NBA Free Agency: Paul George reportedly informs Pacers he will leave in 2018

NBA Free Agency: Paul George reportedly informs Pacers he will leave in 2018

SB NATION

The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday Paul George’s agent informed the Indiana Pacers he will leave for preferably the Lakers next summer. This sets the stage for Danny Ainge to make his next move.

Paul George has informed the Indiana Pacers he will leave the franchise when he becomes a free agent this summer, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Woj reports that George’s agent Aaron Mintz told new Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard that while they are not requesting a trade, he plans to leave in the summer with the Lakers his preferred destination.

Although this leak likely comes from the agent or player side with the clear goal of scaring off all pursuers besides the Lakers, it opens the door for Danny Ainge and the Celtics to make a favorable trade for George. There is also the possibility that the leak could be coming from the Pacers with the goal of signaling to opposing GMs that now is the time to pounce on George if they cough up a high pick in Thursday’s draft, which has a ton of downside. It connects the dots between this weekend’s trade for multiple picks, as Indiana has weak leverage over their star after it got out that he is leaving and he wants to go to only one team. The only teams willing to pay a pick in this draft for him would be teams that think they can convince him to stay, i.e. the Celtics and Cavs.

This particular report that George is just informing the team of his plans rather than demanding a trade means he is setting the stage for Indiana to get something of value before he leaves. It is a courtesy to his franchise while forcing them to make a move, rather than burning them and becoming a villain. While George is willing to play out the season in Indiana, they will have to trade him to come away from the George era with assets with which to move forward. There isn’t much they can do this offseason to create a team that would suddenly change his mind.

George is from Southern California and can get a four-year, $130 million deal from the Lakers. Although they will have $15.6 million in cap space next summer if they clear their non-guaranteed deals and renounce free agents like Julius Randle per Bobby Marks of The Vertical, they would be willing to surrender future picks or prospects to move one of Luol Deng’s or Timofey Mozgov’s contracts to clear room for George. It would be a difficult task, but most likely feasible as the Golden State Warriors have shown multiple times.

George is angling for a deal with the Lakers this year, who can offer Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and future picks. They would not part with DeAngelo Russell, Brandon Ingram or this year’s pick, as they have enough leverage with George signaling he is heading there in free agency. This means the price drops for Boston as well.

While the Celtics have the assets to overpay for any star, they may not need to in this scenario with most other teams scared to trade for George out of fear that he will make good on his alleged commitment to go to the Lakers. Magic Johnson would max out George without question, so any team trading for George has to sell him on the promise of spending the rest of his career competing for the title. Boston can pull that off if they sign a major free agent this offseason or make another big trade.

If the Celtics are bidding against the Lakers, they may be able to get George on the cheap if the Lakers aren’t putting up a decent offer. They can build a package around one of their high picks, Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart. This gives the Pacers a building block pick to replace George, a point guard to replace free agent Jeff Teague, and a swing to replace George in the short term. Compared to the previous price Boston would have paid, this may be a fair compromise. The market may bear out that the actual price for George is much lower, considering the inherent risk of acquiring him if you’re not the Lakers.

A package like that would have to happen during the offseason and give the Celtics a window to negotiate an extension, formally or informally, like the Cleveland Cavaliers did with Kevin Love when he was traded from Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins. Because George is in the last year of his contract, he cannot do an extend-and-trade. So an agreement would have to be executed next offseason when he hits free agency and would still just be a handshake deal this year. Boston would prefer not to surrender any significant draft assets without a long-term commitment from George. It would appear the Pacers want to move George for a pick in this draft, so this may move quickly.

112288

Oh God no. Not George for our high draft picks, even if he does commit to a long term Celtics deal, which he won't.

PAUL GEORGE

There, done.

I think he ends up with the King at Cleveland next year.

George for Love and a future pick make sense for both teams.

kdp59 wrote:I think he ends up with the King at Cleveland next year.

George for Love and a future pick make sense for both teams.

Pacers want a fresh start.
They want picks.

Here:

Pacers asking teams for ideas on potential PG trades, per sources, as they have for a while. Ideally: 2 firsts+starter. Teams obv skittish.

Source: David Aldridge on Twitter

yeah no one will give them a starter and TWO firsts unless they are sure he will re-sign.

for me that means only the Lakers with MAYBE the Cav's or CLippers as secondary options.

The Cav's becasue he can play with LeBron and have a chance to beat GS next season for a title.

CLippers becasue they are in LA only, but to be honest thye have NOTHING to offer Indiana back.

If I am Magic at LA, why would I TRADE any major assets for a guy who has already said he wants to sign the following year here?

I can the Lakers offering Randle and maybe C. Brewer to the Pacers fro George. That would give the Lakers the cap space they need to take back Georges deal. But I doubt Magic would give up the #2 pick . Maybe...and it 's a BIG maybe he may if Indiana send back their #1 this year. But I seriously doubt it.

so IMO, there is not much market for George.

which is why in the end, if the Pacers want something of value a trade for K. Love makes sense for them.

kdp59 wrote:yeah no one will give them a starter and TWO firsts unless they are sure he will re-sign.

for me that means only the Lakers with MAYBE the Cav's or CLippers as secondary options.

The Cav's becasue he can play with LeBron and have a chance to beat GS next season for a title.

CLippers becasue they  are in LA only, but to be honest thye have NOTHING to offer Indiana back.

If I am Magic at LA, why would I TRADE any major assets for a guy who has already said he wants to sign the following year here?

I can the Lakers offering Randle and maybe C. Brewer to the Pacers fro George. That would give the Lakers the cap space they need to take back Georges deal. But I doubt Magic would give up the #2 pick . Maybe...and it 's a BIG maybe he may if Indiana send back their #1 this year. But I seriously doubt it.

so IMO, there is not much market for George.

which is why in the end, if the Pacers want something of value a trade for K. Love makes sense for them.

But the Pacers don't want Kevin Love.

That's why I think Boston needs to be involved to take Love so the Pacers can get the #3 pick.

Love for #3 pick in essence...I'm not sold on Love myself. But you may be right.

Like I said we'd have to renounce Amir, Jerebko and Zeller at least to get the cap space I think.

could Love and Kelly play on the same team?

This entire Paul George issue revolves around getting him to re-sign with whomever trades for him.

When a guy has already stated that he wants to go home to LA, he becomes far too big a gamble to trade for unless the Pacers are going to accept a second round pick and a copy of Red's last book.

Like him or not as a player, it is time to forget him coming to Boston.

fierce wrote:

kdp59 wrote:yeah no one will give them a starter and TWO firsts unless they are sure he will re-sign.

for me that means only the Lakers with MAYBE the Cav's or CLippers as secondary options.

The Cav's becasue he can play with LeBron and have a chance to beat GS next season for a title.

CLippers becasue they  are in LA only, but to be honest thye have NOTHING to offer Indiana back.

If I am Magic at LA, why would I TRADE any major assets for a guy who has already said he wants to sign the following year here?

I can the Lakers offering Randle and maybe C. Brewer to the Pacers fro George. That would give the Lakers the cap space they need to take back Georges deal. But I doubt Magic would give up the #2 pick . Maybe...and it 's a BIG maybe he may if Indiana send back their #1 this year. But I seriously doubt it.

so IMO, there is not much market for George.

which is why in the end, if the Pacers want something of value a trade for K. Love makes sense for them.

But the Pacers don't want Kevin Love.

That's why I think Boston needs to be involved to take Love so the Pacers can get the #3 pick.

Fierce,

I agree with you about Danny getting in the middle.

1. He wants Love, always has, and we desperately need a PF with Amir going and maybe Kelly too.
2. He could have his own draft, he has so many picks.
3. Indy wants picks and Cleveland has none to speak of.
4. Danny will not do the deal straight-up with Indy unless George agrees to a re-sign, Cleveland will.
5. Danny cannot help himself. He's a born dealer. He helped LBJ get back to Cleveland and picked up a 1st round pick, Marcus Thornton and Zeller as payment. That 1st round pick and Thornton turned into Isaiah Thomas.
6. If he can get Kevin Love in a trade, which involves shedding salaries, he can afford Gordon Hayward too. Right now he can do Hayward or Griffin, but not both. If he gets Love he doesn't need Griffin.


bob


.

hmmm...interesting ideas Bob.

you are correct that there has been rumors of Danny liking Love and of course all the rumors of Hayward.

so that's  another way to get two all-stars here.

However, Loves salary next year is $22.6M and I do not know if he has a trade kicker or not.

so the #3 pick does little ( $4-5M) to free up the space to add him in a trade.

lets start by saying renouncing AMir puts us right AT the cap.

that #3 pick traded leaves us still $17-18M short to do the deal.

renouncing Jerebko (9.5M) and cutting Zeller(8m), Just about gets us there. But figure we renounce Young also (2.8M) and we have room.

but what to do to add Hayward at something close to max?

Crowder, Bradley, Mickey and Kellys hold  frees up $24.7M.

so to get both Love and Hayward I think you  would have to do the following:

trade Bradley , Crowder and #3 pick.  ($20M or so)
Cut non guaranteed deals from Zeller and Mickey ( $9.5M)
Renounce Amir, Jerebko, Young and Kelly. ( $35.6M)

since we are around $17M over the cap with all holds and the draft pick. That would free up about $48M in cap space for Love and Hayward.

Corrected for math errors

kdp59 wrote:hmmm...interesting ideas Bob.

you are correct that there has been rumors of Danny liking Love and of course all the rumors of Hayward.

so that's  another way to get two all-stars here.

However, Loves salary next year is $22.6M and I do not know if he has a trade kicker or not.

so the #3 pick does little ( $4-5M) to free up the space to add him in a trade.

lets start by saying renouncing AMir puts us right AT the cap.

that #3 pick traded leaves us still $17-18M short to do the deal.

renouncing Jerebko (9.5M) and cutting Zeller(8m), Just about gets us there. But figure we renounce Young also (2.8M) and we have room.

but what to do to add Hayward at something close to max?

Crowder, Bradley, Mickey and Kellys hold  frees up $24.7M.

so to get both Love and Hayward I think you  would have to do the following:

trade Bradley , Crowder and #3 pick.  ($20M or so)
Cut non guaranteed deals from Zeller and Mickey ( $9.5M)
Renounce Amir, Jerebko, Young and Kelly. ( $35.6M)

since we are around $17M over the cap with all holds and the draft pick. That would free up about $48M in cap space for Love and Hayward.

Corrected for math errors

kdp,

In my #6 I said "If he can get Kevin Love in a trade, which involves shedding salaries".  Renouncing Amir, Jerebko etal is not shedding salaries, they are already shed (if Danny picks them up again those are new contracts).  Perhaps I didn't explain it well, but I implied in my statement that players currently under contract (e.g. Bradley, Crowder, etc) would have to be included. A possible variation on this might be a sign-and-trade involving Jonas and/or Kelly. That would involve adding a contract to the books and then moving it off the books immediately. That works the same, as far as getting under the cap, as having them on the books already and just trading them I think.

One of the sticky spots here is that, as someone pointed out on another thread, we won't know for sure if Hayward is coming here until the 2nd week of July.  From what we're hearing now Indy wants this all wrapped up by then (presumably so they can use any new picks in this week's draft), so timing might be a complication.


bob


.

yes Bob, I was just digging into the details a bit more to see what would be required to get that done (Love and Hayward).

it does appear possible.

also remember in the convoluted NBA salary cap rules we have " holds" on all of our Free agents (both Restricted and UFA) that are on our cap for purposes of allowing cap space.

so for instance Amir Johnson has a cap hold of 15.6M on our cap until we renounce him (cannot sign him for a full year) OR he signs somewhere else.

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/boston-celtics/cap/2017/

that link spells out each hold for the new cap year, except the first round picks (which I believe they will add once they are picked).

so yes. Amir, Jerebko, Young have zero salary next year...but their holds still weigh down our cap for signing an outside FA or making trades that has us taking on additional salary.

kdp59 wrote:yes Bob, I was just digging into the details a bit more to see what would be required to get that done (Love and Hayward).

it does appear possible.

also remember in the convoluted NBA salary cap rules we have " holds" on all of our Free agents (both Restricted and UFA) that are on our cap for purposes of allowing cap space.

so for instance Amir Johnson has a cap hold of  15.6M on our cap until we renounce him (cannot sign him for a full year) OR he signs somewhere else.

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/boston-celtics/cap/2017/

that link spells out each hold for the new cap year, except the first round picks (which I believe they will add once they are picked).

so yes. Amir, Jerebko, Young have zero salary next year...but their holds still weigh down our cap for signing an outside FA or making trades that has us taking on additional salary.

There will be no Cap holds if the Celtics renounce them.

I was against the Celtics going after Kevin Love before and I am against it now.

Yes he killed our chicken shit frontline but against the Warriors he was rendered obsolete.  Kevin love can rebound and he can score but he is slow getting up and down and cannot match up with quicker players.  The league is quickly trending to those athletics PF that can stretch the floor and get up and down.  Love is not that guy.  Plus if you did sign him you would not be able to sign another max player and still retain IT.  So you want to trade AB and Crowder and a pick or two for Kevin love?    The Celtics are very unlikely to get two max contracts players via free agency or trade if they intend to keep IT long term.  Plus if we get in the mix for this we would be helping Cleveland get even better so they can kick our ass even more.

Dboss, you are my new GM after Heckler finds me the money to buy the Celtics.

worcester wrote:Dboss, you are my new GM after Heckler finds me the money to buy the Celtics.

We live in a world where job security is ephemeral.


bob


.

what a kick in the teeth from George. I guess they knew it all along, but he has been flaunting his love for the Lakers since the season ended. Why keep him now? Get rid of him, trade him anywhere, but get rid of him. How will the fans deal with this if he takes the floor for the Pacers, it could be very ugly. Knowing he is going, how can they root for him to succeed in building his stats.

This is going to happen more and more. The NBA,, with their "great" contract, is going to have more guys jumping than ever before. This is not a good thing.

Bring back the days of loyalty and pride. These guys don't have it today

Does loyalty and pride only count in sports - while its ok to jump ship in other professions - as workers attempt to better themselves ? ( financially and otherwise )

swish

Paul George has already played 7 years for Indiana.
The Pacers are going nowhere and Paul knows it.
After 7-8 years, Paul and other free agents should be able to decide who they want to play for, as long as that team is interested in him.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:what a kick in the teeth from George. I guess they knew it all along, but he has been flaunting his love for the Lakers since the season ended.  Why keep him now? Get rid of him, trade him anywhere, but get rid of him. How will the fans deal with this if he takes the floor for the Pacers, it could be very ugly.  Knowing he is going, how can they root for him to succeed in building his stats.  

This is going to happen more and more. The NBA,, with their "great" contract, is going to have more guys jumping than ever before. This is not a good thing.

Bring back the days of loyalty and pride. These guys don't have it today

I don't blame him for wanting to leave. The thing is - he may end up on CLE or LAC and like it there. That is what the lakers are worried about

My point is, by announcing this, how can fans take him seriously this year. Who would care if he did well or not, the team is on it's way down. He has the right to go wherever but, announcing it now seems to be unfair to the fans. They all must know he was not staying.

That was not my point. oh well, just my opinion and I will move on.

Actually this helps the Pacers with their planning.

worcester wrote:Actually this helps the Pacers with their planning.

Great point.


swish

worcester wrote:Actually this helps the Pacers with their planning.

Only if they had kept it in house. Now their chances of getting a fair trade for him is in the outhouse.

gyso

good point