LA Clippers: Future outlook/predicting Paul George’s role next year

When it comes to Paul George‘s role with the LA Clippers next year, he’s going to have the most responsibility he’s ever had in a single season.

He’ll be asked to carry this franchise, just as he was asked to carry this franchise when Kawhi Leonard went down in the postseason last year. And he had a lot of success carrying the team. Without our franchise player, Paul George led the Clippers to a competitive Western Conference Finals series against the Suns.

He’s been the number one for the Indiana Pacers before, so he has experience leading the show. Next year is going to be another opportunity to do it again.

Paul George’s life on the LA Clippers is going to be difficult next year.

But that being said, this is an opportunity for Paul George to rise to the occasion and take his game to the next level for the LA Clippers.

Leonard took 17.5 shots per game last year, so PG is going to have a lot of opportunity with him out to be aggressive with his shot attempts. That being said, it’s a little easier said than done, as everybody’s going to be throwing a ridiculous amount of double-teams at PG13 next year.

It’ll be tough to keep that career-high 46.7% shooting percentage PG had last year. The biggest thing for PG is going to be how he responds to the difficult looks defenses are going to throw onto him next year. He’ll not only have a lot of pressure on him mentally, but he’ll have a lot of pressure on him physically on offense.

Defensively, he’ll have a tougher life as well. Kawhi is the best defender on the team.

He’s won multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards. George has won just one. Kawhi has seven All-Defensive Team selections to PG’s four.

Kawhi was manning the toughest defensive assignment most of the time for the LA Clippers, with George picking up the second-toughest. Now, he’ll have to pick up the opposing team’s best man.

Let’s also not forget that three-time All-Defensive Team selection Patrick Beverley is also not coming back next year. That’s less help once again on defense.

George can’t just be George next season. He’ll need to step up even more if the Clippers want to win this conference. But while these tasks seem daunting, he can do it.

He already closed out the Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals last year after Kawhi went down with the series tied 2-2. He already took the Suns to six games in the Western Conference Finals without Kawhi.

All he needs to do is pick up where he left off, and continue to progress even just a little, and we’re right back in title contention.

PG will have a lot on his shoulders next year, but he can and will handle it very well. He already did this past postseason, and will continue on his path to becoming a true superstar in this league.