YOU WANT TO BE IN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE! – Windy on Paul George’s play options | First Take

YOU WANT TO BE IN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE! – Windy on Paul George’s play options | First Take

obviously free agencies right around the corner June 30th about 10 days away and one Allstar who has options that’d be Paul George arguably the biggest free agent on the market this summer he’s unrestricted and can go to any team that has the resources to add him either via cap space or a sign in trade with the Clippers if George makes it clear he’s going to leave anyway here’s PG-13 on what he wants for sure contributing to winning basketball um but I mean at this point I’m not even necessarily like it’s not even about like you know people saying chasing a championship like it’s not that but it’s playing the right style of basketball interesting not about chasing a championship the right style of basketball the right fit okay raising some eyebrows which team would give him the best shot at a title though would you go Clippers stay put MH Philly mhm who we know is going to make some moves or the Knicks uh I have been intrigued into last season about the idea of Paul George in a Knicks uniform okay I’m not 100% sure what it looks like in terms of the roster I also would very much like to see this Knicks team be whole and healthy as currently constructed right but to me if he were to join that roster jumps off the page second best right one a 1B in terms of the ability to score get a basket off the bounce create for himself create for others right immediately jumps into that hierarchy I think jayen Brunson is one of the best point guards in the league I think plenty of guys would love to play alongside of him and the misnomer I think is that he has to be ball dominant I don’t think Jaylen Brunson has to do that he’s going to play whichever way we need to play to be the most successful that’s what this year demanded in the absence of guys due to inj injury so to me the George thing in New York is very very you think he works in the system you think he works with tibs because obviously he alluded to that I do and and you’re right Molly because I think what tibs has built in terms of the culture in New York is something that has to be delicately protected like we sat up here at down the postseason and holled about minutes but the minut things is he has guys that want to play they want to compete at a high level he’s always prepared I think that on both sides of the ball Paul George fits what um head coach Tom Tibido does so that to me is probably the most intriguing yeah in 20 years with the heat you know all about how important culture is yes UD where would you go where’s the right F go to Philly if I’m Paul George I mean I have a vision of Paul George coming off a pick and roll with mbid to his right hand which he is lethal to his right hand and if you don’t guard it right you can throw it back to embiid embiid could dump it in the post of Paul George M be could be the space guy and Paul George could go to work also know that Philly was 25th in catch and shoot threes last year Paul George knocked down 152 of them things at a 45% clip so he can definitely help that team if he wants to win cuz I know he say he ain’t ring chasing that’s a damn lie you everybody everybody ring chasing yeah damn lie ring chasing about damn lie you want a ring and you ain’t got one especially coming from where you coming from you’re going to have to go to the east you ain’t going to get one out west the Thundercats are getting better they getting stronger Wendy before I come to you I’m just curious as a player UD do you feel like there might be trepidation from other players to join Philly and Joel EMB just because of all the health issues with Joel like if he can stay healthy I mean yeah who wouldn’t want to play with a healthy Joel and no I’m saying do you think the players are scared to go because he hasn’t been able to really stay healthy that’s concern I will say this Joel andb got to work on his habits if you talking about winning a championship and you want to bring guys to Philly and you want to be the leader of that organization if you’re going to lead guys are going to follow and you can’t leave with bad habits so yes there is a question about Jo mbid conditioning there’s questions about Jo mbid habits but if you’re a guy like Paul George and you have the talent and you can create a big three that can match the Boston big three you have to come and have those conversations with Jo and some has to have those face to authentic conversations with Jo and and then we’re going to find out how great Jo and wants to be because we know how great he can be we know how great he is now but how great does he really want to be so you think there’s kind of a Luca situation with Joel embiid as well but he he a little more mature LCA 25 so there’s a difference in age I give Luca that excuse I don’t give Joel embiid the same excuse he’s been in the league long enough to understand that he needs to change his habits as some point he has to make the decision it can’t be the coaching staff it can’t be the guys around you jmb has to make the decision to change certain habits I think his health issues come back to his conditioning I think he comes in with better conditioning he can sustain a longer he can sustain a full season and then stop having so many niick nagging injuries really interesting Wendy okay so I could probably write a book on this topic let everything that Monica and uh and UD said especially because I actually think that comment from Paul about fit that certainly raised some antenna because that was a very f even more than the championship one and and UD just broke down how the fit and Philly actually makes some sense first I want to talk about the Knicks and I want to point something out these are not equal the Clippers can sign Paul George to any contract they want they have his rights the Philadelphia 76ers have Max cap space they can sign him to whatever contract they want the Knicks would have to execute a trade for Paul George and Paul George um you know the to make that happen Paul George would have to direct the Clippers to trade him to the Nick to the Knicks that’s complicated there’s a couple of different factors in there it’s definitely doable but when you look at this you have to understand that that if you’re you’re en visioning adding him to the Knicks it’s not just plug and play you’d have to be taking some pieces off of the Knicks but the Knicks are more able to to make a big trade that any team in the league right now any competitive team in the league because of their assets and their draft Mi okay once we have that understood now when you’re looking at the East I think UD is right on here if you’re looking at the the landscape you want to be in the Eastern Conference it’s a much easier Road in the Eastern Conference to the finals than it is in the west if that’s truly a factor that’s got to be included okay now if you pick these you got a big problem that’s the Boston Celtics how do you beat the Boston Celtics well right off the bat I’m going to tell you you’re going to need offense because this team scores Dallas didn’t crack a 100 in four of the five games all four games they lost they didn’t crack a 100 they got to have more offense you got to have more offense so that so Paul George is an offensive player but you got to think about the team the second thing is you’ve got to have wing Defenders how are you going to deal with Tatum and brown well if you’re the Knicks you have o anobi there he is an unrestricted free agent so if you’re Paul George and you’re considering the Knicks you got to be saying you got to get OG done I’m not a replacement for OG anobi I’m coming in alongside OG anobi now as far as fit goes UD just made a great point about how Maxi can work so well with Paul George playing on or off the ball Maxi grew up playing alongside James Harden the last few years prior to this year he can do that Paul likes to have the ball a little bit Jaylen Brunson is a ball pounder he dominates the ball so I’m not saying he can’t he played alongside Luca there’s no doubt he can go back to that role but you’d have to be comfortable that he would want to do that so all of those things to to me the answer this question is the next but before we go go on I want to talk about the Clippers real quick the Clippers are doing something very fascinating right now and I don’t fully understand what what it is you do not need to be an NBA Insider to realize that Paul George has options out there as a free agent and and I and I want to say if because he doesn’t necessarily have to be a free agent he has an option in his contract and I think if he wanted to be traded somewhere he could use that as an optin and trade but that’s a different topic we know that the 76ers are interested this is not a mystery we know there’s other teams that would be interested including like maybe the Orlando Magic there isn’t a doubt right now that sometimes a player says Hey I want a certain number and you’re like well where are you getting that number it’s just a posture Paul George doesn’t have to posture he has legitimate other offers and yet here he is still a free agent why he’s from La he’s he wants to be a Clipper he has extended with them in the past they they they were last year before J before kawhai got hurt again as as formidable as a team in the Western Conference there was a time where we thought they were a a finalist favorite when they were healthy why why have they not made that offer they know he’s got other options and the what we’re led to believe is that the offer that they made to Kawai which was 3 years and 150 million by the way it’s not just the annual money it’s also the years if I’m 35-year-old Paul George I want five years from the Clippers I’m eligible to get five years I want all five or at least four why aren’t they doing that they have to know that he can walk on them for nothing so why so that’s and then and also when it comes to the Clippers James Harden is sitting there James Harden is a free agent at the end of the month okay what about Harden if if Paul George walks you could let Harden walk and start your half your team over you’d be a cap space team they have multiple options the Clippers could still sign Paul George on July 1st they could sign Paul George this afternoon but the fact that they are not seemingly reacting to what his Market clearly is is something to pay attention to it’s a bit of a fascinating development [Music]

On First Take, Monica McNutt, Brian Windhorst and Udonis Haslem join Molly Qerim to discuss the best spot for Paul George to win a title: Clippers, 76ers or Knicks?

0:00 Paul George’s play options
2:00 76ers, Clippers or Knicks?
6:00 Offseason plans

✔️Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV