With Oubre sidelined, George returns to fill a crucial scoring void. Can he seamlessly reignite the Sixers' offense?
After missing the first 12 games of the season, Philadelphia 76ers star forward Paul George will be making his season-debut against the Los Angeles Clippers, according to Shams Charania.
Fortunately for the Sixers, while they could have used him all season, his return couldn't have come at a better time.
Kelly Oubre Jr. left Philly's last game against the Detroit Pistons with a hyper-extended knee that has now been diagnosed as an LCL injury and has no timetable for a return. This is a huge blow for the team as Oubre has been playing some of the best ball in his Sixers career over this first stretch of the season, and that's going to be hard to make up for.
That said, if there's anybody who's capable of doing so, it's George, who will basically slip into the exact role that Oubre was taking on before. This season, Oubre has averaged 16.8 PPG and though George struggled last year, he still averaged 16.2 PPG, so it shouldn't be too much of an ask from him despite the team missing a couple of key players.
Last season was also viewed in a particularly bad light as George was expected to average around 20 points and not only did he fail to meet that bar, but he didn't play much either, missing exactly half of the season. This season, however, now that he's not expected to take on a huge role, there should be less pressure on him to succeed which will take the mental battle out of things.
Tyrese Maxey hasn't been quite as efficient as of late, but he's still averaging MVP-level numbers, leading the way for the Sixers with 32 PPG thus far. Star rookie VJ Edgecombe has also been fantastic other than a rough shooting streak, as he's averaging 15.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 4.2 APG.
To add to their incredible backcourt play, Quentin Grimes has averaged 16.6 PPG off the bench, providing some much-needed scoring throughout the season. That said, his playmaking has been awful thus far, as he becomes a liability almost every time he puts the ball on the floor. Hopefully, adding Jared McCain back to the lineup will be able to prevent Grimes from being the primary ball handler at any time.
With all that being said, Philly's backcourt should be able to take the majority of the responsibility of scoring the ball, so if George can score somewhere between 12-16 points consistently, it should be enough to help the team win, especially when Embiid comes back. It will be important to remember that this is George's first in-game action in quite some time, so we can't judge him too harshly on just this performance if he struggles a bit.