Clippers Reveal Offseason Plans For Paul George, James Harden

The Los Angeles Clippers’ most recent disappointing season has led to many questions about what the team will look like in the future.

As things presently stand, while Kawhi Leonard is locked up long-term, neither Paul George nor James Harden are tied to the franchise beyond this year.

This week, Lawrence Frank went into great detail about the organization’s feelings as they pertain to George specifically.

“I think we want Paul, we value Paul,” he said.

Lawrence Frank on why an extension with Paul George didn’t get done:

“I think the thing is every deal has to work for both sides and I think we got to a point where we just said, ‘you know what? We can continue the conversations but let’s just table it until the end of the… pic.twitter.com/XdiRUqJ6ab

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“Paul’s done some tremendous things here. He’s an elite player and our biggest thing is we always want to be able to treat players well and pay them fairly and we also have to build out a team, especially this is a new CBA, but in terms of the exact money, I would never go into details other than we’ve had really, really good conversations over the course of the year and hopeful that we can get ’em to remain a Clipper.”

Frank was then pressed on why, if getting a deal done with George was a priority, it hadn’t actually happened.

“Every deal has to work for both sides,” Frank continued.

“And I think we got to a point where we just said, ‘You know what? We can continue the conversations but let’s just table it until the end of the year.’ So I anticipate that we’ll pick up conversations.

“Everything’s been on a very, I’d say cooperative and collaborative measure and he can sign his extension up until July 1st and then he can also test free agency and we’re hopeful that we can still bring him back.”

Frank also expressed a desire to bring back Harden next year.

“Yeah, that’s our intent,” he said.

“We want to retain those guys. We’re hopeful we can but also understand and respect the fact that they’re free agents. Paul is a decision with his option. James will be an unrestricted free agent, so our intent is to bring him back but also realize that they’re elite players and they’ll have choices.”

Where will George and Harden ultimately end up playing come next season? Time will tell.

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Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.