NBA Rumors: Can the Golden State Warriors Land Paul George Too?
George is set to become a free agent after the 2017-18 NBA season
The Golden State Warriors are fresh off one of the most dominant single-season campaigns in NBA history by hardly breaking a sweat through the regular season and dropping just one game during the playoffs en route to winning their second title in three years. And now, a new rumor is hinting that the 2018-19 edition of the team could be even more star-studded.
Recently, Tim Kawakami of the Athletic chatted with Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post about a number of topics, including what the Warriors may have in mind for next summer.
As NBA fans know, Paul George, a current member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, is going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2017-18 season. Given his status, there will likely be many teams going after him.
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The expectation currently is that George will end up signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, but other teams will likely not just give up on trying to add him as well, and the Warriors may even be one of those teams, according to Kawakami.
Now, Kawakami does note that this remains just a thought right now and there is no official plan in place for the Warriors' pursuit of George.
Still, from a basketball perspective, it is easy to see why the Warriors may want to add another athletic playmaker to the team. But can they actually do so?
As a recent article from Bleacher Report pointed out, the Warriors may need to put together a trade of some kind if they want George, as just signing him directly in free agency may prove impossible to a team already paying big bucks to Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
That could be the reason why the Warriors will ultimately prove unable to acquire George.
The Warriors have a special group of players, ones that have already sacrificed dollars and playing time in pursuit of championships. Trading important parts of the team for a better player may improve the team on paper, but chemistry-wise, the on-court product may suffer.
Adding George to the Warriors could turn a juggernaut into a truly unbeatable team, but the good news for fans of other teams, is that this seems unlikely to happen, at least for now.
