Franchise Players: Which Guy is Your Go-To Guy?

Reggie Miller (31), Danny Granger (33), Paul George (13), Victor Oladipo (4)

A post that I've seen recently from a Pacers' Fan Group on Facebook asked a hypothetical question: who would you rather have on your team in their prime out of Reggie Miller, Danny Granger, Paul George, and most recently Victor Oladipo? It expanded upon a similar question that crossed my mind last year on who would I pick between Reggie Miller and Paul George. By the way, my answer at that time was Reggie, hands down, which I will explain shortly.

My pick out of the four of them is...again, Reggie Miller. This may sound bias, being that he is my favorite NBA player of all time (Reggie is 1a.; Larry Bird is 1b.) however, that's not the reason I would pick him. Granted, the other three have more complete games in terms of their skill set; Granger, George, and Vic could/can all fill up a stat sheet. That wasn't Reggie's game; yes, he would get a few broads, a couple of assists and steals here and there, but he was a solidified, bona-fide, pure scorer.

Seeing that the others could score as well-- although not exactly at the rate that Reggie could-- that's still not quite the reason why I would pick Reggie over the others. The reason I would pick Reggie is mainly because he was a better leader. He willed that team to victories like no Pacer I've ever seen, although Vic seems to have a similar quality. As I commented on the Facebook post, he did more with less. He's the only who the only has led the Pacers to an NBA Finals...so far.

Chuck Person, Rik Smits, and Jalen Rose were good complementary scorers, but aside from the team with Ron Artest and Jermaine O'Neal and company, and the exception of the Danny Granger teams, Reggie never had the talent the other guys had/have-- particularly Paul George. I contend that if Reggie had the talent that George had last year, Indy would've owned the East.

I believe Vic has the potential to change my mind in due time, but he's still in his prime, so the jury's still out on him. This is a breakout season for Vic, but I want to see what does moving forward. As far as the NBA Finals statement that I made above, I hope Vic can change that-- with interest (i.e. NBA Championship).