Paul George occupies a rare space in Philly sports lore. What I've learned from living in this city is that athletes who play in Philly are usually either loved or despised. There isn't much middle ground in the minds of Philadelphia sports fans.
But George, rather than being lauded or loathed, is sort of just. there. He doesn't get booed in Philly, but he doesn't get rousing ovations, either. When he makes a mistake, the crowd groans, but then moves on. When he does something productive, the crowd applauds... Then kind of moves on.
It sounds crazy to say that one of the 20 highest-paid players in the league is forgotten in the city he's played in, but it's true. Unfortunately, that's mostly George's own fault. He hasn't been egregiously bad enough to warrant true spite, but he also hasn't produced at a high enough level to become a fan favorite. He's simply been there, but playing 49 games in almost a year and a half isn't enough "there" to really be there. Did that make any sense?
In his second year with the Sixers, George looks fine, but definitely not like a guy who can be relied upon to take a large role in a team's plans every night, leaving Nick Nurse and the Sixers with a difficult question: What exactly should they ask of Paul George?
Paul George's production is raising more questions than answers
Most nights, George can get a few buckets by himself, make a defensive play or two, make a nice pass here and there... And that's about it. His scoring and rebounding per 36 are both up, but his minutes are so far down that those must be taken with a grain of salt.
Maybe I'm too quick to dismiss George coming off surgery in the offseason (he's played just 8 games this year) but he's 35 years old, over 900 games into his NBA career, and his production took a massive hit last year too, before another serious injury. I don't think it's presumptuous to think that what we've seen so far is simply who Paul George is now.
That's not entirely bad though, because that archetype is still a helpful player in the NBA. The Sixers will welcome any production from George at this point — even if that production is not as voluminous as they envisioned when he was signed last summer — because him being on the court is still better than him being sidelined.
But if that's the case, then the big decision becomes whether Nick Nurse should accept that from George, and not burden him with a heavy offensive load, or if Nurse should still task George with being this team's No. 2 option in hopes that he can revert back to that level of player. The former is the safer bet, but doesn't give the Sixers nearly as high of a ceiling. The latter is more dangerous and could get ugly quickly if George can't be that guy anymore, but it raises the team's ceiling considerably. The moral of the story here is that I don't envy Nick Nurse.