Paul George Discussion

edit for those who won't click re: Paul George-

The Lakers aren't interested in really moving any of the kids for Paul George, but it makes some sense financially to move Clarkson and/or the #28 pick so that's on the table.

Basically what we all figured already.

 

What?

 

Or maybe the call that has been reported came from Boston and not LA. Maybe Boston tried to trade with the Lakers.

Which just happens to be exactly what John Ireland reported on ESPN710.

 

You know you're allowed to post more than once a month, right?

 

Well no one can blame you there.

 

Honstly seems the more likely scenario now. Boston appears to have not been high on Fultz for a little while now. Clearly they did basically trade him for the 3rd pick and a future 1st, so I don't see why they wouldn't have tried the same thing with us for the #2.

 

Bobby Marks and Adrian Woj put out a special podcast about this. Major points:
- Paul George told them in an exit meeting that he wanted to stay as long as they were competitive and Pritchard and Bird had no answers. They had no suggestions on how to improve, so that sort of sealed the deal right then.
- Marks said Indiana shouldn't touch the Deng/Mozgov deals. Says the Pacers need to create a market but it's incredibly difficult at this stage.
- Woj says nobody wants to give up much. There's a great rental market, but the offers are very low.
- Woj doesn't see a package in Cleveland that helps. They have no picks or young players, but Pacers are going to push this as hard as possible.
- Woj says Paul's camp is likely to push either staying in Indiana or LA. They don't want to go to Cleveland and muddle this process. Don't want "more jerseys".
- Woj says Larry Bird and Danny Ainge don't want to trade with LA. That rivalry is still absolutely real.
- Woj says the Pacers aren't going to do George favors.
- Woj's idea is Clarkson/Randle/#28 (I think Randle is replaced with a future protected pick)
- Marks says maybe the Pacers try to wait and see what East team thinks they should pay for the rental in order to push Cleveland.
- Woj says they have to give up picks to get rid of Mozgov and Deng, but they could make a trade with Brooklyn that way.
- The two of them talk about how George really helps bring other players in. (We've seen some of that for sure, just last week Lillard mentioned him as a guy he'd like to play with).
- Marks says the general understanding from everyone is that George would be a rental. The public declaration for LA didn't change the market a lot, but cemented the prevailing idea.
- Bobby and Woj agree that if the Lakers are a well run organization, nobody competes with them as a FA destination. We can sell the city, the fame, the fortune, the team, etc. (incidentally they confirmed that nobody is interested in the Knicks. )
- Both Marks and Woj admit that there's an intrigue to seeing Magic and what he has to say both as a draftee and a FA.

The two of them sound a little hopeful that George goes somewhere else. Especially Marks. The two of them spend a good 5-10 minutes laughing at the Deng and Mozgov contracts.

 

Great stuff, real, thanks for the recap. Why do they mention Bird though, didn't he just step down as Pacers president? We wouldn't be dealing with him regarding George. Also, f*** Ainge, who cares if we don't deal with the C Bags, they have nobody we want anyway.

 

Because part of Bird stepping down was knowing he would have to deal George to us eventually and he didn't want to do it.

 

I was responding to someone else who said he'd be like Love standing in the corner shooting threes.