No. 1 LA Clippers player who will provide defensive fortitude: Paul George
Paul George is going to absolutely feast on defense for the LA Clippers this year.
PG13 is similar to Morris in the sense that he’s ready to handle the adversity of Kawhi not being out there anymore.
PG has been the number one defensive player on a playoff team before, and in one of those years, he was pretty sensational. In that 2018-2019 season, he was the steal champ and was named First-Team All-Defense.
This is going to be light work for PG. Did we forget that he averaged 2.2 steals per game the last time he was the number one defensive player on his team?
Taking on the number one offensive option on opposing teams isn’t something George can’t handle. He’s actually handled it at an elite level before.
In fact, defense helped PG’s offense a lot in that 2018-2019 season. It was one of his best offensive years of his career, and his two-way dominance had him as a First-Team All-NBA selection and in the conversation for MVP.
PG’s going to ball out this season, and be the defensive leader we need. The others will follow, and this team will be able to shut literally everyone down once Leonard is back and rolling.