The upgrade from Tobias Harris to Paul George can’t be overstated enough.
When the Sixers signed Paul George in free agency this summer, many Los Angeles Clippers fans began to predict how it would backfire on them. Not only were they certain that George’s four-year, $211.6 million contract will age poorly (probably true), but they expected George to face backlash once Sixers fans realized that he isn’t a No. 1 option on a championship team.
That’s the beautiful thing about his upcoming tenure in Philly: He doesn’t have to be.
If Joel Embiid isn’t healthy again in the playoffs, the Sixers are probably cooked regardless. The same was true for the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, which we saw play out time and again over the past few years. Both Embiid and the Sixers are being more proactive about his health this season, but they are highly unlikely to win a championship unless the big fella can stay upright through April, May and June.
If he does, though, George’s versatility might be the final chess piece that the Sixers have been missing in recent years.
While George’s contract might age poorly, he’ll have a hard time topping the player whom he’s replacing. Tobias Harris is a zero-time All-Star who has topped 20 points per game exactly once in his NBA career and has never averaged more than 3.5 assists per game across an entire season. George has averaged at least 21 points per game in each of the past 10 seasons and topped five assists per game for three straight years with the Clippers.
In fact, it’s genuinely difficult to find something that Harris does better than George on either end of the floor. George was more effective than him last season in just about every play type.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse is excited about the versatility that George brings, particularly alongside Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
“I think he’s one of those guys who can do so many things,” Nurse said at media day. “I would imagine it’s going to be a pretty big menu of things we do with him, from bringing the ball up the floor to posting and everything in between there.
“With guys like him, you’ve got to keep him moving around from the mid-post to the elbow to pin-downs to setting screens to coming off back screens—all those things. I think you give him a big menu of things, again, just to use his talents. His talents are he can score in a variety of ways, he can run pick-and-roll, he can run offense a little bit. I’m just excited to see how it looks next to those two guys.”
The Sixers’ offense still figures to run through Embiid and Maxey, but George should fill in the gaps on both ends of the floor far better than Harris ever did. He was tied with Leonard for eighth in overall EPM last year, according to Dunks and Threes, as he was in the 90th percentile or above in both offensive and defensive EPM. His plus-5.7 mark dwarfed that of Harris (plus-0.4), who graded out as a slight minus on defense.
Between George, Caleb Martin and Kelly Oubre Jr., the Sixers now boast far more defensive switchability with their wings than they had over the past few years. George is also a higher-volume and far more efficient three-point shooter than Harris, whose lack of quick decision-making often caused the Sixers’ offense to grind to a halt.
Kyle Lowry, who won a gold medal with George at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, is excited to see how George meshes with the Sixers’ other two stars.
“I think him on the defensive end is the one thing I’m really looking forward to, seeing that out there,” Lowry said. “And I think his three-point shooting ability with Joel and Tyrese is going to be able to really maximize his talent. He’s not going to have to go out there and dribble the ball as much. He can go out there and catch and shoot sometimes, make the game easy for himself.”
Now that he’s sharing touches with a high-volume scorer like Embiid and an ascending point guard in Maxey, George might not average 23-6-4 like he has over the past few seasons. His numbers will likely dip, which figures to spark an inevitable wave of “I told you so’s” from Clippers fans. (Everyone needs a coping mechanism as they try to talk themselves into being carried by a 35-year-old James Harden, after all.)
But again, the Sixers don’t necessarily need George to be an MVP candidate like he was in the late 2010s with the Oklahoma City Thunder. They already have a former MVP in Embiid and a young guard in Maxey who could force his way into the All-NBA conversation this year.
They just need George to be a reliable third banana, which is exactly what they lacked from their third max slot over the past half-decade.
“I feel like last year, one of our main things was like that third punch, at times,” Sixers forward Ricky Council IV said after training camp, per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We knew we had Tyrese. We knew we had Joel. But who was going to be that next punch? Who was going to be that defensive stopper? All those types of things. And I feel like we have all that and some this year.”
“Be an upgrade over Tobias Harris” isn’t a high bar to clear for George. But if he does so, that might be the difference between yet another second-round exit and a deep playoff run.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.