The Sixer Sense
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After Pacers Exit, It’s Time for Bryan Colangelo to Seek Out Paul George

By Josh Wilson

Apr 23, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (13) points during a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game four of the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Cleveland defeats Indiana 106-102. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 23, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (13) points during a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game four of the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Cleveland defeats Indiana 106-102. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Philadelphia 76ers need to go after Paul George after the Indiana Pacers recent early exit from the NBA Playoffs.

As of Sunday night, the Indiana Pacers find themselves officially out of contention for the NBA Championship. They held to the final minutes on in several of their games against the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, but couldn’t even muster a single win in the first round of the playoffs, ultimately losing all four of their games against the Cavs.

Now, they find themselves in an interesting predicament. Having been stopped by LeBron James for seemingly the last decade in the playoffs — back to even his days with the Miami Heat — it seems as if the Pacers are not going to make any progress with their current roster. While it would be bold of them to do so, they might want to think about trading Paul George and really blowing this whole franchise up in order to get a younger core that can be developed into something that can compete with the next regime of NBA talent rather than the current one, because it seems like the Pacers are well past the point of being able to compete with the current top tier of NBA talent.

The Pacers seem to not be able to do anything to keep themselves in it. They even went out and brought back former Pacer Lance Stephenson before this postseason, and were able to see him have one of his best playoff performances, but it still wasn’t enough to even be better than the first few times he went up against LeBron James.

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After the Pacers’ exit from the playoffs on Sunday, Basketball Insiders published a column by Moke Hamilton on the prospective plan of trading Paul George, something that really does seem more and more likely with the Pacers not even winning a single playoff game this year. We are going to see more columns provoking the Pacers front office to do the same as the offseason gets under way for more NBA teams

It’s unclear whether or not Indiana’s front office will have the foresight to know now is the time to try to trade George, or if they will keep him around in hopes that he will boost ticket sales. George, who has a free agency coming up shortly (as long as he takes the option to opt out of his contract), is losing value for the Pacers, and they may see him simply walk with no return value if they don’t trade him soon.

Enter Sixers. The Sixers could be a good trade partner for the Pacers for a number of reasons. For one, they, of course, would be open to bringing on Paul George. That’s the first quality of a good trade partner, but second, they offer a lot of things most NBA teams don’t — rebuilding pieces.

I talked about this in a column a few days ago. Rebuilding can be a long and grueling process, and the Sixers have gone through the motions extensively over the last several years. Because of that, they have plenty of assets — draft pieces, stashed overseas players, etc. — that they can offer up in return for George.

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As stated earlier, if the Pacers are trading George, it’s probably because they’re ready to rebuild. Rather than blow everything up and have to do a lot of losing and trading to get the pieces they need, why not trade with a team that will give them the pieces in return for George? Most front offices don’t have the patience to do things the way the Sixers did and wait for their assets to bloom and come about.

Of course, the Sixers will have to give up more than just assets for George, they will need to give up some player(s) as well.

This is a move that seems to make sense for the Sixers. They can become almost immediately competitive because of George, and not have to sign up right away for a long-term contract. They will, however, be at the mercy of his heart and whether or not he wants to stay in Philly when he opts out of his contract before the 2019 offseason. Lucky for the Sixers, they own their own first-round pick as well as the Sacramento Kings’ first round pick that summer, so at that point, they potentially could have built up their current young players to a point where they don’t need George anymore, and also can add some nice young pieces via the draft.

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Is this trade a realistic one? Maybe not, but if all the pieces fall in the right places, and the Pacers really are willing to trade George, then the Sixers should be thinking about what they can offer, and at least calling up Larry Bird to make an offer.