Pacers GM on potential Paul George reunion: 'We're different now'

Paul George moved on, and so did the Indiana Pacers.

George made it clear that he did not want to remain in Indiana for his entire career, and while that undercut Indiana's leverage in trading him, Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard managed to improve his roster in George's absence.

After being asked whether the Pacers would chase George in free agency this summer, Pritchard couldn't resist a tongue-in-cheek dig.

"I would want to know first that he would fit us. We're different now ... One of the things we're about, we don't care about big names, we don't care about big personalities we don't care about big brands. What we care about is being humble," Pritchard said during a recent radio interview, according to Dakota Crawford of IndyStar.

He added, "When we look at trades, free agency, and the draft, we want those kind of guys. The guys willing to do the little stuff. Everybody is talented in this league ... we think our biggest talent was we played the right way."

Pritchard instantly rebuilt Indiana's core by getting Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in return for George. Oladipo blossomed into one of the best two-way players in the league and established himself as the foundational star of the future, while Sabonis showed flashes of being a starting-caliber center as the backup to Myles Turner.

The new core won 48 games and pushed the Cleveland Cavaliers to a heated seven-game series - a noticeable improvement over George's last year with the Pacers, in which they were swept by Cleveland after winning just 42 games.