The conversation around Paul George’s deal has shifted fast, and the Philadelphia 76ers are getting a little less of the blame than they were a few months ago.
Back in March, the Sixers were catching heat for what CBS Sports labeled two of the NBA’s most overpaid contracts. Joel Embiid’s four-year, $188.2 million deal was viewed as the league’s worst. George’s two-year, $110.7 million contract checked in fourth on that list.
By mid-August, Embiid is still sitting at No. 1 in that conversation. George, though, has slid all the way down to No. 12.
So what changed? Mostly the market around him.
A wave of movement across the league altered the entire ranking. Trae Young’s massive extension with the Washington Wizards pushed him all the way up to No.
- De’Aaron Fox’s rough showing in the NBA Finals sent him tumbling from No. 15 to No.
- Devin Booker moved up a bit alongside Christian Braun, while Gary Trent’s $64 million deal landed him at No. 7 right away after he had been left off the original list.
That reshuffling explains George’s drop, but it doesn’t fully settle the debate.
“When I ranked George No. 4 on the March list, it was based on the assumption that the rest of the league viewed George as a negative-value contract,” CBS Sports' Sam Quinn wrote. “Most of it might have, but the fact that Boston didn't touches on a pretty important concept when it comes to contract valuations: portability.”
That’s where the argument gets interesting.
Boston valuing George does not automatically make the contract clean or smart. Front offices miss on players all the time, and the Sixers thought they were landing the right kind of star when they gave George the four-year, $211.5 million deal in 2024. They found out quickly that they had overpaid.
George hasn’t delivered like a max-level player in Philadelphia, and availability has been a major issue too. He was only available half of the time. The Celtics deserve credit for moving on from a superstar when they felt the time was right, but that doesn’t erase the broader view that Boston got fleeced.
The fact that George has fallen from No. 4 to No. 12 does a lot of work for the Celtics’ image this offseason. Maybe he fits with Jayson Tatum and Boston.
He did show decent role player value against them in the first round of the 2026 playoffs. But that still doesn’t make the contract worth $110 million.
Daryl Morey and the Sixers took plenty of criticism for signing George to that deal, and that scrutiny has followed them for two years. If the league is now softening on the contract just because Boston showed interest, Philadelphia has every reason to bristle.
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