Ok, so my options are Paul George is a... Traitorous punk deserving of my disdain OR an Anti-tampering Jedi of the highest order deserving of my undying devotion.
Welp. I’m quite surprised at this turn of events. Nothing’s over til it is, but man this would seem like a bad choice for him. Join the Lakers squad you’ve always wanted to be on in your hometown with numerous assets, flexibility, and possibly the best player in the league, orrrrrrrr... Re-sign in NBA Syberia with Chucker Westbrook pounding the air out of the ball only to get bounced in the 1st round. ALSO, guess what: They probably losing Grant, have no 1st Round Pick next year, and have ZERO young blue chip assets. And did I mention they shipped the reigning MVP out of town because they didn’t want to pay luxury tax? Has anyone taken a look at how expensive this Thunder roster is going to be? When they’re not winning in the playoffs and need to shed large salary, who do you think they’re choosing to send packing, you or Golden Child Skeletor? But in all seriousness, this is free agency. I want anyone in his position to do what they think is best for them. I just think OKC would absolutely not be it. Seems clear as day.
Someone on another forum commented that PG would actually be in a better position to get to the Finals right now had he stayed in Indiana. I thought that was funny and true, because if LeBron goes West, the East is wide open.
i'm going to follow up on my comments from earlier: paul george is one of my favorite nba players. i like his game, his attitude, his approach, his public persona. his decision (if it is) to stay in okc is actually more reason to like that guy, imo. he enjoyed his time there, likes the people, believes he can trust them, and thinks he can win there. we can quibble about these things and call him stupid because he "jilted" us, but the fact is: we could have traded for him. would it have been a high price? yes. but we didn't pay it, and he got a chance to develop a relationship with another team. if the roles were reversed and he were traded here without guarantees he'd stay (dwight howard), we wouldn't be calling him a b**** and such for staying. we'd be saying he recognized our positive atmosphere, current success, and chance at growth. for all the "well then he's not our guy" stuff: hogwash. if our bar is "you must believe you and you alone can elevate the franchise to multiple titles" as the criterion, we wouldn't even be pursuing lebron james. i'll still root for george no matter his decision, and if my team weren't the one being left out in the cold, i'd probably applaud his choice, too. btw, i DID feel like howard was a big puss for leaving how and when he did. but (a) there were many more reasons to believe it and (b) the situation was actually the reverse of our current one. anyway, just a little annoyed at everyone taking issue with him making his choice either way. i think he's earned it. he was classy in informing the pacers that he planned to leave, so that they could trade him. lots of guys don't extend that courtesy. and i agree with his reasoning: he felt betrayed and left out of the loop by the organization, who broke up a pretty good team whilst he sat with a freak injury sustained during his stint with our national team. we could have been the organization that showed him that we were different, but okc took that risk (which, albeit, seemed low at the time, but wasn't in retrospect given oladipo's rise) and we didn't. blame your front office. or just shrug. but i don't see how george is a villain in any scenario.
You feel free to give the guy a pass if he makes this move, I wont. He demanded a trade here and we set the table for him to make that move. If he signs in OKC without taking a meeting then **** him and I'm done rooting for the guy. I have loyalty to those that want to wear this jersey. If he's going to b**** out now for OKC, he is an idiot and I'm done with him. I hope OKC fails and flounders and is stuck in cap hell for 3 years while they struggle to make it out of the 1st round.
he didn't. he told them he would like to find his way here. had he truly demanded it, he would have told okc to kick rocks like (supposedly) kawhi is doing right now. not an idiot. he's playing with one of the league's best players. i agree that they'll probably not reap the benefits and it's not the path to titletown, but honestly, neither are we.
Can’t agree with you. We DIDN’T deplete our roster by trading for him, we cleared space necessary to sign him, we showed this season that our roster has serious potential, and we appear to be on the verge of signing LeBron James, not one of the league’s best players, THE best player. If he doesn’t choose us after all that to stay with an OKC team trapped under Melo’s contract, with zero money to improve, them he’s weak. It was supposedly his dream to play for LA, so we laid it all out for him and he doesn’t come here? That’s idiotic. It’s so idiotic I’m not sure he still isn’t coming, because if LeBron is, how would he not have convinced PG to come with him?
Oh don’t worry, if he goes back to OKC, it will be in NBA discussion and I’m sure someone will give it a great new title and we’ll come up with some new nicknames for Playoff P.
