LOS ANGELES — Back when Steven Adams played against Paul George instead of with him, he didn't have much of an opinion on the All-Star.
Scouting reports and film can only do so much. They don't prepare you for a player's improvisational skills or, even more revelatory, how much effort goes into the parts of the game outside of scoring.
Those are the traits front offices get paid to detect and dissect. Adams might not have known, but the Thunder knew what it was getting into with George.
“I thought he was just a good player before we got him, but that happens a lot,” Adams said Thursday after the Thunder's loss to the Lakers.