No. 2 goal for Paul George to win MVP with the LA Clippers next year: Get the steal count back up
With the LA Clippers, Paul George has averaged 1.4 and 1.1 steals per game, respectively in his two seasons. In his two years with the Oklahoma City Thunder, George averaged at least two per season.
When George was in MVP contention (2018-2019), he averaged 2.2 steals per game. He was the steal champion that season.
If he can get to that level again, while improving his jumper like I stated on the previous slide, he’s going to be a really attractive MVP candidate for the voters.
It’ll be tough for George to do it, as he’ll be taking on the hardest defensive assignment every game for the Clips now that Leonard isn’t there.
Once again, however, that’s how it was in Oklahoma City. He’s played at this level before, and he started inching back to that when Kawhi couldn’t play and George really had to step up.
That was against two top-two seeded teams in the best NBA conference, too. Just wait for George to absolutely feast on defense come the 2021-2022 season.