Looming over whether the Oklahoma City Thunder ever get it together this season is whatever Paul George is thinking about his pending free agency.
George was traded to the Thunder in a surprise move, the surprise being that the Thunder made a big push to get him in the first place. George had already notified the Pacers he wasn’t re-signing with the team, and they quickly found trade partners willing to take a chance on a year-long recruitment the All-Star.
It’s impossible to know just how that recruitment is going. Though he claimed to be comfortable in the city relatively quickly, and the team has showed signs of improvement, it hasn’t quite all fell into place in Oklahoma City just yet.
But Russell Westbrook says he knows how to convince George to stay past this season. He told ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne it’s simple: they have to win it all.
“The sales pitch is when we win a championship,” Westbrook said on Wednesday. “Beat that pitch.”
It sounds pretty simple, but of course talking is always easier than doing. And winning it all this year will be quite an achievement if the Thunder can pull it off. The Warriors are NBA champions and remain the class of the league , and their main competition in the West seems to be the Houston Rockets before anyone can bring up the Thunder.
It’s entirely possible that things come together for the Thunder’s Big Three of Westbrook, George and Carmelo Anthony, but we’re nearing the season’s midpoint and that hasn’t quite happened yet. But Russ is Russ, and as he says, why not expect the moon? It’s why the Thunder brought George there in the first place, I suppose.
