{"id":866591,"date":"2026-10-24T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/866591\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T13:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:00:14","slug":"its-taken-two-celtics-games-for-me-to-become-a-paul-george-stan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/866591\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s taken two Celtics games for me to become a Paul George stan"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll admit it. When I saw Paul George on that ESPN graphic next to Jaylen Brown when Shams Charania broke the blockbuster deal this summer, I wanted to spike my phone.<\/p>\n

Sure, he\u2019d just had a nice playoff run for the Philadelphia 76ers. But George\u2019s $110 million owed over two years (player option next season) was widely viewed as one of, if not the worst, contracts in the NBA. At 36 years old, there\u2019s no way he was going to get better.<\/p>\n

Through two games, not only has George shattered the expectations of every non-team-employee in the Celtics community, but he\u2019s earned himself at least one stan<\/a> in me.<\/p>\n

George\u2019s record-breaking 38-point debut in Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Detroit Pistons got plenty of shine<\/a>. As it should\u2019ve. He was absolutely dialed in from deep, created shots for himself off the dribble, and got to the line consistently.<\/p>\n

More than anything, it felt like a statement. All of the \u201cwashed\u201d labeling had been premature according to George\u2019s game after he let his play do the talking.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s 15-point performance in Boston\u2019s 107-103 over the New York Knicks did just as much for me, to be honest. Was it as cool as watching the nine-time All-Star drilling heat check after heat check?<\/p>\n

But, it gave a more realistic scope of what we can all expect from the veteran forward on a regular basis, and how he can impact winning in ways that don\u2019t necessarily come up in the stat sheet. George\u2019s defensive game delivers in a similar fashion to how Jrue Holiday\u2019s did a few years ago.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s this added connectivity when he\u2019s on the floor. It feels like the rotations are quicker. The passing lanes are smaller. Teams simply have a harder time running their offense. Opponents have looked like they\u2019re wearing straightjackets in the halfcourt throughout this first month of both preseason and regular-season hoops.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the stats are there, too. George is tied for the second most steals the first two games of a season with seven. He swiped just as many in two preseason appearances. PG13\u2019s eight deflections thus far are tied with Dyson Daniels for the most in the NBA. It\u2019s clear that he has both defensive quarterback and cornerback written all over him.<\/p>\n

Brad Stevens clearly had a vision for George\u2019s fit when he decided to sign off on trading Brown last summer. He knew that his team\u2019s team defense would be dialed up to 100 and PG would give the Cs some important offensive support.<\/p>\n

Even Friday \u2014 an average feeling offensive night \u2014 George still knocked down three of his seven attempts from distance. His consistency as a catch-and-shoot guy dominated the copium-infused analytics arguments of the late summer months for good reason.<\/p>\n

Per Databallr, his spacing true-shooting percentage (which accounts for offball opportunities) was nearly 3% above league average and ranked in the 75th percentile. In years where he\u2019s played on more talented teams than the 7th-seeded 76ers of last season, George consistently ranked in the league\u2019s top-tier.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of reason to believe that he should return to that elite level playing alongside Jayson Tatum on this deep Celtics squad.<\/p>\n

George hasn\u2019t hid from the fact that he\u2019s past his prime. He\u2019s embraced it. It\u2019s not hard to see how leaning into his role with the Cs can maximize his success in it. Plus, you\u2019ll still get the occassional game like Tuesday, where he looks like prime Paul George.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll admit it. When I saw Paul George on that ESPN graphic next to Jaylen Brown when Shams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,1206,6,678,207,3817],"class_list":["post-866591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-basketball","tag-celtics-analysis","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117496015983647767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}