The primary reason why Boston Celtics fans are mad that Paul George was the best player they could get in return for Jaylen Brown is George's contract. He is undeniably overpaid for what he can do, but that notion can lead to a misunderstanding that he's a bad player, which isn't true. A player can be overpaid and at the same time not be bad. The Al Horford-Kemba Walker trade is proof of this.
When that deal was struck (almost immediately after Brad Stevens' move to the front office), many were confused. Kemba was falling out of his prime and fast, but Horford was one year removed from his disastrous stint in Philadelphia. Sure, Boston saved some money, but they gave up a first-round pick for someone who surely was also not exactly in his prime either.
Here was the difference between the two: Walker was not just overpaid but had also devolved into a bad player. It didn't take long for him to fall out of favor in New York the following season. Horford, on the other hand, proved from the jump that regardless of what you thought of his deal, he still had a lot of good basketball left in him.
It's even fair to argue he was the Celtics' third-best player behind the Jays that year, and that Boston wouldn't have gone nearly as far as they did had he not been there.
Even if he maybe was overpaid, Horford proved he would give the Celtics a lot more bang for their buck than Walker.
This is a different scenario, but the results can still be the same
Talent-wise, Brown is currently a better player than George is, which is why comparing it to swapping Walker for Horford isn't perfect. That leads to the secondary reason why Celtics fans aren't too excited about George: his age. Without question, he's not the same player he was in his prime.
However, before he was even traded to Boston, Philadelphia made it clear to George that they didn't want him to be prime PG-13. They wanted him to shoot threes and defend the perimeter at an elite level. That's exactly what he did, and look what that led to when they went up against the Celtics.
Does that mean he's not overpaid? Of course not! But George still proved himself to be useful, and it helped Philadelphia do something they hadn't done in over 40 years: beat Boston in a playoff series. The Celtics clearly took note of what George was still capable of, even in his mid-30s.
Boston believes they can compensate for Brown's absence across the roster (not just George himself) while simultaneously believing George can be good in his own way. It's like that scene from Moneyball when Billy Beane tells David Justice that he's not paying him to be the star he used to be but the player he is now: an impactful one.
George's days as an All-Star are gone, but if he's more or less the new Al Horford in Boston, that's a huge win. Boston's not asking George to play like he once did. They're asking him to do what he can to make the Celtics the best possible team, and if that's what he does, he'll be worth every penny.
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