams
Amin Elhassan, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Playoffs not worth rushing George

NBA, Indiana Pacers

In early February, Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird made a statement that took nearly everyone aback, when he announced that he had hopes injured swingman Paul George not only would return in time for the playoffs, but perhaps even as soon as the following month.

The statement even elicited a cryptic tweet from George himself, who tweeted "March?!" -- seemingly shocked by the exaggerated timeline for his return.

It stood in stark contrast to Bird's reserved remarks during training camp, when he said George likely would miss the entire season after suffering a broken leg Aug. 1 during Team USA workouts. At the time of Bird's statement in February, the Pacers were 15 games under .500, coming off a stretch of 11 losses in 15 games, and closer to securing a top-five draft pick than a playoff berth. Despite boasting the 11th-best defense in the league, the team was being outscored by more than three points per 100 possessions due to an anemic offense that was in the bottom five in eFG percentage.

In short, there's nothing that should have inspired the sort of hope that would lead Bird to make such a huge declaration.

And then something funny happened. The Pacers started winning.

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