Good lord. What a blatantly obvious attempt at getting Melo to run away from OKC and the Thunder, and to China! If I were Melo, I would take that column as a personal insult, an insult transparently fed by the organization to the local hack covering the team for the daily rag. I am so enjoying their obvious misery!
She's a writer for The Oklahoman, cheke, so I assume that she has that beat, although she could have been "sittin' in."
hope melon pouts for the whole year next season. maybe donovan will upgrade melon to the bench, 6th man, but still bench.
What are Paul George's options? Woj: Like LeBron James, any place he'd tell a team I'd like to come, they'd create salary cap space for him. OKC has done a great job selling him a future there. He liked playing with Westbrook, Adams & Donovan. They have a real opportunity to keep him but the Lakers are home. He grew up in LA & when he left Indiana, his plan was he'd be in LA in a year. Credit OKC for turning his head on that. Philadelphia, he fits right in. Houston will be aggressive to see if there's a way to get him there. At this point in his career, he has to pick winning. That's his focus. That'll be his legacy in the league. What is the outlook for the Thunder? Bobby Marks: Expensive. You add Paul George at his $30M slot, that is a salary with luxury tax of $260M, not even factoring in putting some pieces together. The likely odd man out will be Jerami Grant. Bringing Grant back on a $10M contract will cost an additional $40M in luxury tax. We could see the first $300M team this offseason. I've been told by people close to the organization they're willing to pay a luxury tax there. Will they pay it to bring back Jerami Grant. It's one thing for Paul George, another for a $10M player. Woj: The most intriguing scenario remains him partnering with LeBron in Los Angeles. Paul George alone doesn't make them a contender but partnering with LeBron, walking through the door, there's an easy pathway for the Lakers to get cap space. That'll be a conversation those guys will have as we get closer to July.
PG returns on a 1(+1) deal to OKC LeBron returns to Cleveland on 1(+1) deal Kawhi, whether he's traded or remains in SA can enter free agency next year We go through this all over again next summer.