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Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports/The Verticalis reportingthatIndiana PacersforwardPaul Georgehas informed his franchise that he does not plan to remain beyond the final year of his current contract, preferring to join theLos Angeles Lakers.
George hasn’t requested a trade before he can opt out of his 2018-19 contract, but did have his agent, Aaron Mintz, tell new Indiana president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard that he wanted to be forthright on his plans and spare the franchise any confusion about his intentions, league sources told The Vertical.
George can sign a four-year deal worth as much as $130 million with Los Angeles next year. George is a Southern California native and playing for the Lakers would represent a homecoming for him.
The declaration will put pressure on the Pacers to trade George in order to get value from his departure rather than letting him walk in free agency. Wojnarowski highlights the activity of Indiana’s President of Basketball Operations, Kevin Pritchard:
来源:印第安纳州的凯文·普里查德参与团队on trading Paul George, but so far, not Lakers. There's a rental market, but how robust?https://t.co/oM9XrATMr9
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA)June 18, 2017
George averaged 23.7 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Pacers last season, shooting 46% from the field and 39% from the three-point arc. The 27-year-old has played 7 seasons in the NBA, one of those shortened drastically by a leg injury suffered in warm-up competition for the USA Olympic Men’s Basketball squad. He is scheduled to make $19.5 million in 2017-18.