Los Angeles Lakers: Paul George praises the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers would love to sign Paul George this offseason. However, there is no guarantee he will leave the Thunder.

After Paul George was eliminated from the NBA Playoffs, the rumors of him coming to the Los Angeles Lakers started to swirl even more. Since it was a disappointing season for the Thunder, many believe that George will be testing the waters of free agency, and ultimately leave the Thunder.

While George will almost surely decline his player option and become a free agent, that doesn’t mean that he will be leaving the Thunder. With an MVP-caliber player in Russell Westbrook, the Thunder have something to offer that many other teams cant. Most NBA players want to play with at least one other star, and the Thunder certainly have that in Westbrook.

After the loss to the Utah Jazz, George recently spoke about this upcoming summer. Here’s what he had to say via the Oklahoman, with text from Matthew Moreno of LakersNation.com.

"“I haven’t been in the position to be in a free agent or know what it’s like to have the chance to go where you want to go. That’s always been I feel players, they want that option. Then you get into an organization where they kind of check all the boxes of what you want out of an organization, and immediately they become a candidate where you want to play long-term. That’s been the case here. They honestly checked the boxes where I needed those boxes to be checked. From what a player wants and needs out of a front office, from medical group, out of teammates, out of coaching staff, honestly, I can’t say it any more than that. They checked the boxes.”"

As you can see, George talks very highly of the Thunder franchise from top to bottom. Even though they might not have reached some of their goals and expectations this season, George appeared to have enjoyed his time with the team.

While he might like the franchise a lot, he will have the opportunity to see what other teams have to offer. For Los Angeles, they will be able to make an appealing pitch to George, as they have one of the best young cores in the NBA. In addition to that, the additional cap space to add another star could make the Lakers one of the top teams in the Western Conference depending on who it is.

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The Lakers have positioned themselves nicely to be able to sign George. However, they will have to do a very good job selling him on the vision that the franchise has moving forward.