Sources: Clippers’ George opts out, entering FA

LA Clippers star Paul George is declining his $48.7M option and will enter free agency, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

George is planning to meet with teams that have enough salary cap space to potentially sign him and the Clippers beginning Sunday night, sources added.

With George declining his player option, the opt-in-and-trade scenario for him will no longer be possible.

George, 34, is coming off a season in which he played 74 regular season games — his most since he was traded to the Clippers before the 2019-20 season.

The nine-time All-Star averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He shot career-highs of 47.1% from the field, 41.3% from 3-point range and 90.7% from the free-throw line. George also made 45% on catch-and-shoot 3’s, fourth-best among 117 players to attempt 200-plus of those shots according to Second Spectrum.

After the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard agreed to a three-year, $153-million extension in January, George was optimistic that he would have his own extension soon as well. George was eligible for an extension up to four years and $221 million.

But the two sides were unable to come to an agreement leading to George’s decision to become a free agent. George will be eligible to sign a four-year, $212-million contact with teams that have the cap space. He’s also eligible to sign up to a four-year, $221-million contract and negotiate a no trade clause to remain with the Clippers. But he cannot sign a five-year contract with the Clippers because of the Over-38 rule according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

“We love Paul,” Lawrence Frank, Clippers president of basketball operations, said on Thursday. “We very much want to retain Paul, but we also very much understand and respect the fact this is a business.

“We hope Paul’s decision is to be here. He’s been awesome. He’s been an All-Star. He’s one of the best two-way players in the league. He’s a terrific person. He’s got great family, so we hope he’s here but also respect the fact that if he chooses to opt out, that’s his choice. He’s earned it and we’ll see how things play out.”

George wanted to play with Leonard and asked to be traded from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles during the summer of 2019 to be close to family. He grew up in nearby Palmdale and his parents attend as many homes games as possible.

As the franchise moves into the new Intuit Dome this season, it hopes to keep Leonard and George together. In their five seasons together, the Clippers won 69% of their games when both stars played. They helped the Clippers finish 51-31 this past season, their best regular-season during their five seasons together.

The Clippers, though, have just one Western Conference Finals appearance during the Leonard-George era. Both stars have not been able to stay healthy and the Clippers have lost in the first round in the past two postseason appearances. They were bounced in six games in the first round by Dallas in early May after Leonard was only able to play in two games due to inflammation in his surgically-repaired right knee.

Despite owner Steve Ballmer’s deep pockets, the Clippers have taken a cautious and measured approach toward building their future considering how restrictive the new collective bargaining agreement will be for tax-paying teams.

Frank acknowledged the organization has to make tough decisions in trying to keep its stars on the same three-year timeline. Point guard James Harden, who was acquired in a blockbuster trade in late October, is also a free agent.

“This is a business and the reality of the new CBA impacts teams like us,” Frank said when asked about why they would want to keep their stars on a three-year timeline like they have with Leonard. “When your better players are in their 30s and you’re trying to build a sustainable roster, it impacts it. Like if there was no CBA, with [owner] Steve Ballmer, it would be carte blanche. With the new CBA, it’s not even about the money as it is how are you going to build a sustainable roster, maintain your tools to have transactional flexibility? And with that comes really, really hard decisions.”

Since being drafted 10th overall in 2010 by the Indiana Pacers, George — who was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017 before being moved on to the Clippers two years later — has become one of the NBA’s pre-eminent wing players, even while recovering from a devastating leg injury he suffered during Team USA training camp in Las Vegas ahead of the 2014 FIBA World Cup.

George, the top free agent on the market this summer, is one of eight players to make at least nine All-Star teams since he entered the league, joining LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis. He also is a six-time All-NBA selection, including being a first-team selection in 2019.

After missing most of the 2014-15 season, however, George re-established himself as one of the top two-way perimeter players in the league, including averaging 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists this past season for the Clippers before losing in six games in the first round of the playoffs to the Mavericks.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this story.