The REAL REASON the Sixers Soured on Paul George…

The REAL REASON the Sixers Soured on Paul George…

so I think we all were caught off guard by the Sham shirani report of the Sixers losing interest in Paul George at least leading up to the NBA draft we have a little bit more clarity on what the motivating forces of that decision why the Sixers are leaning that direction and overall the Outlook from here today so I’m going to do dive into a couple of the latest reports sham Shani went on the Pat McAfee show where he kind of elaborated on what he meant by that exact report and I do think it is worth noting here so I’ll start out with this tweet saying these Sixers are being aggressive in the trade market per sham shiran on the pat show Philadelphia wants to see if another big opportunity presents itself instead of focusing solely on Paul George and he went on to say that quote one team that has been mentioned with George is Philadelphia and you never say never but right now the signal that they’re giving teams around the league is that they are open for business they have 60 million in cap space they have multiple draft picks that they can trade and they feel like over the next week or so they can be aggressive and if there’s an option that presents itself they can move on and not have to wait for Paul George and free agency so really what we have to take away with this is that is a timing thing that when you look at the NBA calendar and the NBA draft is next Wednesday and Thursday and why there are key dates obviously a ton of traction and movement around the league happens that there’s a new crop of players being welcomed to the NBA and on top of that for the Sixers specifically then you have five first round picks you can trade that day and I’m making note of that that day specifically because that 16th pick that they do have that they will be selecting if they choose to at that point in time and I am in favor of them making a pick and adding some young talent but if the opportunity presents itself that 16th pick can be traded on draft day in a way that it cannot but right now due to the stipan rule which pre prevents you from Trading first round picks in back-to-back Seasons so they did not make a first round pick last year so the letter of the law being that they have to make a first round pick this year but you can get away around that with a draft night trade an example of the Sixers executing on that was such as when they brought in DeAnthony Melton trading the 23rd overall pick and Danny Green in exchange for him the Sixers could absolutely be open to that type of business but the bigger picture is who that Superstar is and why it’s interesting why they’re waiting on Paul George is because that race does not kick off until July 1st when free agency begins and while I still think that should be option A for the Sixers you should not pass up on options B through f w if option A is not a guarantee and that is really the message that they are sending here and Jake fiser kind of elaborated on that saying a key didbit a tidbit in here I wouldn’t discount the Sixers interest in Paul George until his status is finalized with Los Angeles or elsewhere George has a top Philadelphia’s wish list for some time should the Sixers get the chance to talk to George on June 30th what I think is particularly noteworthy with the Paul George experience and for starters I’ve seen some comments of me being too Pro Paul George my Outlook on that is I just can’t get over being able to straight up sign a guy of Paul George caliber without having to give up any draft Capital that we’re still having these same conversations about being able to trade four or five first round picks while just signing this guy straight up and again context is everything and and I think it’s very important to have that third star set in stone so you can round out the roster and see what they needs and I do think in general people are under selling a little bit of how good Paul George is but he’s still a 22.6 point per game score 5.2 rebounds 3.5 assists 1.5 steals per game 41.3% from Beyond the three-point Arc launching 47.6% of his shots from Beyond the three-point Arc in general shooting 45.7% on Corner Threes And by the way this is on high volume on 7.9 3point attempts per game and what I like about Paul George is if he is aging if he is deteriorating he can be a very effective just floor spacing catch and shooter and there’s still more to that in his game he’s still a high level Defender he still miles better at every aspect of basketball than a guy like Tobias Harris who they’ve been so landlocked to I understand he’s not perfect there are some mentality concerns that I absolutely have but where my driving force and outlook for this is is you can fix those and bringing other guys to complete this team with the assets that you maintain by just straight up signing Paul George however there was kind of a reason why the Sixers would be against it and this is what puts kind of a hole in that complete game plan as we got this report today saying Paul George likely to opt in and request a trade if changing teams so why this is noteworthy here this is a page out of the James Harden book last year who clearly had his sights getting onto the Los Angeles Clippers there was a ton of smoke and noise leading up to the off season ultimately Harden put the Sixers in a pickle by opting into that contract saying I want to be traded and ultimately did work out and why this is key from both player both the player and the team aspect is for Paul George specifically let’s say he has a team circled right now that he wants to play for that does not have the cap space to sign him that means there has to be a trade to get him onto that roster and that is why he would be working with the Clippers now from the Clippers side of things it also makes sense because the worst case the worst option as an organization is to allow talented players to walk away for free which is the case if they sign with somebody else in free agency so the Clippers would absolutely be willing to work with Paul George saying okay well we’re at least getting something or players back in return typically it’s not the even scale of a general trade because there’s a little more give and take and you understand the context of the situation but even if you’re just getting a key player back that is still worth noting there now from the Sixers perspective this makes zero sense to get involved that I don’t think Paul George is that head and shoulders better than these other players that we’re going to talk about in a second I just think the opportunity is Head and Shoulders better than those other players that if you could have your cake and eat it too by signing a full scale Max free agent and then maintaining your ass to improve the players around him that to me was the win-win if we’re talking about having to give up things to bring Paul George and then hand him that contract I’m kind of out on the situation as a whole there now for Paul George specifically The more I’ve tried to figure out what makes this guy tick the more confused I’ve been that he’s talking about playing the right brand of basketball he’s talked about like didn’t not wanting to do the Dirty Work not having Robert Covington and Nico Bon really hurt the team that they were the glue guys and he had to do the dirty work it’s been a mess from my advice to Paul George on a business standpoint would be to stop talking about basketball at this very in time because I do think he’s digging himself quite a bit a hole and I think I’m not going to say that he talked himself out of the Sixers interest but I’m just going to say I don’t think that some of the comments that he’s made on his own podcast have painted him in the most positive light from a mentality standpoint and there are some concerns of can this guy be a winner those have been questions since before he opened his mouth this week and those types of things and I do think he’s adding a little bit of gas to that fire there now the conversation from the Sixers end is if it’s not Paul George it still has to be somebody that if you strike out on every one of these bigname free agents it’s a massive and not even free agents Big Time Players that could be available is a massive failure for this offseason we did get a little bit of news on some of those other names that could be available and during today we got this quote from har Howard Beck here saying quote Jimmy Butler will be traded rival Executives have been buzzing about it for months for all the obvious reasons Butler is about to turn 35 with a lot of hard miles and a lot of injury Howard beckin asked who will be the biggest star to change teams this summer and we also got this report about Brandon Ingram from Chris be haes saying quote Brandon Ingram is definitely somebody that I expect to be moved this summer so with that in mind the Sixers could not afford to sit back and hope that Paul George wants to come to this team now from a basketball perspective I can’t think of what more Paul George would want than what the opportunity the Sixers provide him or what he has on the clippers but once again I’m confused by how that man is wired now for Brandon Ingram and and Jimmy Butler you can have your preference for how you feel about him you’re running into similar contractual issues with Jimmy Butler they you’re going to have to extend him and I have my concerns about the injury and the miles on him as well to dive into what he produced this year for Jimmy we’re talking about 20.8 points per game 5.3 rebounds 5.0 assists 1.7 turnovers 1.3 steals shot 49.9% from the field 41.4% from three which is a career high for him but I will note far fewer volume than a guy like Paul George Jim just around two three-point attempts per game only 18.3% of his shots were three-pointers he also shot 44.3% from the corner we know who Jimmy Butler is and there absolutely would be you know a nice storybook ending if he were to come home to Philadelphia and win a championship but I have a little bit of fear that you know they’re trying to fix past wrongs by leaning into Jimmy Butler now that I think like clearly it was the wrong decision to let him walk back then and again this is hindsight is 2020 that the Jimmy Butler we know now who was not quite the same Jimmy Butler that we knew back in Philadelphia at that point this coming off him forcing his way out of Chicago forcing himself out of Minnesota then having issues with Ben Simmons and Brett Brown during his time here he was not a model citizen during the half a year that he did spend in Philly but we see the results and how successful he has been in Miami now if you want to look on the younger side Brandon Ingram is the direction you’d go and to pull up what he’s bringing to the table here pull up what he’s bringing to the table here we’re talking 20.8 points per game 5.7 assists 5.1 rebounds 2.5 turnovers per game shot 49.2% from the field just 35.5% from three also 35.5% from the corner which is a little bit concerning there 23.8% of his shots coming from Beyond the three-point Arc he’s another guy who I have concerns about the volume and particularly because it is dipped in recent years I do think Ingram’s a guy who would benefit from a change of scenery and does have uh like the fit is not ideal in New Orleans when you factor in a guy like Zion Williamson operating a little bit of similar spaces and CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy ENT becoming the three-point bombers you want to look a couple years back in his stat sheet that he was attempting over six three-point attempts per game that’s appealing to me but what also is appealing about both Brandon Ingram and Jimmy Butler are there are guys that can handle the ball much more than the Sixers currently have like there was basically Zero playmaking from guys like Tobias Harris and Nico Batum did in a way but more from an entry pass as far as creating for others the Sixers need another guy outside of Joel embiid and Tyrese Maxi to do that and both these guys Jimmy Butler and Brandon here averaging over five assists per game which is really intriguing so for the Sixers they’re in business for everyone right now the message that was sent was not that we’re we’re not interested in Paul George it’s that we’re not waiting for Paul George that we’re jumping on whatever opportunity we can get and what will make this team better I do think draft day is a very notable time frame and I expect a lot to go down maybe not in the Big Ticket direction or making that big swing but as of this time or next week we’re going to have some new Sixers to talk about on the team which is very exciting we can stop a little bit of the speculation which continues to roll on and talk about what this roster is going to look like and my last point to wrap up is the players to surround those big fish those big that third star drastically change depending on who they are for example if you do get Paul George then you need a guy who can playmake a little bit more because looking at Paul George stats we’re talking about 3.5 assists per game compared to 5o assist or 5.7 assist here but if you get a Jimmy Butler you got to find a volume three-point shoter to complete that roster is that a buddy healed or a guy like that the point being that those complimentary pieces what is necessary to fill in the gaps and maximize their talent drastically change based on who that big fish or that third star next to Joel embiid and Tyrese Maxi is so the bottom line is things are heating up I am excited to see what what what goes down from here but that was the message to the NBA that should be taken is the Sixers are open for business and they’re doing whatever the case that is we’re not sitting around waiting for Paul George so appreciate you guys for tuning in this video now let me know your preference I know a lot of you have soured on Paul George in the comments and I do hear you I do feel you so feel free to let them loose make sure you are subscribing if you have not already and dropping a like on this video here and I’ll be talking to you next time right here on Sixers digest peace

The REAL REASON the Sixers Soured on Paul George…

The NBA world was surprised by the report that the Sixers had lost some interest in pursuing Paul George before free agency even began. Sean Barnard breaks down the latest on why this is the case and why Sixers fans should not panic yet.

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