After missing nearly a month due to injury, Paul George has finally made his return to the Philadelphia 76ers. While he has still been missing games here and there, and his rusty form remains quite apparent due to his long layoff, the team has already reveled in having the former All-Star as a reinforcement to their injury-prone group.
Having said that, the front office will have to make a serious attempt at trying to trade him to another team. Their financial flexibility, after all, is at risk, and George's deal will make roster-building a lot more difficult. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, that is much easier said than done –– and this new intel serves to further augment that fact.
Longtime NBA analyst Brian Windhorst bared just recently that the overall sentiment around the league right now is that stars over 30, like George, who carry with them max deals and have extensive injury histories, are not going to fetch as much assets as people think they would. If true –– and it probably is –– the 76ers are probably going to just settle for waiting his deal to expire.
76ers get a harsh Paul George reality slap
As one can infer without getting into the finer details, teams are currently not lining up to trade for George, not in his current form. After all, he is coming off his worst individual campaign since his rookie year, and his injuries have greatly blurred the prospect of him returning to his All-Star level.
As such, the 76ers will be the active party in any and all scenarios involving a plan to dangle him to another destination. However, if the team will not be getting much for him anyway and they would likely need to sweeten the pot themselves, trading George becomes even more moot of a proposition.
Put simply, Philadelphia, in all likelihood, will be stuck with the nine-time All-Star. There are some workarounds to make that thought piece much more palatable, such as him simply recalibrating and finding his voice on the hardwood anew, but from a front-office perspective, that is far from appealing.
Sooner than later, the 76ers could be put in a position where they will have to make tough concessions due to their inability to get George's contract off the books. That is the tough part and price they have to pay for their shortsighted moves from a year ago.