Part of the reason the Boston Celtics fanbase was mad about the Jaylen Brown trade is that they know they didn't get prime Paul George back for him. From a talent perspective, currently going from Brown to George is a downgrade, but the latter is still a quality basketball player. This presents a fascinating challenge for Joe Mazzulla.
Mazzulla has been quite masterful at making things work whenever his options have been limited (look at what happened this past season), but George presents a rather unique challenge. The days of him putting up 25 points a night regularly are long gone, but George is still an excellent shooter and defender for his size.
Boston knows this firsthand from their playoff series against Philadelphia, which is why they won't ask George to play like a star. At this stage of his career, despite what he's owed, he's no longer at that level. Mazzulla's challenge will be helping George transition into more of a glorified 3&D wing. Because he can still create his own shot, even better.
The words "overpaid" and "bad" can overlap with one another, but that's not the case with George. He should be paid more like Derrick White - around $30 million - and if that's what he is, even if it's not prime Brown, Boston should be thrilled about that.
Sadly though, that's not the only challenge with him.
Mazzulla will also have to work around his health
Making the talent downgrade worse is the fact that George has a long history of injuries. Since 2019, he's played more than 70 games only once, which was his final season with the Clippers (2023-24). That was the exception to the norm, as he's played between 31 to 56 games in that same timespan.
Now in his mid-30s, the Celtics likely won't just decrease his role, but will also likely put him on the same plan they put Al Horford on. Among Boston's biggest goals will be making sure they have George ready for the playoffs. The best way to do that will likely be to rest him when they can and to utilize their wing depth, which is considered to be a strength of theirs.
So Mazzulla has two major challenges with George this season: figuring out how to best utilize him when his best days are long gone and making sure George's pressing injury concerns won't be a problem this season.
Mazzulla has been able to work around challenges like that before, but not quite like this. George may wind up being even better than expected, but only if the Celtics play their cards right with him. After Mazzulla just came off his best year as a coach, the best-case scenario with George may definitely be on the table.
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