I mean when he was playing for Philly last year he was still really good, it’s just a matter of health. He obviously doesn’t have the athleticism he used to but he’s still a knockdown shooter (39% from 3 on 7 attempts a game last year) and an elite on-ball defender.

If he can stay healthy (that’s a big if obviously), along with a returned and, presumably healthy, Tatum, the addition of Mitchell Robinson, and some improvement from the young guys, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team is ultimately better than last year.

If he plays 55 games and is healthy is April, all that matters. When he’s out there he’s a great 3 and D guy.

But there is real risk he plays like 35 games and is not healthy in April. It’s a gamble for sure.

Has played in over 60 games in a season just one (1) time in the past SEVEN years…

Last year he was suspended 25 games for steroids. Remember the days when we used to shun athletes who used steroids? Pepperidge Farm remembers

PG was the missing piece to the Celtics finally winning a championship

He played another series in the playoffs. The playoffs didn’t just end because the Celtics were out of it. Did they see him against the Knicks?

Glad someone is convinced

I would guess the Celtics had other offers on the table with a number of younger players (like the Portland deal) that were centered around younger guys with potential. Brad wanted a guy he is *certain* can contribute at a high level in the postseason.

Stage 4 of trade grief. Convincing yourself the guy you traded for is better than his recent history.

He’s a guy who doesn’t have to have the ball, will keep it moving, make spots he takes, and defend anyone but the quickest guy on the court. Like Horford he’ll get rested but be there in the playoffs when there is always rest.

The real question is who was guarding him when he looked good in the playoffs?!? I wonder how many people actually watch the games. He was mostly scoring on our bench players. It seems we are concentrating on the wrong side of the coin.

” He played well against us once” is definitely not good logic when trying to justify who you’re trading for.

Fuck it pump him up with steroids and get him back for the playoffs just like last season

Only playing 30ish regular season games helped with that.  Also being wide open because they have to guard Embiid and Maxey helped too.

Did they bring up how well he played against the Knicks?

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Paul George has played high level ball any time he’s been on the court. Can he stay on the court? That’s the question.

He was fresh from being suspended for 25 games, of course he looked good.

Well, it isn’t like they’ll tell a reporter, “we think he is an old broken down player who needed PEDs to play well, and we only did this to avoid a supermax and eventually offload the contract.”

Fools good

They are drinking the Kool-Aid.

This is complete cope. We literally became irrelevant overnight and closed our window. The owners have dismantled a championship roster and they haven’t even known the team 12 months yet.

It was a long term money saving move. Nothing more nothing less. Trying to explain away the obvious is moot at this point. It’s time to move on and begin to focus on the season.

This was by concern. Brad saw Paul George randomly shoot out of his mind one series and said I want him. If you watched the games he played good defense but offensively he just had some shot making luck

that is because he had all that time off due to the suspension, he had fresh legs. that is a weird take.

thirty four years old with one healthy season in seven and they want to talk about high level basketball, sounds like cope to me

I expect the team to be about the same as they were last year unless they get another piece

Celtics tryna shift the narrative.

Let’s me help, George will do whatever mazzula says.. unlike Jaylen’s insubordination..

Fixed

Lmao okay so he played well LAST YEAR 👏

I hate this organization rn.

whether PG is a good player isn’t really the point.

yes, he’s a really good player with a giant caveat of, when healthy. he’s not often healthy.

yes, he’s really good but is also at an age where few stay really good. he’s a past his prime really good player who would ideally be a fourth or fifth option on a championship squad (see: horford, al), if and when healthy, but he’s being paid as a top 1 or 2 player.

Ugh.

I don’t really like hearing that how well he played against us in playoffs was any meaningful part of the decision making. For a trade this monumental, overreacting to the latest data point would be disappointing for a front office as sophisticated as ours. Hope they judged him right 🤷

Yeah but he was pretty awful against the Knicks

For anyone that knows, does he have some kind of chronic condition, is he simply brittle, or more bad luck?

Pg3 kinda of outplayed the js in the playoffs.

It’s always health with pg3. If healthy he can pretty much duplicate or even exceed what jrue gave us as an older vet during the championship year.

Excellent versatile defender and a great spot up shooter from 3.

I think his 25 game drug suspension helped but I’ll be hopeful cause we have no other choice.

Sounds like religion

How did he play vs the Knicks???

He is just an elite 3/D player with little creation mixed in. Just over paid. And not the most reliable health wize

Playoff Pete?

I don’t think many people are concerned with his contributions when he’s on the floor. I’m just worried about him actually being on the floor

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I mean yeah, just make sure he has 25 games off and is well rested before the playoffs

It’s funny because 2 years ago I was devastated about the Sixers adding Paul George thinking he’d make them far better. I got laughed at.  Then he barely played.  Then a year later, he owned us in the playoffs and became the centerpiece of a Jaylen Brown trade. So I guess my fears were justified.  

Paul George had a +2.5 RAPM last season, good for 45th in the league (right behind Hugo!). Jaylen was at a -0.5. This trade is basically “do you believe in analytics or not?”. If you do, this is a great trade. If you don’t, then you think this is a dumb trade. Our front office believes in analytics though. If you also don’t believe in Mazzulla Ball, you’re probably not going to like this, because we are really leaning into it. Proof is in the pudding though; Mazzulla Ball works great without Jaylen Brown. Last 3 playoffs we had a 115 offensive rating with Jaylen on the floor, and a 127 with him off the floor. It was ¹⁰⁷⁄₁₄₁ in this past series against the 76ers. Our shot distribution is much different without him.

Really the main question is how healthy do we think Paul George will be? But if there’s any position we are fine at, it’s wing depth. We have like 8 on the roster (if you consider Cenac a ⁴⁄₅ and Ron a ²⁄₃).

Here for a good time, not a long time.

Anyone that thinks Brad traded for PG because he’s good is dumb.

The real answer is that he’s “good enough” to create a giant trade exception for us.

Sorry. Still not buying tickets to watch this team.

I was wrong about Irving….and I pray to God I’m wrong about this “trade” too!

Brad and Joe are about to help Hugo turn into the next beast from the East!

Ya he outplayed Jaylen Brown by a substantial margin. If they switch teams Boston wins that series. Just a bizarre trade.

You know who has significantly more high-level basketball left to contribute?

The guy you dumped for this bum.

Getting rid of Jaylen will never not be a spectacularly boneheaded move.

Look, Paul George has potential. He could be anything, even Jaylen Brown