Paul George reportedly set to return Thursday

The most surprising trade acquisition of the NBA offseason is finally set to take the the court for the LA Clippers.

After spending all of training camp and preseason and the start of the regular season recuperating from two shoulder surgeries, Paul George is ready to make his Clippers debut. Yahoo Sports reports that George will play for the Clippers on Thursday in New Orleans.

Yahoo Sources: Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George plans to make his season debut on Thursday against the New Orleans Pelicans. https://t.co/zDymilzLKu pic.twitter.com/d1UOzgtMNk
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) November 12, 2019

George was the second-leading scorer in the league last season with 28.0 points per game and also led the league in steals. He finished third in MVP voting, made the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career, and was voted an All-Star for the sixth time. However, after Oklahoma City lost in the first round for the second consecutive season, George asked out to join his hometown Clippers.

A Thursday return against the Pelicans would mean that George misses the first 11 games of the regular season, which is right in line with how the Clippers have been approaching his injury.

At media day, the Clippers said that George would likely play his first game in November, without specifying further. Thursday is Nov. 14, almost exactly halfway through the month.

After a win against Charlotte on Oct. 28, head coach Doc Rivers made an offhand remark that ended up specifying George's timetable when asked about the team's rotations. Rivers said, "Right now without PG, our thought is get through the 10 games any way we can. Whatever lineup we use doesn't matter, let’s figure it out." Again, George is projected to play in game 12.

George had his first 5-on-5 practice Saturday after ramping up through 3-on-3 the prior week. Per reporting from The Athletic, the Clippers intend to keep George on a minutes limit or exercise some sort of load management with their second star, similar to their current practice with Kawhi Leonard.

The Clippers had hoped to be whole when George came back, but recent circumstances have thrown a wrench into that plan. Landry Shamet suffered a high left ankle sprain in Monday's win over the Raptors; that injury was reported to be a grade 2 sprain, which would give Shamet a weeks-long recovery timetable, ideally sometime around Christmas.

Clippers guard Landry Shamet has avoided a significant injury: An MRI reveals Shamet suffered a Grade 2 high sprain on his left ankle, league sources tell ESPN. Timeline for return to be determined.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 12, 2019

Rivers and his staff would have had a tough decision (or at the very least, an interesting one) to make had Shamet been healthy when George came back. Now, George will likely slot into the starting lineup at the shooting guard slot in Shamet's place, leaving Patrick Patterson as the starting power forward. That means the five-man bench unit of Lou Williams, Rodney McGruder, Moe Harkless, JaMychal Green, and Montrezl Harrell remains intact.

However, Rivers has indicated that he plans on doing some staggering once he has both superstars available. When asked how George's presence would affect how Williams and Harrell ran the second unit, Rivers said, "I guess what I envision is you’ll have Lou and Montrezl together with either Kawhi or Paul all the time, so that will give them one more scorer, more space on the floor to do what they do."

The Clippers did not list Leonard on the injury report for Wednesday's game against Houston, the front end of the back-to-back. Presumably, that means Leonard will suit up against the Rockets and sit the next night against New Orleans. That would delay Leonard and George's combined debut until Saturday against Atlanta.

Without Shamet and George (who is listed as questionable) Wednesday, the Clippers have a variety of choices to replace Shamet in the starting lineup. To keep the reserves together, Rivers could go deep with Jerome Robinson. He could also just promote McGruder or Harkless to be the missing wing, and Harkless' recent play certainly merits increased minutes.

If George plays without Leonard Thursday, the bet here is that Williams joins the starting lineup. Leonard has shown that he can handle the playmaking capacity in the first five, but George coming off of injury shouldn't be forced to bear that burden immediately.

The Clippers have already been stifling opponents defensively with just Kawhi Leonard (except for Phoenix) - they boast the best defense in the league since Halloween. The defensive potential of this team's perimeter with George now in the mix is tantalizing. Regardless of who they share the court with, seeing that duo in action together should be worth the wait.