The Los Angeles Lakers will surely be pursuing free agent to be Paul George. However, he recently praised his teammate Russell Westbrook.
Now that Paul George has been eliminated from the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers will certainly be eying him this summer. Last offseason, the Lakers reportedly tried to trade for George after it became public news that he was not going to be signing with the Indiana Pacers. Also, reports came out that he wanted to play for the Lakers.
The Pacers ended up trading George to the Oklahoma City Thunder, which instantly gave them big expectations for the season. After losing to the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs, the first season for George with the Thunder has to be considered a failure.
Since the Thunder fell short of their expectations, it likely has increased the chances of George possibly leaving as a free agent. Since the upside of the Thunder seems rather limited at this point, George could decide to seriously test the waters of free agency.
Despite the disappointing season for the Thunder, George did praise Russell Westbrook as being one of the best teammates that he has ever had.
Paul George on Russell Westbrook: "He's one of the best teammates I've had by far. I've learned a lot from him."
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) April 28, 2018
Since Westbrook is one of the best players in the league, that will certainly help the chances of him being able to convince George to stay. Westbrook brings 110 percent effort every night, and that certainly has to be a pleasure to play with.
There are a lot of things that go into making a big decision like George has to make, as many don’t factor in how much family plays a part in what a player does. However, the Lakers currently don’t have an MVP-caliber player like the Thunder do in Westbrook.
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Even though they didn’t reach their goals together this season, George might see ways for the team to improve moving forward. With free agency still a few months away, we will have to wait and see what happens with George this offseason.