Page 26 - Florida Sentinel 6-28-18

Sports
LeBron James Unlikely To Choose Lakers Without Paul George
Kevin Durant Expected
The Los Angeles Lakers may be the heavy gambling favorite to sign LeBron James this offseason, but it sounds like Paul George has the ability to change the odds in a big way.
Like LeBron, George has until Friday to decide if he will opt out of the final year of his contract.
While it makes sense fi- nancially for him to go that route, there has been some talk that George could re- sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder on a short-term
LeBron is a lot less likely to sign with the Lakers if George remains in OKC.
LeBron may be ready to live the L.A. lifestyle full- time, but he’s at a point in his career where he probably doesn’t want to do that at the expense of contending for championships.
If you add LeBron to the current Lakers and not much else, that hardly seems like enough to compete with the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.
Not Exercise Option
LEBRON JAMES AND PAUL GEORGE
deal to see if things improve next season.
According to one report,
Kevin Durant is ex- pected to become a free agent this summer, but Golden State Warriors fans should not be too worried.
The New York Times’
Marc Stein said on Monday that Durant is not expected to exercise his player option for 2018-19 when the dead- line comes up on Friday. In- stead, he is expected to become a free agent.
This move is financially- motivated, as Durant is ex- pected to seek a raise from the $26.25 million he could have received from his player option (here are some of his contract options).
In his first two seasons with Golden State, Durant took less money than he
KEVIN DURANT
could have made elsewhere in the interest of building a stronger Warriors team. He’s not expected to give them a break this time, though the sides are expected to have a deal in place quickly once the July 1 free agency period be- gins.
To Become Free Agent,
Danny Green Exercises
Paul George Takes
His $10M Option To
Shot At Pacers
Remain With Spurs
Over Stephenson
Danny Green exercised his $10 million option for the 2018-19 season.
Green was expected to exercise his option, so this news isn’t surprising. Green may have felt that the $10 million guaranteed was bet- ter than what he could have received on the open market.
Green, 31, averaged 8.6 points per game last season. He shot 38.7 percent from the field — his third straight season under 40 percent shooting — but a lot of that is
Paul George isn’t too pleased with how his former team just did one of his former
James Harden Doesn’t
Decision
DANNY GREEN
attributed to most of his shots being 3-point at- tempts. He’s a career 39.5 percent shooter on threes.
Pacers decided to decline Lance Stephenson’s fairly cheap $4.3M team option for next season, making him a free agent.
The decision got a pretty strong reaction out of George, who took to Instagram just min- utes later to shade the Pacers.
The five time All-Star for- ward posted a screenshot of the news and wrote, “Wow and I was the bad guy huh?! In this business you do what’s right for YOU! #PacerLegend.”
The Houston Rockets pushed the Warriors to seven games in the 2018 Western Conference finals, giving Golden State its greatest post- season challenge since 2016 in the process. And they did it without all-star point guard Chris Paul for the final two games of the series — both losses.
So you can understand why James Harden thinks his team doesn’t need to chase LeBron James in free agency this summer.
“We were a half away from the Finals,” Harden told the media after accepting regular- season MVP honors for the first time in his career. “I don’t think there’s a piece we need to bring in or take away. We’re great with what we have. Our main focus is get-
PAUL GEORGE
LeBron James To Be Great
teammates.
On Tuesday, the Indiana
Think The Rockets Need
JAMES HARDEN
ting better, getting healthier, and then doing what we do.”
Harden also pointed to the acclimation of veterans like Paul, P.J. Tucker, and Luc Mbah a Moute — all in their first year with the Roc- kets — as reason to believe Houston can be even better in 2018-19.
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