How Paul George Quietly Reinvented His Game to Ignite the Celtics' Hot Start

Paul George is enjoying an incredible start to his season in Boston. He’s averaging 20.4 points for the Celtics while playing 30 minutes per game, and his true shooting percentage is at 60%, which would be the second-highest of his career if it holds all season.

But this isn’t just a case of George finding a fountain of youth in Boston. He’s also playing a bit differently for the Celtics than he has in the past. He has gone from a high-volume pick-and-roll engine with the LA Clippers, to an isolation specialist with the Philadelphia 76ers, to an off-ball movement weapon and playmaking hub in Boston.

Let’s start with the basics. George’s usage so far this season, 28.5%, would rank as the highest in four seasons if it continues at this rate. The same goes for his 23.6% assist rate. He’s more of a play-finisher for Boston than he’s been since 2022-23. His three-point rate is above 50% for the first time in his career, even though, according to Synergy Sports, his spot-up shots are down from last season.

Back in his Clippers days, George was obviously a primary driver of the offense alongside Kawhi Leonard. According to Synergy, between 2019 and 2023, pick-and-roll ball-handler possessions accounted for a massive chunk of his workload, ranging from 29.3% to a peak of 36.3% in 2021-22. When factoring in his passing out of those sets, nearly half of his total offensive possessions, between 42.3% and 49.3%, came out of the pick-and-roll, where he consistently graded out as "Very Good" or "Excellent" (up to 1.095 points per possession in 2020–21).

Across his two seasons with the Sixers, isolation rose to a career-high share of his offense at 19.9% in 2024-25 and 19.3% in 2025-26. He was elite in those matchups, grading out as "Excellent,” according to Synergy, both years at 1.055 and 1.045 PPP, while maintaining balanced efficiency whether driving left (0.900 to 0.988 PPP) or right (0.936 to 1.000 PPP).

Which brings us to the beginning of his time in Boston, where he’s evolving yet again, thanks to Boston’s new offensive focus this season. George is thriving in off-ball actions and leaning into his playmaking to take advantage when defenses overreact or overcommit.

The off-screen actions that bogged down in Philadelphia have become lethal in Boston. According to Synergy, George is averaging a blistering 1.722 PPP coming off screens (8.7% frequency) and 1.313 PPP on handoffs (7.7% frequency), both grading out as "Excellent,” while continuing to knock down spot-up looks at 1.179 PPP (18.8% frequency) and converting cuts at 1.714 PPP. In Philadelphia, he averaged 0.859 PPP off screens last season, which was only “Average,” and 0.779 PPP the season before, a “Below Average” number.

The Celtics are one of the league’s top performers in off-screen actions, scoring 1.20 PPP according to NBA data, good for third in the league and an increase from the 0.98 last season. They are third in overall frequency and second in points scored per game. This is leading to an increase in passes per game, with Boston currently averaging 292.8, up from 285.2, essentially eight more passes per game.

George is taking advantage of the Celtics evolution in style to put together a very strong start to the season. Like most players, he does well while sharing the floor with Jayson Tatum (+54 in approximately 176 minutes with Tatum), but his true value is in how he’s able to anchor non-Tatum minutes. He’s +27 in nearly 95 minutes played without Tatum on the floor. It’s an important development for a team that was searching for how to handle the non-Tatum minutes after the Jaylen Brown trade.

No one expected George to replace Brown, but what he’s providing fills enough of that gap that the Boston Celtics are handling the start to their season pretty well. The on/off numbers that were unkind to Brown are tilted in George’s favor this season.

It’s important to note that the samples this early in the season can’t be expected to continue at the same trajectory. There will be ebbs and flows as the season wears on, especially for a 36-year-old. The competition has also been pretty favorable for Boston (seven of their 10 games have come against below .500 teams, five of which are currently the three worst teams in the conference), so we need to see if these trends hold against the best of the best.

That starts tomorrow night in Philadelphia. The Celtics have 11 games left on the November schedule, eight of them against teams currently above .500. For Boston to continue playing well and rack up wins, they’ll need Paul George to continue thriving in this Boston system.

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