Paul George
George is Boston's second forward next to Jayson Tatum, and through the first week or so of the season he has been used as a full-minutes, high-usage player rather than being eased in.
Role
Yahoo Sports, in a piece dated within the last few days, has him averaging 31.3 minutes with a 28.0 usage rate, his highest since 2022-23. ESPN's player page shows 30.4 minutes per game and 21.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game. He played both ends of the first back-to-back, against Chicago and Brooklyn, with 25 minutes in the Chicago blowout. In Boston's win over Chicago he scored 18 points with a team-high eight assists, while Payton Pritchard and Tatum scored more. He also takes the fourth-quarter minutes when Tatum sits, and he told reporters he takes those minutes seriously. I did not read a current starting-lineup page, so his starting status for the regular season is not confirmed here. The only lineup report I saw is a preseason one, from Oct 10, that listed him as a starter. Rotowire's September note says he steps into Jaylen Brown's former slot as one of Tatum's running mates. The sources I found did not say who competes with him for minutes.
The early workload backs the optimists. He is getting 30-plus minutes and a 28.0 usage rate, and he has played on back-to-backs. He opened with 38 points on 7 of 12 from three, and he is shooting 47.0% overall and 43.6% from three, per Yahoo. He is also contributing as a playmaker (seven assists against Brooklyn, a team-high eight against Chicago) and as a defender, with five steals in the opener. He says the past two years, when he played just 78 games combined including 25 missed for a suspension, were an anomaly.
The skeptics' case is durability and age. He is 36, and Rotowire notes he has reached 70 games just once in his last seven regular seasons. Yahoo describes his health as notably dodgy in recent years. Heavy early minutes and back-to-back availability raise the load on that history. He is also clearly the second option behind Tatum, who scored 40 and 32 in games I saw, so his scoring can swing between games. Our own record shows only 6 games played last season, which is not a sample I can interpret, so I draw no conclusion from it.
Where analysts split
The question is whether the heavy early minutes and usage hold across the 82-game season or the Celtics start resting him as his health history suggests. The coverage I found is mostly early-season production notes, so I did not find analysts openly arguing the point.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
Others at SF
Fantasy Memo reads your league and answers that every Monday, and checks your lineup on the days you play.
Connect your league: 14 days free