Now that it is clear that Paul George is out of the picture, Indiana Pacers is pushing to acquire Shawn Marion to their team.

Pacers president, Larry Bird confirmed that he met with Marion. Aside from the Pacers, the Cleveland Cavaliers is also a top contender for the free agent.

According to Bird "What I came away with was he's undecided with where he wants to play and what he wants to do. But he does want to play for a contender. But he did say that he would like to be on a contender and try to win a championship. I know he's talked to Cleveland. We didn't talk about Cleveland but I know he's been there. And I don't know who else he's talked to."

But Bird was quick to reiterate that George is not irreplaceable saying "We met with Shawn Marion and tried to gauge his interest, but there's no way to replace Paul George."

Although Bird is not ruling out George for this coming season but he believes that the latter won't be back so soon. He said "No one has told us he's going to be out for the whole year, but based off our conversations, we're expecting him to be out for the whole year, but we don't really know. If he can play, he's going to play."

Even so, Bird is giving George the time to recover. He said "It's going to be up to our doctors, our medical staff and Paul, but we would never put him in a situation where he'd be uncomfortable. If he can play and he's healthy to play, he'll play. If our doctors think he'll play at 60 to 70 percent, we wouldn't do that."

Marion went to Cleveland last week to meet with Cavaliers general manager David Griffin and coach David Blatt. Griffin and Marion have worked together previously when both were with the Phoenix Suns as executive and player.

On July 9, 2009, Marion signed a five-year $39 million contract and was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks as part of a four-team swap among Raptors, Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic.