Pacers Looking For More From David West Than Being A Great Teammate

Indiana Pacers forward David West arrived in Indy after signing with the Pacers as a much-needed veteran voice who can deliver production on the court. But he also arrived aware and ready to fit in with hist new team. West was not a player set in his ways demanding special treatment and X-amount of touches, instead more interested in fortifying the team-first culture while looking to get his teammates involved in the offense.

It didn't take much time for the locker room to feel West's presence and for his voice to have a strong impact with his teammates. Really, the guy has been a revelation with the way he's gone about seamlessly fitting in and helping out a team that needed help.

Mike Wells reports today on West's status with the team after 27 games which explains that West signed with the Pacers to join a team not just advance his basketball career.

"I just think if you're selfish and you're only thinking about what you need to do, you're not going to help the team," West said. "I just learned to play the game unselfishly. If you're good to the game, the game will be good to you. I've always lived by that motto."

But now that he's established himself with the team, coach Frank Vogel wants West to be a little more selfish and look to score more often, which in turn puts more pressure on the defense and then in a round-about way opens up more opportunities for his teammates.

After scoring 22 points in Memphis on Friday, Vogel ended a team meeting prior to playing Denver by encouraging West to remain aggressive on offense and look to score more. West put up another 22 points against the Nuggets with another strong shooting performance. West is shooting 67.5% in the last three games (48% for the year) so that green light to find his shot certainly doesn't have him pressing to do too much.

Although, I don't think West can do anything for the Pacers that would be considered too much.

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