The Paul George Discussion

Somethin's a'brewin.

Good morning! The draft is tomorrow! Things are happening! Let’s get to it…

News & Notes

🏀 As was widely expected (and as first reported by Fred Katz), OG Anunoby opted out of his $19.9 million player option and is set to enter free agency on June 30.

That is, of course, unless the Knicks can agree to a new deal with him before then.

On that front, Michael Scotto reported yesterday that despite being “low-balled” by the Knicks in their initial offers and having his market value increase a bit since the trade to New York, “the Knicks remain the favorite to keep Anunoby this summer in the eyes of rival executives” and that “New York remains committed to re-signing Anunoby.” Katz also added on his pod that he expects the Knicks “to go to whatever lengths they need to retain” their starting small forward.

We shall see what today brings.

🏀 Also per Scotto, the Knicks are “expected to offer Isaiah Hartenstein the full four-year, $72 million maximum deal at their disposal.” At this point, I’d be shocked if they didn’t.

Should New York lose I-Hart or trade Mitchell Robinson, Scotto mentions Goga Bitadze, Jonas Valanciunas, Nick Richards and Andre Drummond as lower cost centers to keep an eye on.

🏀 And finally, on today’s episode of “As the Paul Turns,” Marc Stein gave us his latest intel on the Clippers’ (maybe) erstwhile star:

“There is a growing feeling leaguewide that the 34-year-old picking up his $48.8 million player option for next season to force the Clippers to trade him is an increasingly realistic scenario after months of fruitless contract extension negotiations between the parties. The Clippers appear unwilling to offer a richer deal to George than Kawhi Leonard received in January ($150 million-ish over three seasons) and that has encouraged teams out there to make trade pitches for the All-NBA swingman. Free agency officially begins Sunday at 6 PM ET; we very well could see this PG-13 movie play out by then.

I'm pretty sure that the Warriors are as interested in George as the Knicks — maybe more.”

Stein goes on to name New York as one of his “teams to watch” this week. On the George front, Brian Windhorst also chimed in yesterday that George opting in and forcing a trade is becoming more realistic by the day, and that the situation could come to a head within the next few days.

On that note…

The Paul George Discussion

We open today’s feature section with a question from Allen Holt, who is trying to get creative when it comes to a particular offseason upgrade: