JULY 6th, 6:46pm: The signing is official, per team press release.
JUNE 30th, 11:19pm: According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the contract will be a four-year pact worth $137MM. The deal will include a player option.
10:45: Free agent guard Paul George has committed to re-signing with the Thunder, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The news comes at the end of a year-long recruitment effort after the franchise acquired the former Pacers star in a stunning 2017 trade.
General manager Sam Presti and the Thunder wagered that the club would be able to convince George to stay in town despite the very public revelation that he had eyes for the Lakers.
While the Thunder didn’t make the playoff run they may have hoped this season, there’s no denying that the presence of George gives the team a higher long-term ceiling.
In 79 games with Oklahoma City, George averaged 21.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
While he ultimately signed for less, George was eligible for a five-year, $177MM deal as a player with 7-9 years of experience signing with the same team. The 2018/19 cap hit for such a deal will be $30.6MM, per the recently revealed salary cap figures. Prior to the announcement of the deal, reports indicated that the star forward might prefer a shorter-term deal, possibly a two-year pact with a second-year option.
Now that George has signed on for the max, it will push the Thunder deep into luxury-tax territory. Carmelo Anthony, who has a $28MM salary for 2018/19, could be a candidate to be waived and stretched if Oklahoma City needs to cut costs.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Woj Bomb
Damn it. Oh well. Let’s get Bro and Boogy
*Bron
You’ll get Trevor Ariza. Lol.
Not a bad thing. I never wanted the guy to leave and would be happy to get him back. Still we should be getting Lebron or cousins or both. Would put money on it.
Not looking good Laker nation!
Never mind that. Ariza is gone lol.
Not looking good? It’s been 50 mins into free agency hahahahaha
We can get plenty if hood players still and the best is still out there.
OKC will never come close to winning a title with Russ, PG13 and Melo
Who is Melo?
Adams is more the third player of their big three at this point. Melo is practically $29 million in dead money at this point in his career
Dead money? His shooting % was low at 41% but he still was solid from the 3 at 36% and gave them 16 pts and 6 rebounds as a 3rd option.
?
George knows he’s a 2nd option not a first,smart move Paul. He bombed against the Jazz and knows he could have been a lot better.
Paul George is a first option on most teams, what is wrong with you?
I’ll take George over Westbrook, Russ is cancerous and will never win a ring
Ball hog? Yes. Cancerous? Never heard anyone claim he was a “bad” teammate or locker room guy.
OKC just needs to add a shooter, and maybe a depth piece and hopefully, they get something from Ferguson. Billy Donovan also needs to do something to differentiate him from Scott Brooks. Happy to see him stay there.
I agree that OKC is a player or two away from being a top 4 team in the West.
Remember when most Laker fans were sure that Paul George was going to sign in LA. This puts a ton of pressure on LA now. Not only do they likely now need to get Kawhi in order to secure LeBron’s signature (he’s definitely not committing there with essentially no guarantee that another star will be coming), I think some of the other rumored contenders for Kawhi might be more willing to part with him on the chance that he loves his new surroundings and decides to re-up (a la Paul George).
It’s got to be a stinging indictment as to the lure of the Lakers. Yes, they have a few good young players but this is another star rebuffing Los Angeles. It shows that in the NBA players put more of a precedent on winning vs location, if it’s not a guaranteed winning situation.
This is why the Lakers should have done everything they could to trade for PG last year. It was known before the draft last year that he was eyeing the Lakers. They had better assets to give for PG. Wishful thinking from the Lakers and the lack of any meaningful team success led to PG resigning with the Thunder. Is it me or did I only hear Leonard and Lebron inLA over the last 2 weeks? Not once was PG the priority. Players resent not getting the spotlight, and OKC pull out al the stops to make him feel wanted.
I think after having another year to figure this out we could see the thunder make some noise in the West. I’ll wait and see what they do this offseason as far as adding some rotation pieces, but I have them pegged as the 3 seed with the potential to upset Houston if they can get things going.
Agreed. Getting a healthy Roberson back is an underrated move. He doesn’t bring anything offensively but he frees up George to roam defensively which makes him more active and allows him to save more energy for his offense.
Roberson is a great defensive player but with him on the floor with Russ, George, Adams and whomever they are playing in place of Anthony doesn’t spread the floor much and you can pretty much double team Russ or George since Roberson isn’t much of a scoring threat.
At the same time, George has more energy offensively when he doesn’t have to guard the best opposing wing every possession. Roberson is a near non threat on offense but he makes up for it with good cuts to the rim and good defense.
He is a turn over machine thinks he is a point guard does not like to go under the basket glad he is in OKC
Here come the salty Lakers fans. Lol
You’re forgetting LeBrons in control and he said don’t waste your money on Paul George. He’s not a max player. LeBron, Kawhi, have cousins sign, Maybe a couple more pieces.
Paul George is a bricklayer and unreliable offensively. Didn’t he go to 4-15 in the playoffs one game?
I thought LeBron liked him but now it’s obvious he doesn’t. In fact I think Lebron called Durant and asked him to come down to LA.
Lakers don’t want to give up what the Spurs are asking for and LeBron isn’t committing first. Unless, of course, the Lakers are confident that another supposed LA-bound star a year away from free agency will definitely sign with them.
PG and LBJ are most definitely friends and I guarantee you this was more about PG NOT wanting to go to LA vs LBJ, who btw has not agreed to anything, not wanting him to be in LA. After all, he wanted PG to come to Cleveland.
Okay so what happened? How does it all play out?
I don’t see them competing, but this was the only move that made sense for both. It’s a lot of money, you’re still an NBA player. You won’t win anything this year or next, but the money is better than LA.
You never know.
Leverage, Spurs.
This is a huge blow to the Lakers beyond just not getting a great player. They could have traded for him last year at a discount (as he indicated that he was going there the following year either way), but gambled that they could sign him as a FA and not yield any of the supposed assets. Their in the same position now with KL.
The best position for the Spurs would be to have both PG and LeBron sign as FAs, because then LA would have no path to sign KL as a FA and would need a trade and other teams would know that to. But if LeBron goes there now, it’s almost as good for the Spurs. Having LeBron, mean it’s all about winning that year every year. They have to do something to get a star. It doesn’t have to be KL, and it won’t be full price, but much better than if LA signed just PG or signed neither.
Laker fan here that is beyond excited he didn’t come!
I bet you weren’t saying that a year ago.
Knicks should tell OKC not to waive and stretch Melo before considering trading him back to us with Abrines and Singler offer for a package of C. Lee and Noah (and Burke if they want him) and the Charlotte 2nds. OKC can keep Lee and waive and stretch Noah over 5 vs Melo over 3. Knicks would waive (without stretching) Melo and Singler, and maybe Abrines too.
If OKC said yes then I would drive both Lee and Noah there. That being said, why would they trade Melo, who is still a useful player, for the $62 mil due to both Lee and Noah? Financially, that’s a worse salary situation to be in.
The article implied that the Thunder may release and stretch Melo, and I believe it since he’s indicated he won’t accept the role they want him to play. But it was only on that basis that exchange would work for them. One stretched contract is the same as the next. Noah’s 37/5 yrs is 7+ mm, while Melo’s 28/3 yrs is 9+ mm. The rest of it was done to match and for their benefit by taking some more dead wood and giving them a player they can actually use. They can match it differently if they like (Thomas, Baker or the minimum guys), with or without the Knicks taking the non-rotation guys. That will save them substantial tax, but they’ll still need a wing that can shoot/defend and Lee isn’t overpriced right now. I’d prefer to keep Lee all things being equal. Just can’t trade THJ.
Can you say K.Leonard to the Celtics
These comments …
Fakers got lucky. PG not worth 34m….not worth 20m…he is a choking dog. Look at the numbers….game changing shots….awful. He went for his money…and must have found a good strip club in okc. Now for that melo contract….okc is still screwed. Cleveland team better than fakers. james stays and they sign boogie in cleve?
I do like PG13, is a very good shooter & offensive player & very good defensively too, usually he tends to get even better in the playoffs, so all said I think I would rather have him over Kawhi in my team, he is a nice guy, not a quiter & never heard anyone say anything bad about him, so well done PG13, if you happy that’s what matters.
Lebron couldnt get PG to play in LA with him. Kyrie said bye bye lebrick. Only mid level has-been type veteran players who can tolerate Lebricks condescending attitude will play with him…If he was such a savant how come he did not know how many time outs Cavs had when G Hill choked his free throw. How come lebrick doesnt call TO or coach call TO.. Lebron said Trae Young is instant star in NBA if you can’t see that you dont know basketball. I am here to say Trae Young will be a NBA flop. Easy call. He stinks. Lebron failed his savant test on Trae Young and time outs in NBA finals games.. Sympathies to Coach Walton he is stuck with a bunch of egomaniacs who all think they all Superstars…Walton needs a PHD in psychiatry