Could LeBron James Cause Paul George To Sign With The Los Angeles Lakers?

Sweeping the Indiana Pacers out of the playoffs may have caused LeBron James to sweep Paul George right into the arms out Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers.

It looks a lot like LeBron James will cause Paul George to leave the Indiana Pacers in free agency and join a Western Conference team, possibly the Los Angeles Lakers.

Comments like that are telling, aren’t they? Not to say that it’s surprising that consistently losing to the same team or person could cause a player to be frustrated. However, when looking at Paul George’s future, it seems a lot like he’s alluding to leaving the Indiana Pacers in free agency.

George won’t be a free agent this summer, and it’s not a guarantee he’ll be a free agent in 2018 either as he’d have to opt out of the last year of a 5-year, $91.5 million contract.

Yet, looking at his comments and the opportunities he has elsewhere, it shouldn’t be a hard decision for George to make. With the Indiana Pacers, a team that will have around $30 million in cap space before re-signing starting point guard Jeff Teague, there isn’t much hope that the team George has played on since his rookie season will ever get over the hump in the East.

Getting over the hump means defeating LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in the playoffs while James is on a realistic mission to be the best player of all-time. Even if the Pacers were to reach the NBA Finals, would they be able to beat the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets or San Antonio Spurs in seven-game series?

It’s a dubious proposition at best.

What’s more likely is George choosing to go the Western Conference. Not to team up with any of the super-charged behemoths out West but to join a team that could snatch the rug right from under the top dog.

The Los Angeles Lakers could be one of those teams. According to Bleacher Report’s Rob Goldberg, there’s mutual interest.

In 2018, the Lakers will have young and talented pieces in D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Ivica Zubac and Larry Nance Jr. in their core for sure. They’ll have one of the top picks in the draft this offseason, a player that could end up being Lonzo Ball, Markelle Fultz, Josh Jackson or even a player like Jayson Tatum.

By the end of next season, they could have one of the most promising squads in the league.

Adding George to the mix could allow their team to rival a team like Harden’s Rockets while the Warriors have to worry about re-signing a few of their core players in 2018. They won’t be challenging for a title in Year 1 but by George’s third season with the team (he’ll be 29-years-old) they could be.

All that is hypothetical of course, theoretical, but it’s more or less a law of nature at this point that says James will at least make it to the NBA Finals in the East. Quite frankly, the other Eastern Conference teams don’t have a player to hold a candle to James. Teams that come close to having that type of player, like the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls and don’t have enough firepower elsewhere on the court to deal with Irving, Love and Cleveland’s bevy of shooters.

George has likely thought about all of this already even if he won’t publicly admit it. It’s like a junior in high school saying they haven’t thought about what college they would like to attend a couple of years from now. They likely have an idea of where they want to be even if they aren’t 100 percent sure that’s where they want to be.

It’s a strange game, the one that James causes other NBA players to play. They either team up to take him out like the Golden State Warriors or they play for moral victories like the Detroit Pistons.

This time, James may cause a player to jump ship to avoid facing him before the NBA Finals.

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Do you think LeBron James will cause Paul George to leave the Eastern Conference altogether? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.