Paul George showed his scoring skills in his preseason debut with the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night.
He made 8 of 15 shots and scored a team-high 23 points in a 121-111 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. George played for 26 minutes, hit four 3-pointers, and added six rebounds and two assists.
His debut is part of a trend of new players in new teams this preseason, including Karl-Anthony Towns in New York, Chris Paul in San Antonio, DeMar DeRozan in Sacramento, and Klay Thompson in Dallas.
The 76ers signed George to a four-year, $212 million contract as a free agent this summer.
He is now on his fourth team after spending seven years with Indiana, two years with Oklahoma City, and the last five years with the Los Angeles Clippers.
He’s a nine-time All-Star, a six-time All-NBA selection, and has averaged 20.8 points over his first 14 NBA seasons.
The game in Iowa was a homecoming for 76ers coach Nick Nurse. He is from Iowa, coached Minnesota’s G League team when it was based in Iowa, and was the head coach at Grand View University in Des Moines. Nurse was the youngest college coach in the country when he took that job at 23.
