The countdown to Paul George's departure has begun, depending on whether to go to the Warriors or Philadelphia, or a three-way trade such as trading DeRozan with the Bulls, who has been seen by the Clippers as George's replacement. As for the probability of staying with the Clippers, Frank, president of basketball operations of the Clippers, was interviewed by reporters today. He made it clear when he talked about George, with Frank saying that the Clippers really wanted to keep George, and they liked George. However, Frank changed his tone and said that he also understood that this was business.
Frank bluntly said that the Clippers understand George very well, and it is normal for players to want to make a lot of money, and they will instinctively pursue the contract they want, so the Clippers can accept any outcome. Everyone understands what Frank means, and if George stays, Frank won't do anything more to understand that this is business. Instead, he will directly say that he likes George, and the Clippers will do their best to keep him, and Frank doesn't even want to pretend.
The Clippers can't satisfy George's four-year, $221 million contract, and now it may be the Warriors who want to satisfy George. They are rich, but the Clippers are not necessarily satisfied with the chips the Warriors give. If you want to match, the Warriors will provide Paul + Wiggins and a first-round pick. Among them, Paul's annual salary in the last year is 30 million, and the Clippers really don't want Paul. What the Clippers want most is Wiggins, Moody and Kuminga Looney are directly hollowed out, but the Warriors will not be out of Kuminga.
It depends on how the two sides coordinate, at least for now, George's optimal strategy is to execute the player option and request a trade. That would get him the contract he wants, and the Warriors don't plan to re-sign Thompson. He wants to replace Thompson with George and form the base of Curry, George and Dream Green. But the Clippers' primary target is James Harden at the moment, there's no doubt about it. Compared to the eviction order for George, the Clippers president's attitude towards Harden is completely different, and he has a bit of a meaning of begging Harden to stay.
Frank said: We want to keep Harden, we really want to keep him. The team has been in productive talks with Silverman and Troy, Harden's agent. I think we have the confidence to keep Harden because he's an important player for us. I hope Harden continues to have a great journey here. I really hope Harden will make the decision to stay here. I know he's still on the sidelines, but we've shown Harden that we want to keep him, so I hope Harden will do the same! ”
Now it's not a question of how much money the Clippers give Harden, but whether Harden wants to stay. Until the question of George's stay is resolved, Harden will wait and see. This is the news revealed by a number of American media, that is, how the Clippers can build a team that Harden trusts in the offseason, which is the key to deciding whether to renew the contract. The Clippers also have no choice, and the team wants Harden to play in the regular season and keep the basic handicap for the playoffs. In particular, Leonard's fragile knee injury forced the Clippers to go all out to keep Harden.
Frank brought bad news when talking about Leonard's injury, Frank said that Leonard didn't have any structural damage to his knee, but rather an inflammation problem. His long-term injury caused the inflammation of his knee to become more and more severe. So Kazi's inability to play against the Mavericks is not due to injury, but to a random outbreak of inflammation. This is even more disappointing than Leonard's real knee injury, which means that Leonard's inflammation is like a bomb from time to time, and it doesn't know when it will explode. Even if you are playing healthy today, you will wake up tomorrow and the inflammation will come. So Harden needs to think about whether to continue to take risks with Leonard or join a team. Leonard also has no way back, if Harden leaves, who will help him through the regular season? Coupled with the recent close proximity of Harden and Durant, what do the two sides want to do?