For more than a year, the Los Angeles Lakers have targeted Paul George as part of a free agent class in 2018 that they hope can turn around their moribund franchise.
So they couldn’t have loved the comments George — who currently plays for Oklahoma City — made to ESPN ahead of Wednesday night’s Lakers-Thunder game.
“I’ve got a lot to think about,” George said. “This summer will be huge. I’ve got a lot to think about. If we’re trending, if we’re going in the right direction, if I feel there is something that we’re building, and there’s a foundation, it would be kind of clueless, just stupid on my behalf to up and leave.
“I’m very conscious that we’re only together for a year so far, and we continue to go in an upward trend. It’s best to stick with what we have and work on building. So, I wouldn’t say it’s championship or bust, or championship and I’m out. It’s all about building. If I like where we’re building or the level that we’re going at, it would be stupid to walk away from that.”
Those comments, and the Thunder’s dominant 133-96 victory, make the chances of the Lakers pulling off that free agent coup look far slimmer than they’d like.
The Lakers still seem to believe they are one of the dominant franchises in basketball. Instead, they are the second-worst team in the NBA over the past four years, posting a dreadful 91-237 record. Only the Philadelphia 76ers (75-253) have been worse.
The difference? Philadelphia has a pair of young players — Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons — with whom stars would like to play. The Lakers, on the other hand, have some intriguing young players — Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma — but none is yet the kind of talent that would draw in a star such as George.
That certainly didn’t change Wednesday night, as George, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony combined for 65 points as the Thunder obliterated the Lakers for their eighth win in 11 games, and their 13th in their past 18. The Lakers, meanwhile, have lost 11 of 12, had a team meeting last week and are now the second-worst team in the NBA. Kuzma ripped his own team after the latest loss, saying they “flat-out gave up.” Needless to say, the team that is “trending” in the right direction is the Thunder.
“I think we’ve just started to accept what each of our roles will be on this team, and our roles in our previous teams won’t be the same,” Anthony said in an interview on “SportsCenter” early Thursday morning. “Once we figured that out and accepted that, we’ve started to play much better basketball and guys are more comfortable out there and it’s a lot more fun when you play like that.”
Now for the obvious qualifier: It’s early January, a full six months before George has to make his choice. But today, the Thunder should feel better about where they stand in the race than they did before getting to Los Angeles.
