George feels Pacers are close to catching Cavs, but 'need better players'

Paul George insists he's still committed to the Indiana Pacers, amid swirling trade rumors and the specter of his 2018 free agency.

As much as the Pacers - coming off a 42-40 season and first-round playoff ouster - do not, in their current state, seem to align with George's stated goal of competing for a championship, the All-Star swingman took heart from the way his team competed against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

The Cavs swept the Pacers, but didn't win any game by more than six points, and outscored them by just 16 total points in the series - which was less than the Cavs' per-game average victory margin in the rest of the East playoffs. George feels the Pacers have as good a chance as any team in the conference to close the gap on LeBron James and Co.

"In ways, I feel like we are close,'' George said this week at a charity softball game in Indianapolis, according to ESPN. "It's hard not to believe that because we did the best against Cleveland of anyone (in the East) and we could have won that series."

That may be overstating things just a bit - they still got swept, after all - but it's worth mentioning that Indiana had a shot to win Game 1 at the buzzer, led Game 3 by 25 points at halftime, and had a shot to tie Game 4 in its dying seconds. At the least, they had chances to make the series competitive.

George also acknowledged that if his team is to challenge the Cavs' supremacy in the East, they'll need to make some roster upgrades via the draft and free agency.

"At the same time, we need some more talent," he said. "We need better players.''

One notion George seemed to dismiss out of hand, at least for the time being, was the possibility of joining forces with James - whether in Cleveland or, perhaps, Los Angeles - somewhere down the road.

"I don't talk to LeBron at all," he said. "We don't communicate. I look up to LeBron, obviously. He's been a tremendous ambassador to this game. He's been a very huge influencer for me outside of the game, but we don't communicate and figure out where one another's going."