Today, the Clippers revealed another exciting news, Paul George jumped out of the $48.7 million player option and became a complete free agent! This means that the Warriors have no chance to get him, and here for the Warriors to shed tears for three minutes, the team has been ready to get George, Wiggins and Paul are ready to trade! I didn't expect George to come out like this suddenly! So what are the consequences of George's decision?
The first point: the initiative to sign the contract is completely in your own hands!
Now that George is a free agent, he can listen to the free market offer of him, and three teams are reported to have actually approached him now, including the Clippers, 76ers and Magic! George now wholeheartedly wants a 3-year contract with a maximum salary of about 150 million, and before the Clippers thought that he was not worth the maximum salary contract, the two sides have been deadlocked, and now George chooses to jump out of the option for next season, then the pressure is completely on the side of the Clippers, if he lets George go, it will cause the team to lose a superstar for nothing, and the most terrible thing is that George's $48.7 million will also be counted into their salary cap next season! This is obviously unacceptable, so George became a free agent in order to negotiate with the Clippers for himself! In other words, the Clippers won't let him go! The losses are too severe!
The second point: the Clippers are not a rebuilding team, and they will definitely not allow George to leave and occupy 4870w of salary space!
If the Clippers decide to mess up now, then it doesn't matter if George is gone, but the reality is that Wei Shao decided to exercise the player option and stay with the Clippers next season, and the contract renewal negotiations with Harden are also going well, and with Wei Shao staying on the team, Harden's contract extension is only a matter of time! Then the problem comes, seeing that this shows that the goal of the Clippers next season is definitely to win the championship, and it will not be rotten, and the only way out for the Clippers to do this is to re-sign him! George's main purpose in taking this step is to take control in his own hands, and the choice is left to Ballmer to see if he has the courage, obviously the 76ers and the Magic are just a rocker for George and the Clippers to negotiate! Once these two teams are offered 3 years or even more 4 years of maximum salary contracts, then George will inevitably have nothing to fear, and the Clippers can only match! Otherwise, do you want to rely on Wei Shao + Harden + Leonard to compete for the championship? Even if Leonard doesn't care, can Harden and Wei Shao endure it? Their only goal in their careers so far is to win the championship!
Speaking of which, the problem is clear, which means that matching the offers of other teams to George has become the only option for the Clippers!
The third point: Is this the plan of Wei Shao and George? Forcing Ballmer to trade Leonard?
From 19 years to now, it has been proven that Leonard has lacked the necessary competitiveness to compete for the championship! It can be seen from Harden, Westbrook, and George's many speeches after the playoffs that they are not very satisfied with Leonard's injury in their hearts! So here's the problem, the news that the Clippers exposed before was all related to the departure of the three of them, and they never said that they would send Leonard away! So why is it now that all indications show that 99% of these three people will stay in the team! The three of them worked together to force Leonard out of this way? Forced Ballmer to change his mind? Sending Leonard away in exchange for another giant, while leaving Wei Shao, Harden, and George is his ultimate goal? In other words, George jumped out of the contract to kill four birds with one stone, got the highest salary long-term contract, retained the opportunity to rush to the championship, kicked away Leonard, who did not have the heart to compete for the championship, and at the same time will usher in a new super teammate! Ballmer's next move will be interesting, so let's wait and see!
There are only a handful of players in the league who can replace Leonard alone, and Durant is the biggest potential target excluding the team's non-trade goods! I can't imagine it, the three young Thunderers have to reunite with the Clippers?