Paul George left off All-NBA Teams

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The All-NBA Teams for the 2016-17 season were announced on Thursday. While the Lakers did not have any players in legitimate consideration for being named one of the top 15 players in the league, they anticipated the results eagerly due to the contract situation of Paul George.

The Pacers star, who has been heavily linked to the Lakers for months now, did/did not end up making the list. George was left off all three teams in favor of Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green who made the All-NBA Third Team.

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For the Lakers, George’s exclusion could be a small victory on the road to bringing the LA native to the Purple and Gold. With this news, George no longer has financial incentive to sign an extension this summer and will almost certainly hit free agency in 2018.

While the Lakers may still deem it worthwhile to trade for the superstar – their public comments suggest otherwise – the major implication here is that they can probably safely wait until the summer to make a pitch at George. The risk there is that a team like the Boston Celtics could theoretically swoop in and trade for George before he hits free agency to then retain his Bird rights and the advantage in re-signing him in 2018.

Nevertheless, this is a small win for the Lakers as it means they can remain patient and hope the allure of Los Angeles is enough to sway Paul George.

Anything can change in the next few months. The Lakers could attempt to trade for George or they could opt to stick with the youth and hope to make a splash in free agency later. But for now, this is a big bit of news regarding their near future.

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  1. Pingback: Report: Paul George plans to look at options this weekend before meeting with Pacers; Lakers tried to trade for him in February – Lakers Outsiders

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