Clippers news: Paul George breaks silence on clouded Clippers future

“Anytime you can be healthy and for myself, not being available the past couple years really stings when you’re watching the team go on and you just can’t be out there and be there with them,” Paul George said heading into the postseason. “It’s very important for me at this time to be healthy, more so to finish the year, play the most I’ve played in a Clippers jersey and then be available postseason. It is definitely a win for me. But obviously it’s about that next step.”

The next step ended up with George having arguably his worst playoff performance since his third season in the league with the Indiana Pacers back in 2013. That was the first year the Pacers featured him as their number one option.

In six games this postseason, George averaged 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game on just 41.1 percent shooting from the field and 36.7 percent from three. The 19.5 points per game mark is his worst since his third year with the Pacers. His 41.1 percent shooting from the field narrowly missed his percentages from the NBA bubble in Orlando, where his shooting struggles (39.8 percent from the field) were well documented.

George did come up with a magnificent Game 4 performance in which he scored 33 points with eight assists and four steals en route to a road win that gave the Clippers home-court again. He appeared as locked in as he’d ever been during his postgame press conference and his podcast episode a day later.

And then he dropped a stinker, finishing Game 5 with just 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting in what was the worst loss in li. Eight of those points came after the Clippers were already down 24 points late in the third quarter. By that time, the game was over.

“I think the beauty of it is the older I’ve gotten, the less pressure it’s been, honestly,” Paul George said after Game 5. “I think when it comes down to it, you work your tail off all summer. You train for these moments to where if you fail, you fail, but you just go out there and you give it all you have. Live with the results. But as far as pressure, not anymore. I don’t feel that pressure anymore. I’m not out there to prove nothing to anybody, but what I do want to do is just go and show up for my teammates, leave everything on the floor like I said, and just try to be a leader and live with the results. I’m going to play as hard as I can game six and give us the best chance I can give ‘em to go and get a win in Dallas.”

Game 6 wasn’t any better, as George shot just 6-of-18 from the field and 2-of-10 from three en route to an 18-point, 11 rebound performance in the fourth and final loss of the series.

Time to Live With the Results

Paul George expressed optimism at different points throughout the season that he and the Clippers would get a contract extension done.

On January 10, 2024, Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers agreed to a three-year, $152 million contract extension that would keep him in Los Angeles through the 2026-27 season. That deal was less than the four-year, $220 million deal Leonard could’ve gotten. Translation: The team’s best player took one fewer year and about $10 million less than the max he could’ve gotten, in part to help the team build a contender over the next few years.

George and the Clippers have until June 30th to get an extension done, and it’s very possible they do, but the negotiations dragging out this long is not a good sign. The Clippers want to line Leonard and George up on similar deals and timelines. According to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, George is eligible to sign a max extension for as much as $221,088,000 over four years. If that offer was on the table, it would’ve been signed by now.

There have been rumblings that George, 34 years of age and entering his last big contract, wants the fourth year as part of extension talks. The Clippers, according sources not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, have been reluctant to add that fourth year and are certainly not offering him the max as of right now.

If the team’s best player in Kawhi Leonard took less than the max, then it’d be surprising to see George, who is more than a year older than Leonard, get a similar or better deal.

And, well, when you look at what George just did in the playoffs as the number one option, you kind of understand why. Excluding the Game 4 performance where he was absolutely scorching — shooting 11-of-19 from the field and 7-of-10 from three — Paul George shot an abysmal 36.8 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from three in the other five games of the series.

Even James Harden, who is widely criticized for his poor playoff performances, had a strong series in his first postseason with the Clippers averaging 21.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 8.0 assists on 45 percent shooting from the field and 38.3 percent from three.

As George and the Clippers continued to let time pass by with no agreement in place, rumors of the Philadelphia 76ers interest in the nine-time NBA All-Star have continued to grow. He’s even been linked to the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic as well, two teams expected to have cap space this upcoming summer.

The belief around the league is that Paul George and the Clippers will ultimately agree on a contract extension and keep him in Los Angeles. Those teams could simply be used as leverage to negotiate the deal that he wants, but if you believe in the saying, ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire,’ George staying with the Clippers is not at all a lock.

Without giving any indication as to what his plans are, however, Paul George’s comments following the Clippers’ Game 6 loss to the Mavericks sounded like a player expecting to be here next year to continue building off what he, Kawhi Leonard, and James Harden built this season.

“Continuity is everything,” George said. “You look at the teams that are still standing. They’ve been together for quite a few years, so continuity has always stood and given teams the best chance when the guys are used to one another, there’s chemistry there. Every team that’s still standing right now has been together for quite some time, so that is one thing we gotta go through: a season of learning each other, learning how to play, learning how to adjust off one another.

“We had that this year and so the only thing to look forward to is the next year to come. How well we can all put that back together.”

When asked after the Game 6 loss if he viewed himself being here long-term with Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, George affirmed his desire to remain a Clipper.

“Yeah, if it works that way. Absolutely.”

At the end of the day, George and the Clippers both want to continue this partnership, and it’d considered surprising if they didn’t. But it’s the NBA. And you just never know until folks put pen to paper.