Photo Credit: USA TODAY Sports
Paul George Still Plans To Play For The Lakers in 2018
As you know, Paul George was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
The Indiana Pacers were forced to trade Paul George. George did not make any All-NBA Teams, and therefore wasn’t able to sign the designated player contract possibly worth $210 million, meaning that he will become a free agent in 2018 (players can receive a starting salary of 35% of the salary cap with just eight or nine years of experience, up from the usual 30% for players in the league that long. To qualify, a player must meet one of three criteria; Win MVP in any of the three seasons before signing; Win Defensive Player of the Year the season before signing or both of two seasons before that; Make an All-NBA team the season before signing or both of two seasons before that).
But even with the move to Oklahoma, George’s plan to play for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 did not change.
Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times wrote:
“According to people not authorized to speak publicly, George, a Palmdale native, is still telling friends that he intends to be a Laker in 2018”
The Thunder will now get one year to convince George to not go to the Lakers and stay with the team. The Lakers were reluctant to trade important assets for a player who would likely sign with them anyway. That’s the risk the Lakers were willing to take in order to keep both of their lottery picks, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, from this and last year. And even with Russell Westbrook and Paul George on the team, the Thunder are not a contender, especially in this deep Western Conference.
