Indiana Pacers' Paul George Moves From Small Forward to Power Forward, Isn't Happy About it

Ever since Indiana Pacers' star Paul George suffered that traumatic compound fracture in his right leg, he's only played six games in the NBA and the last one ended in another injury. In hopes of making this season better than last, the Pacers decided to switch Paul George's position from Small Forward to Power Forward, and George isn't too happy about it.

Last season, George only played during the last six games of the regular season in an attempt to get the Pacers to beat Brooklyn Nets to the 8th seed and make it to the playoffs. Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well, and the Pacers ended the season 9th in the Eastern Conference.

According to UpRoxx, as George gets his body back to normal after his gruesome injury, Pacers' Team President, and former Celtics star Larry Bird, wants George to switch his position from Small Forward to Power Forward. This position switch is based on the theory that George will probably remain healthier if he isn't chasing opponents all over the court.

"I'm not going to get into a battle about where Paul George will play," said Bird, as reported by ESPN. "He's a basketball player, and we can put him anywhere out there."

Bird's idea of switching George's position has to do with his opposite transition; Bird switched from the four to the three, before the '84-85 season. This was the season where he doubled/tripled his three-point attempts every season for the rest of his Hall of Fame career.

Now, in an interview with Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star, George opened up about his unhappiness with the change.

"Um, you know it's, uh, I was open for - to try it out. It's definitely a change," George said. "It's something new. We'll see how it goes. As the season goes, it might be better for me to just be at my regular position. But I told them I was open to the situation and (we'll) see where it goes."

It seems as though George's apprehension stems from being on defensive end of the ball. Especially considering the traumatic and gruesome injury he suffered in 2014 during the Team USA FIBA World Cup preparation. However, according to the Pacers, the position change is more about generating offense rather than focusing on defense. According to ESPN, Bird also claimed that he wants the team to score "six-to-eight" more points per game.

"Yeah, I believe (that's his main concern)," George said about Bird's comments. "It's just being outmatched strength-wise with guys at the four spot is really the only concern. It's not really the concern for one game. It's the concern just over the course of a season just how my body would take it, especially coming off the injury that I had and a whole year of rehabbing. Just not sure of how it's going to take it. (We'll) start camp, see how camp goes. Again, I'm not too thrilled on it, but it could change the more comfortable I get at the position. But we'll see. But again, I could very much end up loving it, so it's all up in the air. I'm open to the position."

Despite George's unhappiness with the forced change, Bird has this to say in reference to his position change back in the day: "He don't make the decisions around here. But I did it, and I loved it after I did it."

Hopefully, everything will work out as planned and George will come to love his new position as well.

Now, instead of posting the video of George suffering from that horrid injury, here's a video of George dunking in a Pacers' game after returning from rehab: