With Jaylen Brown out, now the Boston Celtics have to focus on how to integrate Paul George into their system. Let the record show that, yes, George is overpaid, but that doesn't mean he can't be useful for the Celtics. The biggest concern with George at this stage of his career is not what he can still do on the court, but whether he can stay on it.
George has missed a considerable amount of time over the past few seasons, though to be fair, he missed 25 games due to suspension. Even if he hadn't missed those games, it still would have tallied up to 62 in total. Plus, it's fair to believe that he probably wouldn't have played that many.
The Celtics surely didn't acquire George just for cap flexibility. They did so hoping he would be a game-changer for them, even if he's not Brown. He proved to them in the worst way possible that he still impactful when he's on the floor, so to ensure that he's playing for them when it matters most, they need to put him on the Al Horford plan.
Horford wasn't injury-prone in Boston, but it should still be fresh on everyone's minds that the Celtics did everything in their power to conserve him in his second tenure with the team (in the latter three years), which meant resting him on back-to-backs no matter what.
This strategy proved effective, as Horford played a key role in multiple playoffs runs, including Banner 18. It especially became crucial once Kristaps Porzingis, and suddenly Horford became their ace in the hole.
George is no longer among the NBA's elites, but doesn't get enough credit for how well he's transitioned in his decline minus the injuries. To prevent that from becoming a problem in Boston, the Horford plans seems like the most straightforward plan for PG-13.
Celtics have the wing depth to withstand George's absence
What made the Celtics' plan passable with Horford back in the day was having multiple big men who could fill the void. The first year they did this, they had Blake Griffin, Luke Kornet, and Mike Muscala (to a lesser degree) to fill in, which surprisingly worked quite effectively.
His last two seasons as a Celtic, they had Porzingis, Kornet, and Neemias Queta. Horford's absence proved not that big an issue because Boston planned accordingly. Even before they got George, they have the wing depth to withstand the possibility of resting him on back-to-backs.
Besides Jayson Tatum, Boston has Sam Hauser, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, and even Ron Harper Jr. to pick up the slack. They did it before to compensate for Tatum's absence, and it worked out splendidly in the regular season. Doing the same with George should be even easier.
It's not fun to pay a player over $50 million a year to rest for a quarter of the season (most optimistically), but despite what they've lost, Boston wants the best product on the floor in the postseason. George should definitely be part of that, but Boston should know that at this stage of his career, he's best utilized the same way as Big Al Horford.
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