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After five topsy-turvy seasons, Paul George decided to leave the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency and sign a four-year, $212 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. For a while, it seemed as though George was merely biding his time in signing a new contract with the Clippers franchise that he has foreseen himself retiring with, but the negotiations were clearly more fraught than initially thought until it was clear that the two sides had irreconcilable differences.
In the latest episode of Podcast P with Paul George presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, the new 76ers star clarified that he “never wanted to leave LA”. George's goal, as he said, was to be there in LA and be “committed”. However, the 34-year-old two-way wing said that the Clippers “first initial” contract extension offer was worth just $60 million over three years, which he perceived to be a “disrespectful” one to put on the table.
The tension in negotiations snowballed from there, according to Paul George; he clarified that he “caught wind” of the Clippers' offer for Kawhi Leonard and told them that he would want the deal his superstar running mate got. After all, George said, the Clippers “view them the same”. However, at the time of Leonard's agreement with the Clippers on a three-year extension, George was being offered less than the $152.4 million Leonard got.
The two sides tabled negotiations from there until the end of the 2023-24 season. They decided to pick negotiations up following the Clippers' first-round exit against the Dallas Mavericks, and George finally received an offer worthy of consideration. A three-year, $150 million extension was finally on the table. George, however, said that he had one more condition: he wanted a no-trade clause.
The no-trade clause was meant to give Paul George some sense of security; he may not get the deal Kawhi Leonard received, but he at least would know that the Clippers franchise was committed to him. When the Clippers wouldn't give him his desired no-trade clause, that was when George asked for a four-year, $212 million contract. That proved to be a bridge too far for the Clippers.
“They didn't want to do no trade. They didn't want to do that so then I'm like, all right, well then it only makes sense for me to do four years, 212 [million]. At least pay me my money,” George said. “They didn’t want to do that, so now I was like I'm open to entertaining what's out there. … It was just a stalemate. We came to a stale[mate] and ultimately it was like, alright, that ship has sailed.”
PG details how contract negotiations with the Clippers affected his decision to leave LA. pic.twitter.com/PU3Z5gZ94z
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) July 8, 2024
The Clippers' Kawhi Leonard and Paul George era ends on a whimper
In the end, despite Paul George's disappointing overall performance in the 2024 NBA playoffs, he believes that he did enough for the Clippers to continue showing faith in him. George may be responsible for a lot of low points in the Clippers' past five seasons, but they wouldn't be in a position to attract such high expectations if he wasn't there in the first place.
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Kawhi Leonard may be the team's defining superstar. But between Leonard and George, the latter has certainly been the more available player for the Clippers, which is a big reason why George believes he contributed enough to justify his contract demands.
“I thought I played, played well enough for them to be like, ‘You know what? He's a part of our future.’ I thought I did that. I thought I earned that. Granted, we didn't win while I was there, but luck has a lot to do with that. We couldn't remain healthy as a unit, but I thought I did enough to earn that,” George said.
“I love Steve [Ballmer], I love Lawrence [Frank], but at that point it didn't even feel right to come back with that type of energy and be comfortable playing back in LA. Steve is a good dude. I love Steve as an owner, one of the best owners that I played for. But it's a business. I won't take nobody's word if they can't put it in writing, right?”
Did Paul George do enough to “earn” a new huge contract with the Clippers? It depends on how one looks at the circumstances. For one, George will always have 2021 to hang his hat on. He stepped up in the absence of Leonard; at one point in the Western Conference Finals, he was leading the playoffs in minutes played and points scored. No Clippers fan would forget his epic Game 5 performances against the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns anytime soon.
The 2021-22 season was always going to be a lost one for the Clippers, what with Leonard missing its entirety with a torn ACL. George did not help matters when he suffered through an elbow injury that limited him to just 31 games that season. And then in 2023, George was very unlucky when he sprained his knee in a collision with Luguentz Dort. Nonetheless, it's difficult to hold those injuries against George.
However, the 2024 NBA playoffs looked like the final straw for Paul George in a Clippers uniform. He was not able to channel his 2021 playoff self; outside of his heroics in Game 4 against the Mavericks, George averaged 16.8 points on 36.8 percent shooting — ghastly numbers especially when the team needs him the most. He may have been healthy, but he underperformed — causing the entire Clippers fanbase to turn on him. This version of George was more reminiscent of the one fans saw in the 2020 bubble.
It became evident that the Clippers no longer saw that core as something worth exceeding the second tax apron for. While George's departure after just five seasons is a disaster due to how much they gave up for his services, LA can at least look toward the future and approach it with greater financial flexibility — something that would have been difficult had they given George his desired contract.
Still, the biggest factor for the Clippers' hopes of mounting a deep playoff run moving forward will be health. Can Kawhi Leonard finally have another healthy playoff run, especially when he's set to play for Team USA in this year's Olympic Games in Paris?
