Currently in the No. 7 seed in the western conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder have not quite had the level of success many expected they would after acquiring Paul George and Carmelo Anthony this summer.
While Melo hasn’t exactly fit in seamlessly alongside Russell Westbrook in OKC, Paul George has been pretty effective and has meshed well with the 2016-17 MVP on and off the court.
Rumors have been rampant for a year and a half (from even George himself), but PG-13 says that he can see himself being a part of the Thunder’s future and that the rest of this season won’t necessarily effect his decision.
Here is what he told Royce Young of ESPN:
“As I told [ESPN’s] Rachel [Nichols], I can see myself being here,” George said. “I’ve been happy here, I’ve been happy with the organization, happy with my teammates. Our record is not what we want it to be, but I think I’ve enjoyed just learning and being around these guys. So my answer is still the same. I’m not going to let the playoffs or how we finish this season persuade or indicate where I’m going to this offseason. I’m going to put everything into this and again, I can definitely see myself being here.”
“This is our first year together. This is Year 1 for this group,” he said. “We’ve got a chance to win it all, but realistically it takes time for things to build and chemistry to mesh. Just for everybody to be on the same page. So this wasn’t a championship or bust coming into this for me. It was just an opportunity to see what it’s like being here and just to naturally fall in love with it. And it’s been that. It’s been a lot of love here.”
How the Thunder fare in the postseason will affect his decision whether he wants to admit it or not, if I were to venture a guess I would think that George decides to re-sign with the Thunder, as long as LeBron James doesn’t sign with the Lakers.
