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“I grew up a Lakers and a Clippers fan,” George says. “I idolized Kobe. There will always be a tie here, a connection here. People saying I want to come here, who doesn’t want to play for their hometown? That’s a dream come true, if you’re a kid growing up on the outskirts of L.A., to be the man in your city. But it’s definitely been overstated. For me, it’s all about winning. I want to be in a good system, a good team. I want a shot to win it. I’m not a stats guy. I’m playing this game to win and build a legacy of winning. I’ve yet to do that. I’m searching for it. If we get a killer season in Oklahoma, we make the conference finals or upset the Warriors or do something crazy, I’d be dumb to want to leave that.”

George will get four eyefuls this season of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and the young Lakers. Superficial measurements will matter far less than max slots and won-loss records. “It’s too early for L.A.,” he says. “It would have to be a situation where the ball gets rolling and guys are hopping on. This guy commits, that guy commits. ‘Oh s---, now there’s a team forming.’ It has to be like that.” But the same is true for virtually every locale outside of Oakland. “I’m in OKC, so hopefully me and Russ do a good enough job and make it to the conference finals and love the situation, why not recruit someone to come build it with us? I’m open in this whole process.”

LakersSoul wrote:Smoke or real talk?

Straight from the horse mouth. We'd better hope that OKC fails to beat GSW and the connection between PG and Westbrook is off or we could be in trouble in summer of 2018.

GaryDags wrote:I think this is the reason some fans wanted to trade for him instead of waiting for 2018. Either way, having $60 M in cap space next year will be a huge advantage for the Lakers. If the Lakers can't land one or two stars next off-season then it is back to the basics of an organic rebuild. Only next summer our team we be a little better with some internal maturation and armed with cap space to buy assets (via one year expiring contracts) and / or taking on contracts like next year's KCP type situations.

mjba wrote:

GaryDags wrote:I think this is the reason some fans wanted to trade for him instead of waiting for 2018. Either way, having $60 M in cap space next year will be a huge advantage for the Lakers. If the Lakers can't land one or two stars next off-season then it is back to the basics of an organic rebuild. Only next summer our team we be a little better with some internal maturation and armed with cap space to buy assets (via one year expiring contracts) and / or taking on contracts like next year's KCP type situations.

i think given what he said about winning, and specifically the Lakers' current situation, we're better off not having him this year. we would be v unlikely to make the playoffs, imo, even with PG.

Slava wrote:Now all we need is for Westbrook to turn down an extension offer before the whole league starts panicking.

GaryDags wrote:Westbrook turns down the extension, then OKC trades him to Boston or will they let him play the season out?

If WB is traded then George will be traded as well; maybe even to the Lakers. My theory was that Presti wanted to dump Oladipo in case WB left / won't sign the extension. Presti get Oladipo's massive contract off the books for an expiring contract.

Presti will probably get more value at the deadline as well.

Slava wrote:Now all we need is for Westbrook to turn down an extension offer before the whole league starts panicking.