Paul George: Still not fully recovered from late-season calf strain

It wasn't supposed to be serious.

An otherwise happy ending to Paul George's unfortunate 2014-15 season finished on a bit of a sour note on April 16, when George was forced out of the Indiana Pacers' final regular season game with left calf soreness.

It was George's sixth game of the season after losing almost the entire year to a broken leg suffered during a USA Basketball scrimmage last summer, and his late-season cameo was a nice wrap on the season, even if the Pacers narrowly missed the playoffs. The calf injury wasn't supposed to change that feeling, with head coach Frank Vogel saying the injury was "nothing serious."

The strain may not have been anything serious, but more than a month later, George still isn't back to 100 percent.

"Not yet," George said at the IPL 500 Festival Parade on Saturday. "I'm working towards it though."

This offseason figures to be much different than the last for George, who spent half of the summer of 2014 working out in preparation for a FIBA World Cup appearance and half recovering from his gruesome injury. The goal this offseason is likely just to enter 2015-16 healthy and comfortable on the court, and a minor injury nagging into June is probably not how he wanted to start things off.

There remains plenty of time, and all accounts were that George recovered quite well from the leg injury before returning. This is hardly cause for worry in the Hoosier state.

In the six games he appeared in, the two-time All-Star averaged 8.8 points and 3.7 rebounds in 15.2 minutes while shooting 36.7 percent from the floor. Prior to the injury, he was emerging as one of the game's elite two-way stars, averaging 21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.9 steals in 2013-14 and earning All-Defensive First Team and All-NBA Third Team honors.