The beginning of the 2017-2018 NBA season hasn’t gone perfectly for the Oklahoma City Thunder. There are signs of optimism for the team led by Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony but a sub-.500 record in mid-November was not predicted to be in the cards after Oklahoma City’s high-profile additions this summer.
With those relative struggles as the backdrop, speculation has already begun as to what Anthony and George will decide to do moving forward and, while Anthony also seemed likely to opt in given his age and the simple math, George’s decision is quite interesting. In short, the talented former Pacers swingman has a player option for the 2018-2019 that no one expects him to pick up but, if things go well alongside Westbrook in his new location, the Thunder could have something of an inside track toward keeping him.
There is, though, the lure of Los Angeles and long-rumored motivation for George to go “home” but some comments made to Fred Katz of The Norman Transcript on Monday might provide a window into his thinking. The 27-year-old All-Star was in attendance as his Paul George Foundation launched an outdoor program for local youth to focus on fishing and, well, there were a few interesting nuggets.
First, George referenced the fact that has not been “able to get out and around and do as much fishing” as he wants but that was quickly followed by the indication that “hopefully, there’s a summer for that here that (he) can do that.” From there, George then expressed his pleasure with getting the initiative “off the ground” before stating plainly that “Oklahoma is home for (him).”
Of course, comments like this must be taken with several grains of salt, especially through the prism of George’s audience at this particular event. That may not stop Oklahoma City fans from getting quite excited about George referring to his new residence as “home,” especially when and if the Thunder improve on their on-court performance to the point where it would make sense to stay.
In the end, we won’t know much about Paul George’s offseason decision until a lot more basketball-related information comes to the forefront. Until then, Thunder fans can (and likely will) hold on to these comments as optimistic gospel.
