September 27, 2024
Dale Zanine/Imagn Images
Paul George enters his first season in Philadelphia with plenty of expectations on his shoulders.
Welcome to our Sixers player preview series! Between now and Sixers Media Day on Sep. 30, we will preview each one of the 14 players on the team's standard roster, posing two critical questions that will help determine their fate in 2024-25 before making a prediction about the player's season to come.
Today, we'll discuss the highest-profile player to change teams in the NBA this offseason: nine-time All-Star Paul George, who inked a four-year max deal with the Sixers, ending a five-year tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers. George, who has perhaps infamously never appeared in an NBA Finals, is betting on Philadelphia being the place in which he can finally get over the hump.
Sixers player previews
Jared McCain | Adem Bona | Reggie Jackson | Guerschon Yabusele | KJ Martin | Ricky Council IV | Eric Gordon | Kyle Lowry | Andre Drummond | Caleb Martin | Kelly Oubre Jr.
Whenever George's career ends, he will likely be remembered for his two-way value -- a terrific scorer who was also one of the league's premier defensive players on the wing. Playing in a day and age when most of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the NBA use defensive possessions as an opportunity to rest, George kept his pedal to the metal and consistently took on challenging defensive assignments.
Even at 34 years old with slightly diminished athleticism, George has all of the requisite ability to be a high-caliber defender in the NBA when it is required. But as he has aged, he has been forced to embrace the aforementioned mentality: guard less challenging opponents and conserve energy for the offensive end of the floor.
But how much energy will George need to conserve for offense on this Sixers team? Not only will he not be the team's primary option -- as he often was with the Clippers due to various injuries suffered by co-star Kawhi Leonard -- but he will likely not even be the team's second-highest-volume shot-taker when the group is at full health. Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey both have massive, cemented roles within Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's offense. Surely, George will take a ton of shots and be a featured member of the offense -- particularly when Embiid inevitably misses time -- but he may not have to expend as much energy as a scorer as he has become used to.
At the same time, the Sixers have the ideal defensive infrastructure in place to give George plenty of opportunities to scale back his defensive role in the regular season: with two starters in Caleb Martin and Kelly Oubre Jr. who are perfectly capable of handling high-profile defensive assignments against both guards and wings -- players who will not have nearly the same level of offensive responsibility as George -- it becomes incredibly easy to justify giving those players the bulk of the difficult defensive tasks.
Of course, when the playoffs arrive, Nurse will stick George on a star-caliber player if he believes George is the team's best option, regardless of concerns related to fatigue or stamina. But for the Sixers, the 2024-25 regular season will largely be viewed as a tune-up period before the playoffs begin.
The Sixers' perceived hole at the power forward position has been discussed ad nauseam for months, and everyone has searched for solutions. Adding at the four could certainly be something the Sixers do via trade at some point during the season. For now, Martin is expected to be the team's official starter there, with a host of players expected to compete for backup minutes at the position. But there is one obvious option that has seemingly not been discussed all that much.
Why can't the 6-foot-8, 220-pound George log some minutes at the four? The Sixers would want to avoid putting him in bruising matchups that put him at risk of taking a beating, but there are plenty of advantages to the Sixers seeing if George can slide up a position for just a handful of minutes per night.
The obvious strength of the Sixers bench is on the perimeter. Players like Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon are more reliable than power forward options such as KJ Martin, Ricky Council IV and Guerschon Yabusele. If George can handle some of the backup four minutes, it opens the door for more of Lowry and/or Gordon and less of the unproven trio of forwards. That would allow Nurse to play lineups with much more ball-handling, something he often aspires to do.
Additionally, Lowry and Gordon are both considerably better three-point shooters than KJ Martin, Council and Yabusele. So not only would George spending some time at the four enable Nurse to feature more ball-handling, it would give the Sixers vastly improved floor spacing -- perhaps elite spacing around Embiid.
George does not assume much defensive responsibility in the regular season and sees occasional minutes at power forward. More importantly, George gives the Sixers just about everything they are hoping for on the offensive end of the floor.
A lot of people have a lot of concerns about George, and that is understandable. In five years with the Clippers, his 2023-24 season was the only one in which he played more than 56 games. He will be 35 years old on May 2, 2025. He has a history of coming up short in the playoffs.
But I will take this opportunity to remind you: Paul George is so much better at basketball than Tobias Harris. And until everybody sees it with their own eyes when the Sixers take the floor for the first time, it will be underrated just how massive the discrepancy is between the Sixers' new third star and their previous albatross.
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