Former Indiana Pacers star Paul George made headlines early in the summer when he said he plans to leave Indiana when he becomes a free agent in 2018, with the intention of joining the Los Angeles Lakers.
That led to the Pacers trading George to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, pairing the star up with the reigning NBA MVP, Russell Westbrook.
George is still set to hit free agency next summer though, and the hometown Lakers are still the favorite to land the 27-year-old, unless the Thunder could find a way to convince him to stay by competing for a championship.
A new wrinkle recently entered the fold, as The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami told Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post on his podcast, Posting Up, that both he and Marcus Thompson of The Athletic believe the reigning NBA Champion Golden State Warriors will attempt to bring George to Golden State (transcribed by Bleacher Report):
“Marcus and I have teased this for more than a year. We think they’re going to go after Paul George, somehow. I think Joe Lacob is going to try to find a way to get Paul George. I don’t know how that would happen, but I didn’t know how it was going to happen when they were—three years ago, when they said they were go after Durant. Well, they didn’t say it. But they might have whispered it.”
All of the Warriors key players are signed beyond 2018, except Kevin Durant who holds a team option but will surely re-sign, so the Warriors will not have much or any cap space to sign a player of George’s caliber.
If they want to bring in the All-Star it may have to come via trade or sign-and-trade. If George does end up in Golden State though then it wouldn’t be the first time an All-Star forward left Oklahoma City to join the Warriors, with Durant doing the same exact thing last offseason.