How Important Is Paul George’s Free Agency?

How Important Is Paul George’s Free Agency?

on today’s show how important is it for Paul George to be kept by the Clippers can they let him walk what are the consequences of letting him walk and what are all the situations that are involved with his contract going to be talking about it all on today’s locked on still in Canon Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day yes sir you are locking in with the clips thank you for making locked on Clippers the first listen of your day your team every day I’m your host Darian vieri born and raised in LA and just finished my 19th season as a Clipper fan you can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram at dim dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper where I talk about every single NBA playoff game after it happens and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast never behind a pay wall just throw us a subscription on YouTube as well and comment what you think can the Clippers or should the Clippers let Paul George go how detrimental would it be in your opinion to let him go and we’re going to be talking about all the ramifications of that financially team roster wise and all that in this episode so let’s begin and by the way for those wondering how long is it going to be Cancun clip ippers when I do the intro until the season ends then it’ll be offseason Clippers so let’s talk about the first thing right in my opinion the Clippers cannot let Paul George walk for nothing I think that is the ultimate worst thing case scenario because if he just opts out of his deal because he’s got that player option for this next season right if he opts into that he’s got $49 million next year and people might be wondering $49 million why would he say no to that well because after that year 2024 25 he’s got no guaranteed contract yet right so let’s say he goes through some big injury next year that’s going to make teams far more resistant to give him a new contract and this is probably going to be his last big contract before he doesn’t get big contracts anymore so he’s looking to get his money I would think right here now the thing is the Clippers have shown major resistance in giving him one the Max cuz they they didn’t even give Kawai the max so I think not giving Kawai the max especially now that kawhai made all NBA so I think he’s technically eligible for that stuff but he already signed a resigned a new contract or signed a new contract Paul George the fact that kawh Leonard got paid that Ma that much not a Max it tells me that the Clippers wanted kawhai to set the precedent that you know what Paul you’re not making more than that you’re either making that or less but it seems like the Clippers want him to make less than kawhai because kawhai is just the better player but of course Paul George might go into the negotiation room like well who’s the one that’s on the court in the playoffs who’s the one that got you past the Conference Finals when you were 2-2 against the Jazz in the second round the round You’ never gotten out of and I led us across the Finish Line who played 31 games in 2022 when the stadium wasn’t sold out because kawhai was out he’s I mean he could say these things in negotiations now see I wouldn’t entertain them too much if I were the clippers but you just can’t let him walk which makes this very you know concerning so he’s not going to opt into that deal in my opinion unless the Clippers reach some kind of mutual agreement with him where they’re like you know what Paul we clearly aren’t seeing eye to eye we’re not going to give you that contract you want but then for whatever reason Paul’s not getting what he wants from Philly like cuz Philly has to think if they want to Max Paul George out now they have embiid Maxi and Paul George on really big contracts so the rest of their roster probably not going to be filled out that great right so if they want to do that and kind of limit their flexibility that’s on them but I do genuinely think that the Philadelphia 76ers having Paul George as a third option would be like the most ideal situation for him at this point I think if Paul George wants to win a ring he should go to Philly like straight up I’m not even joking because embiid despite his injury concerns he’s much better in the regular season than kawhai and I wouldn’t say much better but he’s better in the in the regular season Joel embiid is top three in the NBA but in the playoffs kawai’s infinitely better but embiid always gets hurt too the difference is embiid gets hurt but like it’s not a serious enough injury where he can’t play through it he always ends up playing through it and then it’s looking a little bit worse kawhai legitimately just you know he tried playing through it he didn’t even look the same whereas embiid you know he dropped a 50 ball in game three against the Knicks so I would go if Paul George if I got that Max contract the question is is Philly gonna pay him that so I don’t think he’s gonna opt into that deal because he wants more money and right now Paul George despite the 19 points per game in the first round and a bad exit Dallas is two nothing up right now at the time that I’m recording this on Minnesota they are two games away from the NBA finals and we were up one nothing against them without Kawai so that tells you that you know Dallas was probably better than we uh gave them credit for and Paul George and the Clippers especially the organization are only going to use this run by Dallas to say man we weren’t that far off because if we had Kawai we could have maybe beaten them but we don’t what we are failing to understand if we use that approach is that Styles make fights and just because we would have beat we had a decent match up against Dallas with kawhai healthy does not mean we would have had a great match up against OKC or Minnesota or any of those teams I do think our match up with Dallas is probably better than some others but point being that we cannot let Paul walk because then we’re not getting anything for him and even if Paul George leaves does that mean we’re gonna let go of Harden because if Harden and Paul if we don’t resign either of them then Kawai is not going to be happy so we are almost trapped we and it’s like this is not the Summer where you’re going to have the cap space nor nor is it the summer that there’s going to be a bunch of free agents for you to try to go after Paul George is literally one of the top three free agents like him cakam and Maxi are like the top top guys in the list so the thing is if you’re the Clippers you got to resign him even though you might trade him later down the line you got to resign him so he doesn’t go to Philly and walk but the thing is what does he want now there’s a chance the Clippers could stretch the deal and make it like four years say 60 million so that would be 40 million per year for four years then the last year he’s got a player option but the reason why the Clippers might be resistant in doing that is because that would mean that he has one more year on his deal in Kawai and I think theoretically they want all of them expiring at the same time so it’s going to be really interesting our our whole offseason hinges on this but no you cannot let Paul George’s walk for free you just can’t after all that he’s done and after this let’s say he opts in I don’t know what scenario it would be where he would opt in and then we trade him because Philly doesn’t want to pay him and he doesn’t like where he doesn’t like the options of teams that can just like pay him outright he wants to go somewhere where maybe he’ll opt into that last year of his contract then be a free agent next summer if I’m Paul George though I’m not waiting another year because the thing about Paul is he’s still very good but he is declining yearly I mean he’s it’s age it happens it’s father time so if I’m him I’m trying to get my money now if that’s what he cares about I’m trying to get my money now now if he doesn’t care about the money just op that final year save us all the trouble but the thing is you know the Clippers are just in a tough spot because even if Paul George walks let’s say Paul George walks and goes to Philly and then you’re like okay we just still we still got to bring back Harden or else we won’t even be a 5 win team you bring back Harden you’re still if you bring if you still have Westbrook and PJ Tucker and Norman Pal’s contracts you’re still over that second apron so you still have limited flexibility in the win in the uh free agency period so like what good is that so you can’t let him walk my my preference for Paul George and Kawaii and Harden all of them is that we just wait for them to start playing well we resign them all and then just trade them when their value is high and just get rid of them all and just get all the picks back that we can that’s what I would do but I I know the Clippers are scared of like having no stars in a new stadium which is again a scare tactic in the first year it will still be pretty filled I promise but anyway that’s what I have to say my moral story is you can’t let him walk coming up though what is he worth in my opinion going to be talking about that coming up and evaluating some performance I got to tell you a little something about LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the rule that’s why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free I’ve never actually hired on LinkedIn but I’ve been hired on LinkedIn so they was successful for me maybe it’ll be successful for you if you want to improve and find the right candidates for your business LinkedIn isn’t just another jaw board LinkedIn has a vast network of more than a billion professionals which makes it the best place to hire 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he’s worth about $40 million per year Max now if before he was 40 to 50 which again he was overpaid so like I’d say 35 to 40 million is his worth maybe even the lowest I would go is 30 he probably thinks he’s worth more than that though so it’ll be tough I think based on the fact that kawhai signed a three-year contract I think they want to sign Paul on a three-year contract so like 40 million over three years would be pretty good I think 40 80 120 so 100 20 over three years not 40 over 40 million each year for three years 120 million for three years is he going to agree to that though because that would mean he’s making 10 million less than kawhai every season which honestly should be the case like the only way that Clippers is going to have flexibility to do anything and get anybody really decent is you shed Westbrook and PJ Tucker’s salary and then you sign Paul George and James Harden a team friendlier deals like that means Harden not taking really any more than 30 million per year which again this is the last contract for Harden two in terms of like a a solid deal so they want money as well so it puts the Clippers in a very tough spot it’s going to be very hard to get under that second apron which will allow us to make more moves and have more roster flexibility it’s going to be very hard so when you look at Paul George’s performance this season you look at the numbers and yeah you average 23 six and and four whatever it was yeah 20 no 235 and four and he shot really well I mean 47 41 splits I mean he had his highest field goal per no way was that his highest field goal percentage of his career it was wow so you can definitely thank James Harden for that a little bit absolutely and Westbrook but mainly Harden I’d say just because he got more open shots than ever before but he also didn’t seem at times as aggressive as you’d want him to be three-point percent was that his best three-point shooting season of his career wow he had his best field goal shooting three-point percentage and free throw wow he had his best shooting splits in every category in his entire career that’s insane no one ever talks about that it’s wild how how like hard we are on Paul he deserves every bit of it but like when you think about like at age 34 I’m sorry at age 33 he had his best shooting season field goal percentage three-point percentage and free throw percentage it’s like man if you’re Paul George I’m walking into the in the room and saying I just had my most efficient season ever and you’re talking about lowballing me so like it’s a it’s it’s a tough world out there in negotiations I think that being said though Paul is still not worth over any any more than 40 million let’s just begin with the fact that he’s extremely inconsistent in the regular season no not even in the regular season he’s extremely inconsistent in general so like one game he looks like an absolute World beater you can’t stop him he’s getting buckets in all sorts of ways he’s defending you see that versatility that he has his ability to play off the ball come off screens work quickly off the catch and then you see his ability in the high in the mid post the way you can just turn over the top of guys like they’re not even there I mean when Paul George is on a heater he’s the most pathetically pleasing Clipper that we’ve ever had to see play basketball in my opinion just he’s so smooth he gets low on his handle for a guy’s size it’s truly just something to behold but then so often he becomes enamored with that aesthetic and trying to you know make the Highlight play and he’ll he’ll get the Step On His Defender and then pull it back to get a fancy step back snatchback and he’ll over dribble in the perimeter on his isolations and he’ll just waste too much time doing that and take really tough shots that that and ends up being a game where like he’s shot 10 out of his 14 shots have been jumpers and he’s just never never found a rhythm because he’s gotten nothing easy and he doesn’t get to the line and the large reason he doesn’t get to the line is because I think the injuries have taken a mental toll on him where he you know is I don’t know either he’s afraid to get injured or he just isn’t aggressive enough he’s still fairly quick to get by guys but then my biggest issue is that when he tries to get by guys sometimes he’ll still snatch it back for no reason so with Paul he frustrates me because then also that’s not to account for having one of the lowest basketball IQs of any Superstar I’ve ever seen and that’s not even being harsh that’s really true the really Timeless I’m sorry untimely turnovers that he has in crunch time live ball especially usually on a live dribble uh especially when a def the defense is in drop covers and he trying to make a pass across the court he will make a bad read or he’ll throw it away and sometimes you’ll just have passes where you’re just like what were you thinking we say that about West all the time but we don’t say that enough about Paul I mean cber fans do but like as a basketball Community overall we don’t and yeah I think that his turnovers are very it’s just the live dribbling stuff in terms of turnovers with Paul I think he’s not bad when teams Blitz him I think that’s actually when Paul’s at his best he makes some pretty good pocket passes or lot passes over to that short roll guy but in terms of like pick and roll playmaking while he’s not bad he’s not necessarily that good he just will get you some good shots here and there cuz he’s a decent passer when and he attracts so much attention offensively but I just think and then the playoffs you know that was the ultimate test it’s like I’ve been defending you all year there’s been people in the comment section saying Paul’s so annoying trade him he’s inconsistent you don’t know what Paul you’re going to get his numbers end up averaging out to what I read earlier so like it doesn’t look that bad on the stat sheet but then in the playoffs without Kawhi Leonard for you to average 19 points a game is just no is there’s no excuse for it and then on his podcast he all he did was say we didn’t do this we didn’t do that there was no I played terribly there was no I played like ass there was no I only averaged 19 it was it was not really the accountability I was looking for as a fan and like now I listen to his podcast with Cameron Brink and like I’m watching for Cameron Brink I’m not watching for Paul and every time I hear him talk I’m just like like I just you pissing me off I love you but you’re pissing me off like you just just you know it just doesn’t seem to bother these guys that much it doesn’t seem to it is what it is like it’s like I get it you don’t want these guys to be miserable but it’s like I’d have a problem showing my face to my fan base if I did that in the playoffs like I just I have such I’m just very hard on myself in everything I do so like I don’t know I wonder how Paul is with that it’s just like you guys said Paul Geor said we were going to get it right keep the faith Clipper Nation but they haven’t gotten anything right in terms of the long-term picture and I get it kawai’s been hurt but like can you at least do your part so then I can say it’s all Kawai that he can’t stay healthy because if if Paul George had averag 25 points game okay we lose in six or seven games fine but like at least we can say it was just because kawhai wasn’t hurt but you did your job and I can’t say that so yeah coming up though gonna be looking at the worst case scenario what is the worst case scenario for Paul George and the Clippers in the off season G to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more 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but then it’s like how do you sell Kawai on what you’re building here but then if he Demands a trade then you can actually get something for him so like I don’t know it’s just I may not be the right like person if if you’re a pro super pro 213 which like CL if you’re a real Clipper fan not a fan of kawhai Russ or Harden or Paul if you’re like a Clipper fan if you were a Clipper fan before we got kawhai which a lot of you are let me know in the comments like how committed are you to 213 at this point like do you does it bother you what I’m saying about like selling high with them like because I just don’t think that they can stay healthy for the playoff run and I don’t think that they’re good enough even if healthy in terms of like their overall our overall roster like I just think we’re too old too slow and we don’t get enough easy baskets uh and you’re seeing right now like with the Dallas Mavericks Luca and Kyrie Irving they’re just so Dynamic you know Luca is is younger than me literally was born in ’99 I’m born in ’98 so like think about it compared to Kawai was at all those surgeries like it’s a different world out there for him and he’s and Kyrie Irving he actually hasn’t had serious injuries like that he’s had injuries here and there but nothing that serious so and he’s so quick he really is so ah my point is I just don’t see a situation though where Paul George wants to be in La we know that we know he wants to be here so it really comes down down to what the Clippers want to pay him and how much he wants that’s all it comes down to and if you let him walk you’re putting in this franchise in a very interesting situation I mean to let him go for nothing it would just be a travesty unless it leads to us blowing it up then I don’t think it’s a travesty but even then right even let’s say okay he does walk and then you lose Harden you were literally losing two guys that you gave up treasure chests of picks for so no that would be also a pretty Prett bad scenario so like yeah I have to reel my I have to you know uh hold on and reel back a bit and be like okay D talking to myself you’re so eager to blow it up and do something different but the thing is if you lose James Harden and Paul George for nothing and the only person you have to bargain with with is is injured kawhai you’re not getting that much in return and you don’t have picks the franchise is going to be in a very rough spot for the foreseeable future so we can’t let that happen either so almost like we have to resign Harden too because we you know just like can’t let him walk for free we gave up a first round pick for him unprotected to Philly and pick swaps and expiring deals so like we’ve put ourselves in a position where we need to resign these guys and it was almost like like I don’t understand why the Clippers went all in when it was so like I just don’t get it we went all in for something that we just hadn’t really tested yet and what I mean by it I mean Kawaii two on three healthy in the playoffs like how far were we we didn’t really test that we just said oh man we need regular season help because our players can’t stay healthy so let’s bring in James Harden but now you’re in the position that Brooklyn and Philly were in were like do you want to pay this guy he’s aging and he’s declining as the season goes on although in the playoffs he did find a little Revival but James Harden’s not getting any better like and neither is Paul and neither is kawhai like it’s it’s next episode’s going to be on should be pay James Harden I think that should be the next episode and I’ll do like a similar kind of thing and like evaluate his whole performance from the trade but it’s a very tough situation for the Clippers to be in remember Brandon Boston’s also a free agent the Clippers are probably going to want to see what they can do with him like again if you’re not going to play him then let him walk and just use that $1 million or like whatever vet minimum on somebody that’s a little bit more ready to contribute like I don’t get it I don’t get it at all Mason plumbley should definitely go it’s funny because I saw PJ Tucker the other day uh he has a player option he’s definitely going to opt in that 11 million and who’s going to want that 11 million you know if we could shed that salary that would get us closer to getting below that second apron but who wants PJ Tucker on an $ million contract however it is an expiring contract so Midway through the season maybe teams will want it maybe that’s got to be the hope that you’re holding out for as a Clipper fan cuz that contract PJ let’s see who’s making the most right Ka Leonard is making the most Paul George second if he opts in Norman third zuba PJ Tucker is the fifth highest paid player on our team which is like ridiculous so like yeah things need to happen there I mean I bet you the Clippers front office is going through ways where they can try to shed that salary but we shall see you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at diam dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel Diamond dropper for even more content on the NBA I’ve been talking about every single game after it ends and lock on Clippers is free available wherever your podcast let me know what you think of the possibilities of Paul George leaving can we let him walk do you want him to go do you think it’s addition by subraction see here’s the thing I don’t let’s say we I didn’t even talk about the basketball side of things if Paul George leaves and we just have Harden I do not think our team would be better depends who you’re replacing with but you’re not finding someone as I’m saying with with with the financial lack of flexibility that we’re in you are not finding someone that is going to equal Paul George’s value you’re just not like if you if you’re committed to to Kawai then you should probably want Paul George back I’m serious cuz you’re not going to find a better co-star you’re not getting seaka like it’s just not happening so anyway that’s what I think it’d be a terrible situation if Paul George left if we’re keeping 213 if we’re keeping kawhai we got to keep Paul like I I just that’s how I feel about it unfortunately but anyway let me know what you guys think in in the episode or in the comments what is he worth answer all the questions how committed are you still to 213 let me know the age-old proverb continues go Clippers and have a beautiful Memorial weekend

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