George Says He's Got Something Left

OAKLAND -- Let's get right to it. There are a lot of people out there who say Devean George is done. Two years ago as a Mav, he was not a factor as the Warriors dismantled Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.

Last year, he missed half the season with injury and averaged 3.4 points per game. Didn't knock down the 3, either: 28.9 percent. He used to be able to defend opposing wingmen, but can he do that anymore, really?

He's almost 32 and was never overly athletic. C'mon. And now he's a Warrior, traded last week for Marco Belinelli.

"I still got a lot left in me so, I didn't come here to just to sit on the bench," said George, in the Bay Area to take his physical. "I came here to play, get in that rotation and help the team."

But let's face it, if the Raptors really thought George could do any of those things, they wouldn't have traded him ... and they certainly wouldn't have agreed to pay most of his $1.6 million salary.

"I really don't get involved in trying to prove people wrong," George said, "and go against the grain and tell this guy: 'No, that's not true.' People can write. That's your job. People can write and say what they need to say. I just need to do what I need to do: get healthy and play basketball. I know what I'm capable of doing. I don't have anything to prove to anybody.

"I don't have to prove anything to the media. All I need to do is prove to myself what I want to do and achieve my goals. And that's coming in and being healthy, being a good guy in the locker room, helping the young guys and getting in the rotation. And bringing what I do to the table."

George had knee surgery in late March but said he hopes to be fully healthy by training camp. If he is, he'll find plenty of players just like him. The Warriors have no shortage of swingmen-types, from Stephen Jackson to Corey Maggette to Kelenna Azubuike to a whole host of two guards we don't even want to get into.

"It's hard to say right now what my niche will be," George said. "I'm good at figuring it out. ... That's another thing I've thought about. Yes, we do have a lot of guys at my position, two-three. But he plays five guys at the same position at one time. So it's really not a traditional system where the twos and threes are only playing two and three. The three-man might be the four or the five ... or the point guard. So there's opportunity there, there's minutes there."

Maybe. But not if George resembles the player who looked overmatched athletically in that upset series against the Warriors -- the series when he went 5-for-25 from the field and had almost twice as many turnovers than assists.

"You can't judge anybody on a bad performance or a week or a bad series," George said. "We all have struggles, all have ups and downs and really none of us played well. We won 67 games that year and none of us played well. We ran into a hot team with bad matchup problems, different guys playing different positions.

"No rhythm. We had everything wrapped up the last three weeks. No one was playing. Some guys were playing, some guys weren't playing. Then we ran into a good team with matchup problems. That was probably a bad point and bad playoff, but I've had good playoff memories, and more good than bad."

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