Paul George Discussion

I'm not in favor of waiting for PG. if we want him, I think the best time to strike is this summer

 

I'd rather keep Ingram than Russell

 

This is the only way I'd trade Ingram. If we trade Ingram for George and don't land another all-star we add like what, 5, 10 wins? We aren't a playoff team in the west still with one star. I'm repeating myself, but the standard here is championships, so if I'm trading a guy that can potentially be an all-around beast for a decade or more, it better be to win now. George alone doesn't get us to win now. If we go in win-now mode fully though, get multiple stars here, become instantly relevant again, I can live with trading Ingram. I've never said he was untouchable, only that we need to be very smart with our young players and if we aren't able to make moves to win now then we need to play the long game with Ingram. I'm not for trading a potentially great young player just to get a name guy here and still not up our wins much.

 

I'm not worried about the whole "clutch shot" thing at all. At least he's putting up the stats that trodgers posted and keeping his team in the game til the end instead of disappearing/playing like crap once the playoffs come around like some players *cough*Lowry*cough*.

 

Paul George, fresh off a four-game sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is heading into an offseason of uncertainty.

What seems clear to many, however, is the All-Star forward’s widely-reported desire to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Magic Johnson even joked that he plans to “wink” at PG about joining the Purple and Gold.

Johnson pretty much admitted he’ll be going after Paul George on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” when he was asked what he would do if he saw George on vacation.

“No, we gonna say ‘hi’ because we know each other,” Johnson said. “You just can’t say, ‘Hey, I want you to come to the Lakers,’ even though I’ll be wink winking like, ‘you know what that means right?'”

So Johnson knows what he needs. He’s got to import a special player. George checks a lot of boxes. The Pacers star is a top-10 player at peak performance. He has struggled with consistency in the playoffs, but has already played in 63 playoff games. And he doesn’t turn 27 until May 2. Still in his prime, he already has made two trips to the Eastern Conference finals, both times being denied a trip to the NBA Finals by the best player in the sport, LeBron James. A SoCal native, he’s been talking about playing for his hometown team, the Lakers, for a long time. He’s never made his long-term intentions a secret within the Pacers’ locker room, according to former teammates. He wants to wear the purple and gold.


Read more at http://www.slamonline.com/nba/report-paul-george-wants-wear-purple-gold/#jx4l63HZRoK68fGE.99

 

Right now his career numbers are 18-6-3, which is good but not great. He's a four-time all-star, a one-time MIP, an all-rookie 2nd, an all-d 1st and 2nd (twice), and an all-nba 3rd (three times). His current Hall of Fame Probability on Basketball-Reference.com is 7.0%, which is 27th best in the NBA. He's not yet a HoF player, but I think he's obviously on the way.

 

I want Paul George just like 99% of all Laker fans.

However, to play devil's advocate, playing the long game with our youth might not be the worst idea in the world. I know non-playoff teams are difficult to stomach. However, even if we have the best Summer we can reasonably hope for this year, does that put us in contention to beat Golden State for the next 3-5 years? Might behoove us to give a lot of thought to hanging onto our youth & hopefully adding a top-3 pick to our current young core wouldn't be the worst thing in the world (rather than trading it if we keep it).

That would put us on more of a trajectory to hopefully contend after another 4ish years of development and less-than-blockbuster moves.

I don't know, more than anything I just don't want short-sighted moves from Magic/Pelinka. I'm hopeful they won't blow our whole wad on moves to make us decent and not a contender.

 

^^ I think we can do both. I'm unwilling to part with Ingram, Zu, and D'Angelo. I really want Ball with a top 3 pick and we can add him to the no-trade group. But I still feel like Randle, Clarkson and Houston #1 can get us PG13.

Allow the young guys to develop, add pieces as available / necessary. Like you said, we're not ready to beat GS or the Spurs. But if we're smart, we can in 3 years with that core group.

 

I'm thinking similarly, but I'm willing to give up Dlo for a PG trade if need be.

If our goal is a championship we aren't getting it with a few trades. Trades are useful for gaining that corner stone piece to get us into the playoffs. But the way the CBA is structured, and our financial position with the Deng/Moz contracts, we're much better serve by our draft picks being a big part of the plan. That tells me we need to hedge our bets and keep some of our youth, while getting a few corner stone free agents.

That has to start this summer. No more waiting. We need to pick our horses from among the youngsters and ride with them IMO, and that's Ingram and Zu for me. If I'm adding anyone else, it's Randell as I'm just not convinced Dlo will ever get his head on straight, but I think Julius will eventually figure it out.