Boston inherits $51.7M of Paul George and a 37-game attendance sheet

2026-10-01

Look, when Paul George landed in Boston in the Jaylen Brown trade, the easy read was luggage: matching money with a forwarding address. One NBA executive says don't assume the Celtics want to dump him. Fair enough. So I pulled the receipt.

With the Philadelphia 76ers last season, George played just 37 games, and about $28.4M of his $51.7M salary went to nights he didn't suit up. That's a gym membership in March: the payments keep clearing and the treadmill forgets your face.

Wait, what? Last season he was paid like the 13th player in the league and produced like the 203rd, a 3 WAGE Score that sits in Sunk Cost (and that ranking comes only from the games he actually played).

Here's my theory, call it the Attendance Clause: a salary only becomes a building block if it shows up to the build. So the executive's point turns into one question you can track from your couch: is George on the floor most nights next season, producing closer to what a top-15 paycheck asks?

If yes, Boston has a piece to build with. If not, it's still matching money, and the treadmill keeps waiting to see his face.