The Celtics Just Secured Their Future...

The Boston Celtics just secured their future, folks. But what am I talking about? Well, the man that you can see right here, Paul George, is now officially a Boston Celtics. Folks, it is real. This Jalen Brown deal that went down this offseason, everything has gone through. Paul George is officially on the team. That is the reality, as we can now see with these new pictures from Media Day. The NBA season is fast approaching at my time of recording this. It is 18 days away from the beginning of regular season, folks, it's very exciting. But today, we are going to be discussing more details on the Paul George move, particularly the financial aspects of the move, which we know a lot of people have been talking about. But a recent quote came out from an anonymous NBA GM that brought an interesting perspective to the numbers behind the Paul George trade and to the prospect of his contract value. So folks, here on Celtics Digest today, with your host, yours truly, Kellen Frangione, we are going to break this down. But folks, before I get any further into this video, before I talk to you about why Paul George's contract might actually be more of an asset than you think it is, a positive asset, I want to introduce the following to you guys. If you are confident in the Boston Celtics' performance this upcoming season, where you can place a little yes or no contract on Cauchy for 45 plus wins, 50 plus wins, or even 55 plus wins, folks, if you are supremely confident, but this is only on Cauchy. It is a top prediction market where you can do all sorts of things from placing yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. For example, if you didn't want to do something like the Celtics' total wins, you could look to the Eastern Conference champions, Boston Celtics, yes, a $25 wager can pay out nearly $182, but only on Cauchy, folks. And please, if you are interested in trying out Cauchy, make sure to use our code right here as you see it on screen. That is DigestNBA, all caps, promo code. If you're interested, it's in the pinned comment of this video as well as the description at the very top. You will get $55 added to your account instantly once you trade with your first $25, folks, but that is only on Cauchy. Once again, thank you to them for sponsoring this video. We really appreciate it. It helps us out, it gives us more resources. So please, folks, if you are interested, support us and support Cauchy. We greatly appreciate it. But back to the video, what happened? What did this anonymous NBA GM say? He said the following. Anonymous NBA executive says Paul George's contract is actually valuable. He is not the player he was 10 years ago, but he still has that rare skillset, and if a player has that, he's got value. If he has that and he's on a short contract, that's even more value. Now, folks, remember, a big part of this, what Brad Stevens was saying in the press conference after the trade, he was talking a lot about optionality, quote, unquote, thinking about the future, thinking about financial aspects under the new CBA, all of these things being part of the reason why the Celtics did ship Jalen Brown away to the Sixers. I'm still not sure that was the best choice or the best option out there, but hey, we did it. And now part of the reason why is because Paul George's contract, yes, it is nearly the same amount that we were paying Jalen Brown. It's a lot of money. He is making in the 50 millions, Paul George, who is 36, but he has one less year than Jalen Brown does. The Celtics were not gonna be able to pay Tatum and Brown. They already knew that they were gonna choose Tatum over Brown, so it's interesting to hear the GM say this, because it's true. Paul George does still have a rare skillset. He has efficient shooting, especially from three, very, very good on-ball defense. He has a skillset that is going to be valuable. It depends how many games he can play. There's a lot of things. We can discuss it further here. Paul George's efficiency, even at 36, two years removed from his 2010s peak, Paul George has still produced all-star caliber efficiency this past season, 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.7 steals per game on 43.9% shooting from the field, and nearly 40% from three. That shooting split is actually better than many players half his age. A six-foot-eight wing who can still knock down threes at nearly 40% and defend multiple positions, as the Celtics always like, is a genuinely scarce archetype in the NBA, which is exactly the rare skillset that this executive is pointing to. It's not simply empty stats production either. George's playoff performance against us, where we choked the 3-1 lead, we saw it. We saw what he did. He was playing very, very well against us, and just to give us the more detailed view, the more visual aspect, as this little explanation was saying for us, Paul George was still efficient. He was still pretty efficient. Now, obviously, he's not top of the top, but keep in mind, he also only played 37 games, 17.3 points per game. His volume is up there too. I mean, the efficiency, it's not bad. 39% from three is what particularly jumps out, and 1.7 steals per game, which is 97th percentile in the league. Paul George is still going to be valuable. He is gonna bring his shooting and his defense, the perfect three and D, ability to switch. Paul George, folks, yes, I know it's not Jalen Brown. Yes, it makes the Celtics worse on paper, this trade, but it makes sense, the value with the money. Yes, Paul George is aging, but it's not all bad. It's not all bad, folks. That's essentially what I'm saying, and just to give you the very detailed view of Paul George's salary, you can see it here. This season, his cap hit will be $54 million, going up next season to $56 million. In 27-28, he has a player option, and he also had a trade bonus waived with the Boston trade, but you can see all the numbers right here, the contract terms back when he signed with Philly, four years, 211, nearly 211 and $600,000 contract. It's a big contract, folks. It's a lot of money for Paul George at his current age, but what else? There's more to talk about with this contract value. Folks, George has two years and roughly $110.6 million left on his deal, with the final season worth 56 million, as I was just saying, but it's a near certain player option he'll pick up. That structure matters enormously. Boston is not locked in to an aging and often injured 36-year-old long-term. The exposure's capped at two years, which is part of why Brad Stevens was really keen on this, unlike the three years and up to $304 million remaining on Jalen Brown's deal that Boston just moved off of with the trade. By next summer, Paul George's deal becomes a pure one-year expiring contract. One of the single most valuable instruments in the NBA, expiring max-level money lets a team absorb a disgruntled superstar's salary in a trade without attaching any long-term commitment, which is precisely why PG's name has already come up in connection with stars like Jokic in trade speculation, which I really don't see that happening, folks. That would be ideal. Imagine if we got the Joker. But teams actively seek out expiring money for the flexibility, and Boston now controls one of the best trade chips in the sport for next July. So next offseason is gonna be a huge one for the Celtics. This one already was because of all the crazy stuff that happened, because of all the Giannis speculation that ended up in nothing. But also, we have to look at the negative aspects because we already know a lot of them, but we still have to mention what can go wrong. Paul George played just 37 games last season, continuing what's been described as back-to-back injury playing seasons in Philly. The rare skill set only has value if it's available on the floor. Availability is the best ability, folks. As everyone says, he's had chronic knee and foot issues for most of the back half of his career, sadly. As shown, he can no longer reliably stay healthy for a full season. At 36, that trend is far more likely to worsen than reverse, unfortunately for us. But Paul George has said, he did say on Media Day, he's feeling very good, he's very excited for this chapter of his career. But folks, still, things can happen. It's a really long NBA season. 82 games takes a toll on anyone, but especially the older players. Additionally, the whole value of the short-term deal is supposed to be the flexibility, the optionality, as Brad Stevens calls it, and risk control. With PG's 56 million, the following season is a player option that's considered a near certainty that he's going to exercise regardless of how he's playing or if he's even playing at all. That means Boston isn't actually getting the upside of the prove-it-short deal. They're on the hook for two full years of max money with no real off-ramp if he declines or misses significant time. So we still have to take a look at that negative aspect right there. Additionally, the expiring contract as a trade ship logic really only works if he stays productive. The expiring max salary is only attractive to other teams if the player attached to it is still good enough or healthy enough to be a legitimate throw-in for a deal. But if Paul George's decline continues or the injuries pile up, the expiring deal becomes dead salary matching money that nobody really wants. So it could be the exact opposite of what this anonymous GM is saying if Paul George and his health does not work out. But looking at the positives is the way that I wanna look at it, folks. Paul George, we welcome you to Boston. I'm very excited to see what he can do this season even in his age. And I mean, we have the money now. We have a little more money than we had when we were paying JB, I get it. You weren't gonna pay 600 million to two guys taking up 70% of your cap space. It just wasn't realistic for the future. So I do forgive Brad a little bit, but I still think that this trade is gonna haunt us. I think Jalen Brown could have a monster season in Philly. He just had a monster season for us before being dealt. His best of his career thus far took us by himself to the second seed in the East. So it's not an easy replacement, folks. But I believe in Jason Tatum. I believe in the guys on this Boston Celtics team, and I'm still excited for this upcoming NBA season. But folks, let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Once again, I'm Kellen Frangione, your host with Celtics Digest. It's been a pleasure discussing Paul George's contract in a little further detail today. Just to show you one more time before we close out the video, here are the numbers, 54 million this year, 56 the next year with a player option. It's gonna be very interesting, folks. But nevertheless, thank you for watching this video, and I will see you guys next time.