Holy Shit They Really Got Paul George
Zo is still in disbelief about last weekend.
I would have talked myself into anything or anybody. Jimmy Butler, Brandon Ingram, some iteration of guys considered royalty of the role player world, absolutely. That’s my game, I been at this Process shit for a decade, I’m sick, wired that way. Donovan Mitchell was never coming, LeBron neither — but I even left myself a tiny speck of hope for them too. The only one I didn’t really bank was Paul George. I didn’t think the Los Angeles kid, the guy who worked so hard to make it all the way back home, would even dare consider leaving.
First he opted out of his deal, officially becomes a free agent, and made things a three-way race (fuck off Steph and Draymond), The smoke clouds got bigger and bigger and the whispers of discontent and disrespect swirled and next thing you know, the “the two sides remain far apart and haven’t spoken” tweet hits. Not out of the ordinary though, happens all the time — but then, a tweet that the Sixers are a legit threat. Then, the only other team with enough cap space just signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. And then, a weird statement from the Clippers basically saying everyone tried but the shit won’t work, so Paul George is walking for nothing.
The night passes, Josh Harris & Dr. Jay land safely — and the next morning as you’re dumping your pre-workout at 4:00 a.m. you get the notification of a lifetime.
I’m ecstatic — and YOU should be too. It’s so hard to win in this league, and if you’re going to do it consistently and on a very high level, you need guys. And Nick Nurse now has three of the best in the whole league to go to battle with in a few months.
They still need a power forward — and outside of the Caleb Martin/Dorian-Finney Smith house, that may be positioned by committee for a bit. But things move so fast and Morey and crew still have a bit of coin to get creative with if they absolutely insist on doing so.
I’m also hopeful for a Kyle Lowry reunion — and lastly, maybe one good look at a guy like Dennis Smith Jr. who has his offensive warts but has turned himself into a damn good defensive guard.
In case you lost count, I predicted they’d trade one if not both of their draft picks and that Brandon Ingram was probably the most likely newest Sixer. 0 out of 2 ain't bad! That's show business, baby.
But in this instance, I’m happy I’m wrong. I’m happy Embiid and Maxey have their running mate. I’m happy Tobias Harris can’t hurt me anymore.
