Paul George is having an MVP-caliber season for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and his growing chemistry with head coach Billy Donovan is a big reason for his success. Donovan initially tried to design plays to put George in specific situations, but this wasn't what PG-13 wanted.
“At times he's like, ‘Stop — just let me get it,'” Donovan said to Royce Young of ESPN. “I had to learn him. I can watch things on film and say, ‘Oh, that's a good play and he made that shot, let's run that,' but there's a lot more to it than that.”
Usually, players don't ask their coaches to run fewer plays for them. But that's exactly what George told Donovan. He wants to be able to play within the offense, which seems to be when he's at his best.
“I've always been a guy to just let the game come to me. Just play the game,” George said. “If it's a shot for me, if I can make a play, create for someone else, I'll do that. A lot of times you run a play, everybody's watching, everybody's locked in, everybody's pulling over and it just makes the game tougher for me.
“I like it when I can kind of manipulate and be on attack mode where they don't know what to do, as opposed to a play other teams [can] scout.”
This offers some explanation as to why the Thunder are having so much success this year. George's adaptive nature on offense fits well with Russell Westbrook's system of organized chaos. Oklahoma City is 17-9 and only a half game out of first place in the Western Conference. Paul George and Billy Donovan are building a strong player-coach relationship and the future is bright.
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