Doyel: The Pacers need Paul George to return this season

It's not just possible for Paul George to play this season, less than nine months after a catastrophic injury to his right leg.

It's imperative.

That assumes two things, one of which we already know: One, that George wants to return this season. He has to want it, or the discussion is silly. After an injury like the compound fracture he suffered with Team USA in August, a $90 million investment plays when he's mentally ready – when he wants it. And George does want it. After shooting and then dunking and now going through occasional drills in practice, the All-Star guard has set a time frame for when he'd like to consummate his return to the Indiana Pacers: mid-March.

The other assumption is that doctors clear him.

Assuming those two factors, then of course Paul George should play this season. Only a dummy would argue otherwise.

Like, say, me. A few years ago.

A few years ago, the player was Peyton Manning after neck surgery. Doctors were going to clear him. Manning wanted to return. My advice? It was compassionate and concerned. It was smarter than everyone else. It was horrible, is what it was. In hindsight my advice was embarrassing:

Manning should retire.

That was my opinion in December 2011. Looks ridiculous today, right? Maybe it looked ridiculous in late 2011 as well, but there were reasons. Namely, it just seemed so dangerous. Old guy, immobile, neck surgery, the unknown variables of football. Too dangerous, Peyton. Better to just retire. You know, for my sake.

As if that matters.

Funny what time can do for you. Time, and an MVP performance. Manning didn't just return in 2012. He made All-Pro and threw for 4,659 yards and 37 touchdowns. And in 2013 he wasn't merely better, but better than ever. And around these parts, some might recall the numbers he put up with the Colts in 2004. Star Wars numbers, you could say. What he did in Denver in 2013 – two years after he should have, ahem, retired – was break NFL records for passing yards (5,477) and touchdown passes (55). He was MVP, because of course he was. And because I'm an idiot.

But not again. Not with Paul George.

And so when Pacers President Larry Bird was asked two weeks ago whether George should return this season, my antennae went up. Not just for Bird's response, but for my own. It was a great question – queasy, but great: If George wants to come back this season on that shattered leg, is it worth it to let him try?

By the time Bird was finished talking, it didn't seem like a great question. It seemed like a stupid one.

Of course George should return this season, if he wants to and if he's medically cleared.

By the time Bird was finished talking, George's imminent return was no longer an idea. It was an imperative.

Bird was talking about this season, because that's how he's wired, and said he was thinking about making a run toward the playoffs, and then a run in the playoffs. It was absurd, how ambitious and nakedly competitive Bird revealed himself to be. As if we didn't already know.

But then Bird started talking about next season, and it was clear: Paul George has to return this season. It's imperative.

Consider the alternative. George doesn't return this season. He spends the summer in mental limbo, hoping and maybe even assuming he'll be OK next season – but not knowing. Only one way to know he'll be OK next season, and that's to have already played this season.

Bird talked about the pounding George would absorb when he returns, the pounding every NBA player takes but especially one as talented as George. Bird talked about the shock to the system it would be for someone who hasn't been hit since August. Bird also talked about the rust George would inevitably deal with after such a long layoff, how the first several weeks would be almost a lost cause – "He's going to get beat up, he's going to get knocked around, he's not going to look good," Bird said – as George reacquaints his body, his mind, his game to the best players in the world.

And it occurred to me:

After enduring this lost season, is that how the Pacers want to start the next one? With their best player reduced to a shell of himself?

Of course not. Which is why it's imperative that George play this season, assuming, you know, this: that he and his doctors agree he's ready. If he is, get his inevitable inefficiency out of the way now, in a season that has a clear—and low – ceiling. Which would allow the Pacers to enter next season with no known ceiling at all.

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