The battle for George has begun! 76ers Clippers Magic choose one of three? Register: Philadelphia is a hot next home

Li Xilin's basketball lore

2024-06-30 10:09Creators in the field of sports

On June 30, Beijing time, Clippers star Paul George decided not to exercise the player option worth $48.79 million for the 2024-25 season and enter the free agent market. Multiple teams, including the Clippers, will pursue George. 76 of them planned a fierce pursuit of George.

The Clippers are still George's top choice, but the Clippers' reluctance to meet George's salary cap contract requirements led to George's entry into the free agent market. According to the collective bargaining agreement, George is eligible to sign a four-year, $221 million contract with the Clippers, and can get up to four years and $212 million for joining other teams.

In other words, an important reason for George's stay is whether the Clippers give him a four-year contract with a maximum salary. According to a report from 76ers reporter Keith Pompe, the 76ers are George's favorite. The 76ers have always wanted George to join and partner with Embiid and Maxey. If George joins Philadelphia, multiple sources believe George will help the 76ers recruit quality role players and build a championship-contending team.

The last time the 76ers did that was when they poached Harden. The beard did help the 76ers recruit role players, and then the 76ers brought in Tucker, Danuel House and other players who had played with Harden with the Rockets. It's just that Harden didn't have a good time with the 76ers later, and the team finally broke up.

NBA Celebrity Chris Haynes has revealed that the 76ers are expected to make a fierce pursuit of George. The 76ers are planning again. However, there are quite a few teams that want to get George, after all, George is still an All-Star level player when he is healthy. In the 2023-24 regular season, George averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. In the playoffs, George averaged 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

In addition to the 76ers, the Magic are also an important potential next home for George. The Magic rejected Ingles' $11 million and Wagner's $8 million team options, clearing salary space and allowing them to offer a max contract.

The Magic's flaw is that the team isn't a championship contender, and it's not a big-market team. Of course, George has also said in previous interviews that he doesn't have to compete for the title. Therefore, the contract amount is still the most important.

The reason why George entered the free agent market is to see what level of contract other teams can give him, which is actually putting pressure on the Clippers to meet his four-year maximum salary contract requirements.

Clippers owner Ballmer is not short of money, but he is a businessman, and bargaining is a business process. This contract could be the last big contract of George's career, and George will try to get the best offer, and the Clippers will want to save money after all, the team still has to re-sign Harden. Of course, if the Clippers feel the pressure of other teams competing for George and end up offering a four-year, $221 million max contract, then everything is solved.

Obviously, if they were all paid the maximum salary, George would almost certainly stay with the Clippers, after all, his hometown is in Los Angeles, and his wife and children live happily in Los Angeles, so why work far from home?

The Warriors are also one of George's suitors, and the relationship between the Warriors and Thompson has broken down, and Thompson may leave the Warriors. And Thompson has also become one of the targets pursued by the Clippers. If the Clippers can't keep George, bringing in Thompson is an option. The Warriors may seek to trade George with Tom as a bargaining chip. But the Clippers need to weigh the pros and cons. However, Charania said that Warriors management is eager to improve the poor talent of the role players around Curry, and they have been exploring the trade market for the past few weeks, including the pursuit of George, who is about to become a free agent, and the Warriors already know that this pursuit of George is out of play.

It's likely that George didn't want to go to the Warriors too much. After all, the Warriors have gone downhill, and Durant went to the Warriors that year, and although he won two championships, he was still considered an "outsider" by the dream, so that Durant lacked a sense of belonging and finally left the Warriors. Such a precedent is that as long as the dream is still in the Warriors, then other star players will carefully consider the choice of going to the Warriors.

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