BOSTON — Paul George made one thing clear during his introductory news conference with the Celtics: he has heard the reaction to the Jaylen Brown trade, and he is not pretending otherwise.
“I understand my circumstances. I understand how huge JB was, not only for the organization, but here in the city,” George said.
That is the backdrop to Boston’s latest roster shakeup. On July 1, the Celtics and Sixers agreed to a trade that sent Brown to Philadelphia and brought George to Boston, a deal that immediately changed the way the Celtics’ summer was being judged. Boston received two future first-round picks and the 36-year-old George, and the conversation around the move quickly centered on what the Celtics gave up, not just what they got back.
George did not try to talk around that.
“It’s a new group, a new opportunity,” he said.
The Celtics, for their part, are asking him to be more than a familiar name in a new uniform. They are counting on George to function as a No. 2 option and to stay healthy through an 82-game regular season and the playoffs. That is a demanding ask for any veteran, and it comes with an obvious layer of scrutiny here: Boston is not bringing in George to replace Brown point for point, but to help keep the team in contention while changing what it looks like on the court.
George said he believes he can do that.
“I think I can come in and kind of still keep us in that contention. Give us a chance to win,” he said.
The case for him is not built only on scoring. A Celtics analysis pointed to George’s defense as the part of his game that can still swing possessions and games, even now. He ranked in the 98th percentile for steals and deflections, and the broader point is that those numbers do not fully capture how disruptive he can be when his on-ball defense is working. In that view, George is not being asked to recreate Brown’s role so much as to add a different kind of pressure on the other end.
That matters in Boston because the trade itself left a lot of people asking why the Celtics would move a player who had just been named Finals MVP. George acknowledged that emotional weight, too.
I understand how huge JB was, not only for the organization, but here in the city,” he said again, making clear he knows the size of the void he is walking into.
There is also the practical question of whether George can hold up physically. He spent much of last season dealing with a left knee hyperextension that required surgery and kept him out for 41 games. He said those injury issues are behind him now.
“I feel like I’ve turned that corner of dealing with injuries, and now, kind of, re-establishing myself from a physical standpoint again,” George said.
That is the other part of the test in Boston. The Celtics are not just evaluating how George fits next to their existing pieces; they are also betting that he can remain available. The roster has enough depth to rotate players in and out, but George’s role still carries a simple requirement: be on the floor, and be effective when he is there.
There is at least some recent evidence for the latter. In a postseason matchup against the Celtics, George averaged 17.4 points, four rebounds and three assists while making 55 percent of his 3-point attempts. That series is part of why his arrival feels so layered: Boston is now asking a player who just helped end its season to help shape its next one.
The Celtics’ summer has already been defined by change. The team’s title core has been altered, and the front office has made clear it is willing to reshape the roster. George arrives into that uncertainty with a straightforward message and a familiar kind of pressure attached to it.
He knows how the move looks.
Now the question is whether his defense, his availability and his production can make the conversation sound different by the time the games start.