The Los Angeles Lakers were reportedly advised not to rush anything when it comes to Indiana Pacers star Paul George and to wait for the right moment. During this year's NBA trade deadline - which came to an end on Thursday - multiple teams have been rumored to be wanting George's service. 16-time NBA champions Los Angeles Lakers were one of the teams interested in George - and according to some reports - the player himself is interested in playing for the Lakers. However, nothing really came on the scene between the two sides - at least for now.
There is a good chance that Paul George will eventually end up L.A.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical claims that Paul George is really interested in playing in L.A., but there was a price to be paid if the Los Angeles Lakers wanted to bring him in at the deadline. Lakers' young core which consists of a couple of young and rising players is one of the best in the NBA and there's no way they could have brought in George without parting ways with some of its young talent. 26-year-old George is set to be a free agent in the summer of 2018 and there's a good chance that he'll be moving to Los Angeles in a year and a half.
Wojnarowski said that if George was to leave Indiana, he'd go to L.A. as he grew up in that city and he's a big fan of Kobe Bryant.
Wojnarowski added, as quoted by Real GM. ''His dad is a big magic johnson fan. Obviously Magic is running the organization now. The direction that I was told that the Lakers got in the last couple of days was 'hey, don't gut your team to go get Paul George.'''
The Lakers made a good move not trading for Paul George at the deadline
Getting Paul George would mean that the Los Angeles Lakers would have an All-Star caliber type of player in their team.
But, adding George and losing some of its promising core wouldn't be the best case scenario for the Lakers - the best case scenario would be bringing George in without giving up anything. That is achievable, but Los Angeles and its president of basketball operations Magic Johnson will have to wait for a year and a half when George hits the market.