Paul George arrives in Boston after his $51.7M bought 37 games in Philadelphia last season
Paul George has answered the hierarchy question before the Celtics play a game. "So, again, JT is the guy," he said in an interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub, as quoted by Fadeaway World in a piece syndicated by Yardbarker. "I'm here and want to be here to help him be the best version, and help him be in that MVP conversation."
He also made a broader claim about himself: "I still can be efficient; I can still have an imprint on the game with any role that I have." The date of the interview was not reported.
Fadeaway World frames George as Boston's intended number two behind Jayson Tatum in the aftermath of the Jaylen Brown trade. The reporting does not give that trade's terms or say whether George came to Boston in it, so the two moves are linked here by framing only.
The same piece is blunt about what George brings with him. It says his contract "was considered one of the worst in the NBA, borderline untradeable to some," and puts his averages across his last two seasons in Philadelphia at 16.7 points on 43.4% shooting.
Last season's money reads the same way. George's $51.7M salary with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2025-26 ranked 13th of the 435 rated players, while his production ranked 203rd.
How that production rank was made matters more than the rank itself. It is a season total, and George was on the floor for 37 of his team's 82 games: about $28.4M of his salary went to games he did not play.
That leaves an honest uncertainty. A season total folds missed games and per-game output into one number, so last season's figures cannot say how much of the shortfall was absence and how much was play. Fadeaway World's writer argues the production "has just not been there" even when George was healthy, which is that outlet's reading of his averages, not something the season total settles.
The team-level view shows the same imbalance from another angle. George accounted for 27% of Philadelphia's payroll last season and 6% of its production.
The playoffs add a wrinkle. Philadelphia lost in the conference semifinals, and George played 11 playoff games and supplied 15% of the team's playoff production, a larger share than in the regular season. It is a short run, and it says more about what he contributed when he played than about what he can sustain.
His WAGE Score in 2025-26 was 3, 425th among the rated players, which places last season in the Sunk Cost tier. The season before scored lower still.
There is a real other side, and George's own career supplies it. Across 15 rated seasons since 2011-12, his salaries have on balance bought more than the going rate, through the roles Fadeaway World lists: a wing who grew into a star in Indiana, a co-star beside Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City, second to Kawhi Leonard with the Clippers.
That record gives his "any role" claim some weight. What his last two seasons in Philadelphia added was missed games, 42 and then 37, and a change of role does not address that by itself.
I'd argue that makes the deference in the interview the part that matters least for Boston's money. Accepting Tatum as the lead answers a fit question; the salary sheet's question is availability, and Fadeaway World's mention of good health entering the season cites reports without naming a source, with no team or medical confirmation in the reporting.
The reporting does not give George's salary for 2026-27 or what remains on his contract, so last season's reading cannot be carried onto this one. What it does show is where the shortfall began: time off the floor.