A hot topic around the league over the last week has centered around Paul George's future with the Indiana Pacers.
All of this conversation has now spewed over to other teams in the league potentially expressing interest in the All-Star forward. In light of that, Portland Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard recently retweeted a tweet sent out by a fan pushing for George to join the franchise.
The Trail Blazers would be quite an intriguing landing spot for George with the chance to possibly join forces alongside Lillard and C.J. McCollum. His addition would potentially propel them up into the rankings as one of the top teams in the Western Conference. However, there could be much shuffling of their roster in order to even truly gauge the interest of Portland in trade talks that may require them to include McCollum in the discussion.
Although the Trail Blazers sound like an appealing destination, there doesn't appear to be much push on this front to get something done. In fact, the Los Angeles Lakers have continued to be talked about as the most likely landing spot for him given his believed strong interest in playing for his hometown team that has only grown louder with each passing week.
The conversation around the Pacers' hopes of retaining him has grown after it was revealed that he didn't make it to any of the All-NBA teams for this past regular season. This now makes him ineligible to receive a max contract worth $210 million over five years because he failed to meet the criteria for the new “designated player” rule under new CBA. The list of requisites to be able to receive that type of offer are earning an NBA MVP, NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and any of the All-NBA teams.
George can now only receive a max contract of five years worth $177 million, while other teams can offer him a four-year, $132 million contract in free agency. All of this should lead to an interesting offseason for the Pacers.
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