Is "Playoff P" the Answer for Philadelphia's Postseason Woes?
Paul George expected the L.A. Clippers to give him the same contract terms that Kawhi Leonard earned, and after the Clippers declined to do so George signed a maximum contract with the 76ers that will pay George $212 million over the next four seasons. Leonard won two NBA Finals MVPs while leading two different teams to NBA championships (2014 San Antonio Spurs, 2019 Toronto Raptors), but George has never reached the NBA Finals, owns an 8-11 career playoff series record, and has a .423 career playoff field goal percentage, so George is the only person surprised that the Clippers do not value him as highly as they value Leonard.
George is a 34 year old shooting guard who has played in more than 60 regular season games just once since 2019; granted, his most durable season during that time frame was last season (74 games), but is it reasonable to assume that an injury-prone player is going to become less injury-prone in his mid to late 30s? The 76ers are wagering more than $200 million that between the ages of 34 and 38 George will be healthier than ever and that he will be more efficient in the playoffs than ever. George dubbed himself "Playoff P," but that is a self-proclaimed belief as opposed to a performance-based tribute. James Harden's 2024 playoff disappearing act with the Clippers should not obscure the reality that "Playoff P" also came up short as the Clippers lost 4-2 in the first round to the Dallas Mavericks, culminating in horrific shooting performances in game five (4-13, .308) and game six (6-18, .333).
The 76ers are desperate to provide more help for Joel Embiid, their injury-prone star who received the 2023 regular season MVP award but has yet to play in more than 68 games in a regular season or lead his squad past the second round of the playoffs. Embiid's regular season career field goal percentage is .504, but his playoff career field goal percentage is just .459. He shot better than .490 from the field once in his seven postseason appearances. Embiid's resume indicates that he is not healthy enough, consistent enough, or dominant enough to lead a team on a long playoff run.
On paper, the George acquisition improves the 76ers by adding defensive versatility, playmaking, and perimeter scoring, but the reality will likely turn out to be that when the chips are down Embiid and George will be injured, inefficient, or both. The 76ers will have to reply heavily on Tyrese Maxey, who averaged 29.8 ppg on .478 field goal shooting in the 2024 playoffs, to save the day for Embiid and George.
The 76ers have demonstrably not "tanked to the top"--unless you believe that the second round of the playoffs is "the top," because that is the farthest that the 76ers have advanced in the playoffs since beginning the infamous "Process" 11 years ago during Sam Hinkie's reign of error. Daryl Morey became the 76ers' president of basketball operations in 2020, and he has yet to succeed where his protege Hinkie failed--and that is not surprising, because Morey's resume as an NBA executive is pedestrian despite the fact that he has been granted nearly two decades to test out his beliefs about "advanced basketball statistics." Morey ranked James Harden as a greater scorer than Michael Jordan and he never retracted that nonsensical take even after Harden's "concert tour" playoff field goal percentages and Harden's numerous playoff failures, culminating in Harden publicly blasting Morey as a liar and demanding to be traded--a demand that Morey granted without ever criticizing Harden; we all want someone to love us as much as Morey loves Harden.
The fact that Morey is betting over $200 million that George can help the 76ers win a championship is an excellent reason to believe that the 76ers will once again fall short of reaching the NBA Finals, as has been the case with every Morey-led team during his tenure running NBA franchises first in Houston and now in Philadelphia.
Labels: Daryl Morey, Joel Embiid, L.A. Clippers, Paul George, Philadelphia 76ers, Sam Hinkie, Tyrese Maxey
posted by David Friedman @ 12:23 PM
4 Comments:
One thing to note: the Sixers rarely land a big-name free agent. In the last 15 years their biggest signing was Al Horford. And before that was a washed-up Elton Brand.
The Sixers had to overpay to get George out of Los Angeles. Hence the fourth season.
It is somewhat of a desperate move, because if the Sixers fail to build a winner around Embiid soon, they've wasted his prime. But they have had Jimmy Butler. A healthy locked-in Ben Simmons before he got the yips. James Harden. Why should PG-13 be any different?
Paul George giving himself the nickname “Playoff P” went about as well for him as it did for George Costanza when he tried to give himself the nickname “T-Bone”. Paul George had one excellent performance in the first game of the first round and he had the nerve to proclaim himself as a playoff virtuoso. If he had anything resembling self-awareness he would have retracted the nickname when his team was defeated in six games in large part due to his poor play in the rest of the series.
George’s playoff resume isn’t quite as checkered as Harden’s but when the dust settles, the result in the playoffs is the same for both: bitter disappointment.
Just a quick off topic question: Do you think Wilt Chamberlain is the goat?
Anonymous:
As I discussed in depth in my Pantheon series (see right hand sidebar of 20 Second Timeout's home page for the links), I rank Chamberlain as one of several players who could legitimately be ranked as the greatest of all-time.
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