Los Angeles Lakers: Paul George is not worth a max contract

The Los Angeles Lakers and Paul George have been painted as a match made in Heaven for over a year. Despite that, George is still not worth a max deal.

Paul George has been connected to his hometown Los Angeles Lakers for over a year, dating back to when he was still on the Indiana Pacers. After a season that disappointed many in Oklahoma City, the odds of George finally hitting the free agent market are extremely high.

Naturally, the Los Angeles Lakers are the favorites to land George. Not only is the connection strong, but the Lakers have opened up $61 million in practical cap space. LA is looking for stars, George is looking to win a ring. With the Lakers’ youth and cap space, that may be his best bet.

Thus, the Lakers signing George to a max deal seems inevitable. There are plenty of NBA teams that would be willing to sign George to that coveted max contract. We have seen it before in the NBA, teams get in a spending craze just to ensure they get star power on the roster.

And as great as George is and as much interest as the Lakers have seemingly shown, he is not worth that max contract.

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George has seven years of NBA experience, making him eligible for 30 percent of the total salary cap. With the NBA cap set to be $101 million next season, George can sign a four-year deal with his initial salary being $30.3 million. As the salary cap continues to rise, George’s annual salary will also rise.

This should be enough to bring in other stars. The Lakers would seemingly have enough to not only bring in another max contract but to utilize the Bird Rights on Julius Randle. However, that is not the case.

If the Lakers are after LeBron James the team physically would not have enough to sign him. Since James has been in the league for over ten years, he gets a 35 percent cut. That would amount to $35.35 million next year. After signing George, the Lakers would have $30.7 million in cap space.

This would require a pay cut from one of, or both, superstars. Which leads directly into our point: Paul George is not worth a max contract from the Lakers. Not only does giving George a max deal tie the Lakers’ hands behind their backs, George arguably is not even talented enough to deserve the deal.

George is a great player, don’t get me wrong. And while there would be plenty of foolish teams willing to offer him a max deal, it simply is not worth it.

George is a borderline all-star at best. He is not within the top-10 guys in the league and may barely crack the top-15. Heck, Victor Oladipo outplayed George in nearly every aspect last season on George’s old Indiana Pacers.

If the Lakers were to sign George he would probably play shooting guard. The problem is, of the shooting guard/small forward hybrid players, there are guys better than George that probably won’t get max deals. Oladipo, as previously mentioned, and Jimmy Butler both produce more than George.

This does not mean that the Lakers should not pursue George as he would be the perfect Robin to LeBron’s Batman. However, they should not give him max superstar money because he is not a max superstar.

In my eyes, trading for George would be the best way to acquire him. George can hang his player option over the Thunder and force a trade to LA that would allow Los Angeles to offset the contract of Luol Deng. If George is going to walk anyway, OKC would be better suited in getting something in return for him.

Next: Would trading for DeMar DeRozan make sense?

But if it does come down to signing George off of the open market, signing him for to that big contract makes no sense for the Los Angeles Lakers.

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