{"id":84022,"date":"2024-07-01T15:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=84022"},"modified":"2024-07-01T15:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:35:23","slug":"can-clippers-replace-paul-george-internally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/can-clippers-replace-paul-george-internally\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Clippers Replace Paul George Internally?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than lose him for nothing<\/a> in free agency, Los Angeles Clippers probably could\u2019ve traded Paul George<\/a> to the Golden State Warriors in a sign-and-trade for Chris Paul<\/a> and Andrew Wiggins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t want to do that, perhaps due to the hefty $30 million salary that would\u2019ve been owed to Paul. Wiggins\u2019 contract is also a head-scratcher at this point of his career. While it\u2019s nowhere near a max, when his lack of availability and on-court decline end up under the microscope, teams may not feel he\u2019s living up to his salary.<\/p>\n

With Warriors legend Klay Thompson<\/a> deciding to sign with<\/a> the Dallas Mavericks, the only other star being linked to the Clippers is DeMar DeRozan<\/a>. The California native no longer appears to be in the Chicago Bulls plans as they pivot towards a rebuild. However, unless he\u2019s willing to sign a team-friendly deal, L.A. has to acquire him is through a sign-and-trade.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, while it\u2019s possible that the Clippers bring in DeRozan to replace George, it\u2019s far from certain. As a result, Los Angeles should look at their options if they have to replace him with the players they already under contract.<\/p>\n

Can Clippers Replace Paul George Internally?<\/h2>\n

James Harden<\/h3>\n

In 2023-24, James Harden<\/a> averaged 16.6 points and 8.5 assists per game while playing the third wheel behind George and Kawhi Leonard<\/a>. Many understand this to have been a sacrifice that Harden chose to make in order to ease chemistry concerns. After all, he had already usurped Russell Westbrook<\/a> as the starting point guard. In doing so, he was then tasked with sharing the ball with two dominant feature scorers.<\/p>\n

With a career scoring average of 24.1 points per game, it may be time for Harden to get in his bag. Replacing the 22.6 points per game that they lose in George won\u2019t be easy. However, if Harden can produce more like his normal self, they\u2019ll have a much easier chance to. As he\u2019ll enter the 2023-24 season as the starting point guard, he\u2019s in a great position to call his own number.<\/p>\n

Norman Powell<\/h3>\n

If the Clippers were to move Harden up the pecking order, they have to replace a tertiary scorer in the starting lineup, rather than a primary one. In that event, they may consider promoting Norman Powell<\/a> to the starting lineup. Like Harden, Powell has also sacrificed since joining the Clippers. Indeed, he was once considered to be one of the next breakout two-way stars.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Powell, while L.A. still relied on his on-ball defense, they asked for less of his scoring. In 2021-22, the California native averaged a career-high 19.0 points per game. This wasn\u2019t an anomalous season for Powell, as he averaged 18.6 points per game the previous season. Indeed, Powell even averaged 21.4 points per game after being traded to the Clippers in 2021-22. Last season, he averaged 17.0 points per game. Even better, he shot above 39 percent from 3 in each of those seasons.<\/p>\n

Kevin Porter Jr.<\/h3>\n

The Clippers knew that Kevin Porter Jr.<\/a> would come with a lot of questions. There\u2019s no way to ignore that the young man pled guilty to assaulting his former girlfriend. However, as L.A. clearly feels comfortable enough with his checkered past to sign him<\/a>, there\u2019s no point in pretending he won\u2019t be on the floor.<\/p>\n

The last time Porter was in the NBA was 2022-23. That season, the swingman averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per game with the Houston Rockets. Dynamic, skilled, and athletic, his talent level justifies him being in a sixth man role or the starting lineup. Furthermore, as Porter was only out of the league for a season and it wasn\u2019t for an injury-related reason, there\u2019s little doubt that he can return to form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rather than lose him for nothing in free agency, Los Angeles Clippers probably could\u2019ve traded Paul George to the Golden State Warriors in a sign-and-trade for Chris Paul and Andrew Wiggins. They didn\u2019t want to do that, perhaps due to the hefty $30 million salary that would\u2019ve been owed to Paul. Wiggins\u2019 contract is also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":84070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,62],"tags":[350,444,1958,297,4557,716,50],"class_list":["post-84022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-demar-derozan","tag-james-harden","tag-kevin-porter-jr","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-offseason","tag-norman-powell","tag-paul-george"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}