Paul George ‘gone’ rumors are here to make Sam Presti’s job even harder

The Oklahoma City Thunder were bounced from the playoffs a lot earlier than they hoped, and even though the NBA season isn’t officially over things are already crazy in OKC.

We are not even a week removed from the Utah Jazz bouncing the Oklahoma City Thunder from the NBA playoffs, which means that five points on 2-16 shooting is probably still somewhat fresh in Paul George’s mind.

What else is probably fresh in George’s mind is the fact he has to make the biggest decision of his career this summer. He’s set to be a free agent this offseason, and now has to decide whether to stay in OKC or play basketball somewhere else next season. The latest from the rumor mill is decidedly the latter.

According to ESPN’s Ryen Russillo, as reported by SLAM Online, Paul George is “gone” after the Thunder failed to make it out of the first round:

"Russillo: “Today is the first time I’ve heard from anybody that I trust that George is gone.”To L.A.?Russillo: “I don’t know where. It’s a ‘He’s gone’ deal.”"

This definitely doesn’t do anybody any favors in the front office seeing as a few days ago Carmelo Anthony made his intentions clear. When Melo first got to Oklahoma City he said he wasn’t coming off the bench in a jokingly manner, and nobody made a big deal about it.

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Now that the season is over after Melo had an awful series, saying that he’s not coming off the bench is definitely not what you want to hear. Thunder general manager Sam Presti probably knows that Melo is going to take advantage of his $28 million opt-in clause so enticing George to stay with Melo in the budget is going to make Presti’s plate about as full as it can get.