The Celtics feel confident in pairing superstar Jayson Tatum in the prime of his career with an aging veteran and former All-Star in 36-year-old Paul George. Despite his career nearing its end, George is still proving to be a serviceable player on the court and Boston is hoping he still has some gas left in the tank.

For what it’s worth, the Celtics saw George up close and personal in the first round of the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers. In seven games against Boston, he averaged 17.4 points, four rebounds, and three assists on 48.9% shooting from the field and 55% from behind the arc.

During a quickly organized press conference, GM Brad Stevens said that George is a “really good player” that can carry a team for portions of a game, which he did against the Celtics in the first-round this past playoff run.

“We like Paul. Paul’s a really good player. We’re not very far removed from all sitting in our series against Philadelphia and watching Paul be a guy that could carry you for portions of a quarter or a half. But also play a complimentary role on both ends of the floor at the highest of levels. He’s excited to come to Boston.”

Although the trade seems like it’s a player-for-player swap in some ways, there are other reasons that’s not entirely true. For example, availability is going to be a concern with George this season; he’s only played more than 50-games in the regular season three times in the last seven seasons.

That said, if the plan was to give Tatum a wily running mate, George doesn’t necessarily fit the bill. Not to mention that the Celtics would likely (ideally) prefer to have George on a load management schedule to begin with.

It leads me to wonder how many games he’ll even be available for and how many of those games will be with Tatum.

Although the Celtics feel confident in adding George, the key part of the return for them is the pair of future first round and second round draft picks. It seems like they’re already preparing for the near-future direction of the franchise by trying to load up on high end future draft picks.

The Athletic’s Jay King recently wrote that the Celtics “sounded convinced” that George would still have some gas left in the tank to play at a high-level.

“The Celtics sounded convinced the nine-time All-Star still has some high-level basketball left to contribute.”

George is entering his 17th season and is going to be the second-oldest player on the Celtics roster this season, behind only veteran Mike Conley. Last season, George averaged 17.3 points on 44/39/82 shooting splits, with 5.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.7 steals per game (37 games).

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