Paul George asked Billy Donovan to not run plays for him during the 2017-18 season

According to Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan, Paul George asked him to stop running plays for the all-star forward during his first season with the team. Rather than drawing up plays centered around George, Donovan learned that it was better to let him just play the game. ESPN’s Royce Young dove into the their first-year relationship in a recent story.

“At times he’s like, ‘Stop, just let me get it,’” Donovan said, according to Young. “I had to learn him. I can watch things on film and say, ‘Oh, that’s a good play and he made that shot, let’s run that,’ but there’s a lot more to it than that.” It was an adjustment for the Thunder head coach, but it didn’t take long for him to realize it was the correct move to get the most out of George.

“I’ve always been a guy to just let the game come to me,” George told Young. “Just play the game. If it’s a shot for me, if I can make a play, create for someone else, I’ll do that. A lot of times you run a play, everybody’s watching, everybody’s locked in, everybody’s pulling over and it just makes the game tougher for me. ... I like it when I can kind of manipulate and be on attack mode where they don’t know what to do, as opposed to a play other teams scout.”

Check out Young’s full story here.