Pacers forward George informs team he will leave in 2018
The Indiana Pacers’ timeline for making a decision on star forward Paul George just kicked into overdrive.
George’s camp has informed the Pacers that the four-time All-Star intends to leave in the summer of 2018 when he becomes a free agent, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday night. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because neither side publicly discusses unresolved personnel matters.
George has spent all seven of his NBA seasons in Indiana, emerging as one of the league’s top players. He averaged a career-high 23.7 points and shot 46 percent last season, but the seventh-seeded Pacers were swept by Cleveland in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The steady decline in competitiveness of the franchise, and LeBron James’ dominance of the conference, has led George to look elsewhere as he nears free agency next summer.
The Pacers’ chances of keeping George also took a big hit when he was not voted to one of the three All-NBA teams after this season. Had he been voted in, George would have qualified for a super-max contract worth about $210 million over five years, a staggering sum that may have been too much to turn down. Instead, the Pacers are able to offer him around $177 million.