Seriously. They are wasting the prime of their core by hoarding youth/picks. They are a really good team and acquiring a PG or Butler is what they need at this point. It may not be enough to beat Cleveland or whoever comes out of the West should they make the Finals but it's still better than being a clear tier below.
if we do acquire him, what makes us so sure he'll stay in LA past 2018? trading one of the kids only for him to leave after next season would set this whole thing back even further
It's funny how much the Trade for PG/Wait and sign him in 18 reminds me of the same conversations we all had about Love a few years back. "Why trade the farm when he will certainly come home in 2 years? Nobody's beating Miami anyways..." Situations change rapidly in the NBA. Would hate to see Boston land him, make an ECF, maybe another (or finally slay the beast and get to the Finals) and see him re-up long term.
George said he won't commit to anyone he is traded to unless it is the Lakers. Boston would be taking a huge gamble grabbing him if they aren't 100% sure he will stay around.
yeah we tend to think often that guys would drop everything to play for the lakers or if they're locals, come back home and maybe take a hometown discount we've learned that this is simply not the case
That's a quote from a source and not from Paul George himself. That could easily be posturing by one or the other side in order to try to get him pushed in the direction that they want. I'd desperately like to take it as gospel, but I'm not going to.
Worth noting is only Indiana could offer him that "mega-extension" contract for 200+ million. Once he gets traded, be it to the Lakers or Boston, that goes away. It's why Cousins badly didn't want to get traded by the Kings because of the same reason.
If he gets traded here we can offer him 5 years while other teams can only offer 4 though, I believe. That's a big reason to make a trade, you don't gamble on him picking us at 4 years over Indy at 5 years and 200 mil.
And Indiana can only offer him that deal if he makes an All-NBA team this season which isn't a guarantee. The max any team can offer him this summer in free agency will be roughly 124 million (4 years at 30% of the cap). Any team that trades for him can offer significantly more; either 4 years at 30% of the cap with 7.5% raises or a 5th year even. I haven't looked deep enough into the new CBA. edit- Quick look at the numbers: Any other team than the team with his Bird Rights: 4/124 million The team with his Bird Rights if he misses All-NBA: 4/130 or 5/168 million
