Lakers Dodged A Bullet Missing Out On Paul George

Paul George is returning to the Oklahoma City Thunder, getting a ridiculous four-year, $137 million contract to stay put. While there was a ton of speculation about George heading home to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson and company dodged a bullet by not bringing PG to LA.

George is a good NBA player. In fact, he’s a very good NBA player. But he’s absolutely not a superstar. The contract he got from the Thunder should be reserved for superstar-caliber talents. Neil deGrasse Tyson couldn’t find a universe in which George worth an average of $34.25 million a year.

During the 2017-18 season, George saw his points (21.9), rebounds (5.7), field goal percentage (43.0), free throw percentage (82.2), points per 40 (24.0), rebound rate (8.6), true shooting percentage (57.0) and PER (18.71) all fall off. In fact, his PER ranked 55th in the NBA this year. His value over replacement player was 3.3, which ranked 24th and his box plus/minus of 2.6 ranked 51st. In a league based on efficiency, George simply is not worth the money Oklahoma City is paying him.

The Lakers seemed intent on landing two max players this summer, but they absolutely won by not landing George for $30-plus million a year. He simply isn’t the kind of player you give that kind of money to.

The Thunder will regret that contract by the end of it and the Lakers will look back on not getting him as a big win.