Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

He is greedy, and greed is good. Last season Paul George reached greatness, and then in the playoffs he reached even higher. He went from an All-NBA kind of player to an MVP-type, and he did it because he decided it was time.

Now Paul George has made another decision.

He wants to be even better than he was in the 2016 playoffs, when he put the Pacers on his back and carried them to within 10 seconds of a Game 7 upset of Toronto. He’ll play this summer for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics – for his country, yes, and also for himself.

Paul George wants to take the next superstar step, wherever it leads. If he pulls it off, the Pacers become an Eastern Conference force – and he joins the short list of players in the annual MVP picture. Today that list looks like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Kawhi Leonard could be entering that territory.

Paul George wants to get there. He has always wanted to get there, since the day he joined the Pacers as the 10th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, and progress has been incremental. There was the NBA’s Most Improved Player award in 2013 and the public acknowledgement from LeBron James. He became a two-way great in 2014, cracking the 20-ppg barrier and the All-Defensive first team. The 2015 season was lost to that broken leg, but this past season he put up superstar numbers: 23.1 ppg, 7.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists.

In the 2016 playoffs against second-seeded Toronto, he was even better: 27.3 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 4.3 apg and a public undressing of Raptors star DeMar DeRozan on the defensive end. That happened after George talked with then-Pacers coach Frank Vogel before the series.

“I told coach Frank I was ready …” George says. “I was ready to put this team on my back.”

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He has been a star, even a superstar, but he has one more step to take.

“I always wanted to be the best,” George told me a few months ago.

He has another step to take and believes the Olympics can make it happen.

“I’m so used to playing with the ball, (but) we’ve got five guys out there that are going to be able to score at will,” George was saying Wednesday. “Now it’s about learning how to play off the ball … how to space the floor, how to cut. Learning how to battle on the boards. I think just playing off the ball is where guys take that next step.”

Conveniently, playing off the ball is what George will be doing more frequently next season for the Pacers, given that he will be playing with his first pure point guard since entering the league six years ago. The Pacers acquired that point guard, Jeff Teague from Atlanta, last week.

“One of the quickest point guards in the league,” is how George describes Teague, a 2007 Pike High School graduate.

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Before I tell you how George described himself on Wednesday, keep in mind the roster U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski will take to Rio:

Carmelo Anthony, Harrison Barnes, Jimmy Butler, DeMarcus Cousins, DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan, Kyle Lowry, Klay Thompson and George. This is what George said when asked about taking a step back – “being the seventh or eighth man, even ninth or 10th” – on Team USA.

“Uh …” is how Paul George started his answer. He’s savvy and smart, but he’s also confident. He weighed his options – go humble, or go honest – and he went all of it.

“If I have to, I have to,” he said of being well down the Team USA pecking order. “I’m hoping it doesn’t get to that point. I want to be in the top three. But, you know, really it’s whatever (Coach K) needs me to do.”

I want to be in the top three.

Also on the team: Recent MVP (Kevin Durant, 2014). Another current All-NBA first-teamer (Jordan) and two current second-teamers (Cousins, Green). Plus Kyrie. Klay. Carmelo.

I want to be in the top three.

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He can do it, is the thing. He hasn’t stopped improving since turning pro – other than that injury-ruined 2015 season, his scoring average has risen every season from 7.8 ppg to 12.1 to 17.4 to 21.7 to 23.1 last season. And he’s about to get PhD-level work on his game.

“The best training and workouts we had is battling against one another,” he said of Team USA practices. “I’m sure me and (Durant) will get back into having those competitive matchups. I’m looking forward to it. Both of us gained a lot.”

George considered skipping the Olympics, but not seriously. Not after Coach K personally called and asked him to play. And not when he thought about his lost 2015 season, and his one-round 2016 playoffs, and realized he had to catch up on missed time.

“I can use the extra games and time,” he was saying Wednesday, “to better my game.”

He is only 26. God help the NBA, there is still room for Paul George to grow.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.

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