Paul George warns young Rocket about pursuing James Harden

"Personally I wouldn't," George told Green in regard to recruiting Harden. "At this point, you're the king of Houston. They made their decision about who the future is. When you pick a guy with the 4th pick, he's our guy."

Green was actually the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NBA draft, so by George's logic, Houston is extremely committed to him. In his first year, Green made the All-Rookie first team. Last year, he upped his scoring to 22.1 points per game, easily the highest-scoring sophomore in the NBA - Franz Wagner was second at 18.9 points per game.

Green also became only the 4th player to score 40+ points in a game five times before his 22nd birthday. 

The others? Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and Carmelo Anthony, all of whom won NBA scoring titles. Green looks like he has that potential, but George thinks Harden would stunt Green's development.

"You bring on someone like James who's such a ball-dominant player, that's going to hinder your growth a bit," George advised. "I feel like you've been through the fire already."

But George might perhaps have a personal motive in keeping Harden away from a Houston team that's loaded with young talent and reportedly done rebuilding. They have over $60 million in cap space and multiple extra picks to trade. More significantly, they don't control their own first-round pick until 2027, thanks to the Russell Westbrook trade, and thus have no incentive to tank.

Adding Harden puts another obstacle in front of George's Clippers in a Western Conference where all 15 teams may be pushing for the playoffs. Of non-play-in/playoff teams, Dallas will be aggressive adding talent around Luka Doncic. Portland wants to trade the No. 3 pick for veteran help for Damian Lillard. Utah has an All-Star in Lauri Markkanen. And the Spurs are adding super-prospect Victor Wembanyama.

Regardless of his feelings about Green's development, George would certainly love to avoid Harden as much as possible next season. Ideally, he'd stay in Philadelphia.

And when it comes to winning scoring titles, Harden isn't exactly a hindrance. While Harden won three scoring titles from 2018-20, Joel Embiid was the top scorer the last two seasons - playing alongside Harden.