Paul George‘s versatile game — he shot 40 percent from three last season, he can attack off the dribble, he’s a 6’9″ wing who can defend multiple positions — make him a fit on every team in the NBA. That can’t be said about most of the game’s stars, they have a very particular set of skills that don’t necessarily fit smoothly with certain other types of players. George is a jack-of-all-trades who literally will upgrade any team he is on.
Which is why there will be a lot of interest in him this summer.
It’s considered a two-horse race for his services — he stays in Oklahoma City where he had a good experience last season, or he goes home to be the face of the Lakers’ franchise — but other teams will want to get into the mix. Such as the Houston Rockets, Adrian Wojnarowski said on ESPN’s “NBA Draft: On the Clock” special Tuesday (hat tip Sagar Trika of Blazers’ Edge).
Rockets’ man with the hammer Daryl Morey is obsessed with beating the Warriors, which his team failed to do last month. While there are a lot of “what ifs” with that loss, it’s not Morey’s style to sit back and say “well, we were close, and if next year we can just keep Chris Paul healthy…” rather, he’s going to go for it. He’s going to go after LeBron James. And he’s going to go after Paul George. The challenge in landing George is that the Rockets are capped out, and they would need to strip the roster down to just the core players — Paul, James Harden, Clint Capela — to sign George to a max deal.
The Philadelphia 76ers also want to get into the George conversation, and he would fit beautifully with them as a floor spacer and defender. They can easily create the max cap space room, and they are a team on the verge of contending (if Joel Embiid stays healthy… **knocks on wood**). The question is can they get an interview.
In the end, the smart money is on Los Angeles or OKC (as for where he goes, depends on who you ask on what day around the league, sources are divided and nobody knows for sure).
