The Philadelphia 76ers will play the remainder of the season without the services of Paul George, who the team signed to a massive deal last summer, worth $211.5 million over the course of four years.
George, who ended up playing just 41 games on the year, had injections in both his left adductor muscle, and left knee, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
Major concern moving forward
George, who turns 35 this season, has never been a pillar of health, and this season has done nothing to wash away those concerns. At his age, George isn’t necessarily expected to turn his detailed injury history around, which means the Sixers will have to accept that they could be stuck with his contract for a while.
Making matter worse is the fact that George didn’t play up to his usual standards. He averaged just 16.2 points per game, the lowest since his sophomore year, not counting his six-game season in 2014-2015.
This raises questions about what to expect for next season, if his game has deteriorated to an extent where a bounce back year seems too optimistic.
Should teams around the league deem George too risky as a potential trade target, the Sixers will likely have to simply wait most of his deal out, and instead focus on the development of Jared McCain, and Tyrese Maxey.
George isn’t the only heavy deal the Sixers should be worried about, as Joel Embiid is currently being viewed as one of the worst contracts in all of basketball due to his injury pattern, which saw him play just 19 games this season.
Not all is lost this season
Fortunately, the Sixers did experience some light this year, and that came from an unexpected source.
Quentin Grimes has been playing the best basketball of his career after he was moved from Dallas to Philadelphia before the trade deadline.
Grimes entered Monday averaging 19.9 points per game as a member of the Sixers, and is adding in five rebounds, and 3.8 assists to boot. During Monday’s loss to Houston, he went off for a career-high 46 points, his second 40-plus-point game as a member of the Sixers.
The 24-year-old will be a restricted free agent this summer, which does mean the Sixers will have yet another financial decision to make, and likely one that will prove expensive.
This shouldn’t discourage them from spending, however. Grimes is viewed as generally available for games, and his break-out isn’t exclusively based on putting up numbers on a bad team.
Grimes fared well in Dallas too, albeit in a lesser role, but has managed to maintain a high level of efficiency since arriving in Philadelphia, and on higher volume no less.
The 6’5 wing can play both the two and the three, so there’s some positional fluidity to his game, which the Sixers will surely view as an attractive element, particularly when put next to Maxey and McCain.
With George out for the remainder of the year, the path is cleared for Grimes to take even more of a leap, which surely is only going to improve his market.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.