George, Thunder Reach Agreement on Long-Term Extension

George, Thunder Reach Agreement on Long-Term Extension



The second client of ours to sign on the dotted line, Paul George wasted no time negotiating his way to a maximum extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Averaging close to 22 points per game on elite shooting percentages, GM Marcos Beck was determined to sign the cornerstone of the LeBron James trade to a permanent deal.

Paul George wrote:"I'm excited to have a long-term home in Oklahoma and I'm very excited to move back to my natural position of small forward.  I know GM Beck has been burning up the phone lines and working hard to get this team figured out, and I know that we haven't been playing well lately, but that was less important to me than my financial security.  I'm excited to get to play alongside Dwight and obviously it's great to continue playing alongside Paul (Milsap) and Roy (Hibbert)."

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is thrilled to help another young and promising player land a commensurate deal.  We wish Paul the best and know that he will be successful in Oklahoma City.

Paul's extension will begin after this season. Starting at the maximum salary level for players with less than six years of CSL experience ($13,668,750), the contract contains maximum raises (7.5%) and totals $60,825,938 over four years.

Clearly George hasn't earned is max extension as much as Rubio has but there's no doubt that George will turn it around this season and will earn his money.

We're very happy to agree on terms with George for an extension.
We want to thank SCDP for handling negotiations like a real pro agency. Great dealing with you, as usual. Very easy to do business with you!

Article coming soon!

Tough to give out a contract like this when you're 3-7 and there's been some big struggles so far this season, but Marcos did what had to be done. I doubt George would have accepted any less than the max, and letting him go to free agency would've been a bad idea.

Jake0890 (MIN) wrote:Tough to give out a contract like this when you're 3-7 and there's been some big struggles so far this season, but Marcos did what had to be done. I doubt George would have accepted any less than the max, and letting him go to free agency would've been a bad idea.

Agreed. When you're the biggest piece returning in a LeBron James trade, you have to hitch your wagon to him for the long haul.

And now we're seeing the side effect of extensions controlled by PAs. The overpays are coming.

13.5M for George is overpaying?
I don't really think so..

It's a max contract, and it's only 13 games for those shooting numbers. I'd personally be waiting to see before I splashed max money on him.

All right.
I understand your argument but..
Had George be RFA, don't you think any team (even yours) would have offered him a max deal? Of course, even more than 1. Every team with CAP space would have done it.
So I'm locking him now before I need to match any offer sheet for him. I'm just playing secure.

Also, George would not have signed for less.
I'm happy with what I did overall. The kid is averaging 20+pts, 6+ boards, 3+ assists, 3 steals and a block. With huge shooting %s and great man defense. He did the same last season, even though he has improved a lot this season in %s.

See if he's going to sign a max contract anyway, then you might as well just wait for FA. Only time you should be signing an RFA in-season is if you think you can get him for less than max and he's likely to go max in FA.

I prefer to play it safe and do things now. Just a point of view.
If you're telling me that, then you're telling Jamal he should have waited to ink Rubio too.

I wanted to show George he is really the face of this franchise, we're willing to build around him and Howard.
I'm loyal to players who perform well and deserve it.

Yeah I would've told him the same thing.

I can only think of one instance where I've extended an RFA in-season in any of the leagues I've been in. He was due to get a max contract in FA (the base was slightly higher than it is in this league) and I signed him to an 11 million base contract in season, saving something like $3 million in the first year and a fair amount in subsequent years because of a less than max pay raise %.

Everyone else I've let walk to FA.

Makes absolutely zero sense to wait to extend or sign George in the offseason.

You trade LeBron, you gotta have something to show for it long term besides Hibbert in a backup role and Millsap so inking him now is an easy call.

WillyJakkz (HOU) wrote:Makes absolutely zero sense to wait to extend or sign George in the offseason.

You trade LeBron, you gotta have something to show for it long term besides Hibbert in a backup role and Millsap so inking him now is an easy call.

It makes perfect sense. As an RFA, you control his rights, so he's not going to succeed in going to another team even if he wants to, unless you work out a sign and trade. And since it's a max contract anyway that you're signing him to, why commit early? There's no guarantee he's going to hold up to his current production, and by signing him to a max contract, his trade value has only one direction to go - down.

Furthermore, by NOT extending him early, you're freeing up roughly $9 million in cap space. If Hibbert opts out of the PO then you're talking some potential cap space to work with above the MLE level. By committing him to this contract, you've lost that payroll flexibility, and unnecessarily so.

I'm not trading George. I'm commited to keep him.
Also, there are some moves to come. I'm not doing things without a reason.

I have to agree with Jestor here. Let the market decide and worst case scenario you sign him to max deal anyway