Paul George hopes to finish his career with the LA Clippers

According to the LA Times’ Andrew Greif, during today’s LA Clippers shootaround, Paul George spoke about his hope to finish his career with the franchise.

We’re still getting used to the idea of Paul George being a member of the LA Clippers. After all, he only just made his franchise debut last week, and he’s appeared in four games to this point. However, it sounds as though George is thinking long-term in his partnership with the Clippers.

During the team’s shootaround this afternoon, George said that he hopes to finish his career in Los Angeles. Here’s the full quote, per the LA Times’ Andrew Greif:

"“Not a lot of people get to say they played back home and honestly I’m hoping that this is the closing of my journey, to be able to finish here in LA. It’s a great chapter, great last part of my book, hopefully. And I’m looking forward to doing big things here.”"

It sounds as though George has grown pretty comfortable in his current situation with the Clippers. He has, admittedly, said similar things about teams in the past — specifically about the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder — but there’s good reason to believe why George would seriously considering finishing up his career with LA.

The most obvious draw is the city. George was born in the city of Palmdale, which is roughly 60 miles north of Los Angeles. He grew up there, played basketball at Knight High School, and went on to play college basketball at Fresno State. He was then drafted by the Indiana Pacers in 2010, and he hasn’t lived in California since.

Being able to be back in his home state of California sounds like it means a lot to George, and that’s something that neither of his previous teams could offer. That alone gives some backing to George’s statements today.

There’s also the draw of playing with Kawhi Leonard, which is something George has wanted to do throughout his playing career.

Leonard is arguably the best player in basketball right now, and he’s no worse than a top-three talent. He also grew up around Los Angeles at the same time George did, only Leonard is from Riverside, which is a little closer to the city than Palmdale.

On the Clippers, the two are finally able to team up. Again, that’s something that no other franchise can offer right now, and there’s a chance that remains true for the rest of their respective playing careers.

Long-term, the Clippers could continue to roll with George as one of their franchise players, potentially along with Leonard. And so long as the two of them are healthy, LA’s championship window will remain open — yet another reason why George may want to finish his career with the Clippers.

As it stands, George is signed to play for the Clippers through the 2020-2021 season, and potentially the 2021-2022 season if he opts-in to the final year of his contract (though he’s not expected to do so). So while there is some time before George has to start thinking about his next NBA contract, he’s clearly already given it some thought.

It’s impossible to predict what George will do in the future, but it’s not hard to identify a few reasons why finishing his career with the LA Clippers makes sense for him.