On his podcast, Paul George said that his initial negotiations with the Clippers weren't up to his standards 👀
”The first initial deal was, I thought, kind of disrespectful.”
"Two years, $60M … That's crazy."
Via @PodcastPShow
by lopea182
@National Basketball Association
34 Comments
Sorry man i get clippers fans wanna hate this guy for the jerk but this is crazy
I find it difficult to see a scenario where his current deal doesn’t look terrible in three years
Thought it was 3 years 120m or something like that. 2 year 60m? That’s just insulting
Yes but later on he said he wanted the same thing as Kawhii, and then at the end of the season clippers offered him that and then PG wanted either a no trade clause or a 4th year.
[Here’s the full clip](https://x.com/podcastpshow/status/1810305383908663570?s=46&t=sbk6yuyliVaFRQjBUBJCMQ)
TLDW: the initial offer was 2/60m, it slowly moved up. Once Kawhi got his deal PG said he’d sign if they gave him the same deal. At the end they offered him 3/150m, and kept talking about how they wanted PG to retire a Clipper and be in their future. So PG asked for a NTC, or a 4th year so either he wouldn’t be traded even after taking less, or got a full max. Clippers wouldn’t offer either, so he tested FA and got the Philly deal.
What he said was pretty reasonable, he said he would have taken a 3 year deal but he wanted a no trade clause. Nothing wrong with that.
I feel the Clippers just didn’t want him back.
Harden got 70/2
I’ll never understand how with all they did to move heaven and earth to construct this team, why they chose now as the time to cheap out. It seems to make no sense to anyone outside of the Clippers org.
Getting this level of insight from a current all star player is just fantastic, instead of the usual stuff from ‘sources’ which may not be accurate
i get starting low but damn lol
For real that’s crazy like how are you even gonna feed your family with that piddly salary?
I’m sorry but 2/60 is a perfectly reasonable starting offer for a guy who had just missed the playoffs and had an avg of 47.25 games played a season for the Clippers previously. 48, 54, 31, 56 were his games played prior to last season. He had just missed the playoffs due to an injury. Let’s be real. What are we doing here?
George has yet to prove that he’s worth that kind of money. Talk to me when he’s done anything besides ring chase and fail.
The Pacers saw that George wasn’t a winner quite a while ago. They ended up being a better team without him and I expect the same for the Clippers.
I mean Paul George obviously was really good but in 10-20 years is anyone in LA going to look up at the rafters and see a Paul George jersey and say wow I’m glad such an all time legend retired here ?
Obviously clippers didn’t think so and why they didn’t offer it
For context that is Immanuel Quickley money on an annual basis.
I seriously wonder what Jerry West thoughts would have been in these final negotiations
“Give me what Kawhi got” turned to “so I said 4 and 212”
19 points on 15 shots a game with shit defense is even crazier
Getting outplayed by ivica zubac is craziest
Paul George is so confusing! He basically asked to play the MPJ role but expects to be paid higher or equal to a #1 option. 1st it was doc playing him like JJ redick. Then it was too much ball handling when Jrue holiday locked him up. Now that we need to pay another star to do the duties he refuses, he doesn’t want to take the pay cut. The guy made his bed with LA.
Based on this limited information, this feels like a fumbled negotiation, unless they didn’t want him.
Signing Kawhi for that other contract created an easy precedent. I would bet a lot of money that he would have signed, if they came at PG like this: “look, we love you, and are going to give you the benefit of skipping the part where we low ball you and work our way up. The CBA has changed how we can build the team, no matter how much we want to spend, so we do have limitations we’d rather not have. And we still want you, so we’re going to offer you the same thing we gave Kawhi. We won’t do a 4th year or move from there.”
I mean I understand ya know, it’s relative to your worth. But imagine being offered 35 million a year and being like, “Are you kidding me?”
A different world these people are living in
Of course his dumb friend is gonna spin this all around but it is insane to quote without context especially given how in business, as a general rule, the side offering starts from below… He indeed had leverage that the 76rs would pay him but he wanted the same money than kawhi plus the NTC while acknowledging as a “glue guy” or a #2 option and after stinking in the playoffs.
Smh beating the Pandemic P allegations really came full circle. Also you were coming out of an extremely injured season at 33 whilst missing play-ins
Good insight. 3/150 is pretty much what made sense offer wise. Doesn’t make a ton of sense to give more than Kawhi. I don’t mind PG leaving for more dinero and an easier path in the east. Sometimes a team’s composition just runs its course.
I like Paul George, have since he was playing backup to Danny Grainger in Indy, but I never thought he was a max contract player.
He has been pretty overpaid relative to other players with the same payscale his entire career.
Can we go back to a time where $60 million wasn’t disrespectful?
He got what he wanted, we can’t fault him for that. Another team gave him a better deal then so be it.
It is crazy that Anyone would make 60 million in 2 years.
When most people are working jobs full time for under $50,000 a year.
He is overrated and never won anything with any team he has been on. He is past his prime what does he expect?
Man the Clippers experiment just did not work.
Paul George = Overrated!
So the full time line according to Paul is:
•October LAC offers 2/$60mil PG declines
•Jan 10th Kawhi signs 3/$153 extension
•Allstar Break (week of February 18th) PG asks for the same deal LAC say no
•End of regular season (April) LAC offers to match the Kawhi deal 3/$153, Organization says they want both to retire as Clippers
•PG counters with a NTC, LAC say No
•PG counters with 4 yr max, LAC says no
It’s refreshing that a player of PGs caliber was so open about this. Honestly I can’t blame him, he felt insulted, still offered to take less just wanted assurances they weren’t blowing smoke like they did with Blake. Also can’t blame LAC for not wanting to include a NTC, they are super rare (GSW wouldn’t even give one to Steph) & can be catastrophic (see Bradley Beal).
How about winning something first?
I don’t believe that they offered 2 years, 60mil. Say what you will about Lawrence Frank’s actual results, but he’s not a novice. There’s no way, unless he was trying to send a message that they don’t want PG back at all, that he’d low-ball to that extent. That’s not within the same universe as his market value.
Imagine being in a position to say fuck that to 60 mill for 2 years.