Report: Warriors Tried ‘Hard’ To Acquire Paul George, Would Have Given Him Max Extension

According to NBA reporter Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, the Golden State Warriors tried “hard” to acquire Paul George from the Los Angeles Clippers. 

The Warriors were prepared to give George a max extension. 

“The Warriors went hard to try to trade for George last month — and offered to give him a four-year max extension — because George is a superior overall player and would’ve given the Warriors greater immediate value,” Kawakami wrote. 

The Clippers didn’t want to trade George to the Warriors.

George wound up declining his 2024-25 player option and signing a four-year max deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, who now have a “Big 3” of George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.  

George averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.5 blocks for the Clippers in 2023-24 while shooting 47.1% from the field, 41.3% from 3 and 90.7% from the free-throw line.

George has career averages of 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.4 blocks with the Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Clippers. He was born and raised in Palmdale, California. 

George has made nine All-Star teams, six All-NBA teams and four All-Defensive teams.

On his podcast, George spoke about almost getting traded to the Warriors. 

“That was a real thing that was close to being done,” George said. “That deal was close to being done from what I was being told on the situation. They was expressing just how much they wanted me there, how I could have fit in perfectly with Draymond [Green], Steph [Curry]. Klay [Thompson] probably would’ve stayed. [Brandin] Podziemski, [Jonathan] Kuminga, [Andrew] Wiggins. They didn’t know how or what package was going to be there to trade for me…[Kevon] Looney was going to be there. And so it was very intriguing and it was still an opportunity to stay close to home, stay on the West Coast, and it was a win-win.

“I think Steph is a unicorn, one of one player, and Joel’s a unicorn…So it was kind of like a good situation to be in the middle of, but ultimately the deal didn’t go through. I think Clippers didn’t want a certain trade deal that Warriors were willing to give and yeah, it just didn’t happen but it was close. It’d been dope, man. I was looking forward to it, if it happened.”