The NBA is about acquiring top flight talent, who are inherently paid less than they are worth because of the max contract structure. Paul George is such a player. Adding him doesn’t “limit” anything except the ability to add less talented players on less favorable contracts except that it means that if one of the handful of players that are clearly better than George decided they wanted to come play in Boston too it might be harder to make that work, but almost certainly wouldn’t stop it.Sadly, “better” alone is not the only consideration when there are salary caps, luxury taxes, and other factors in place. Tatum and Brown on their second contracts at ~$30M per year are different than George on his third contract at ~$40M per year, and their combined expense would limit what Stevens could do and possibly what Wyc would spend elsewhere. I’m just asking whether the notion that the team would be “immediate co-favorites to make it to the eastern conference finals” would be enough to justify the move.
Also, immediate co-favorites means they’d be on par with the Nets. Currently, it’s hard to imagine any move that could get them past that point (not saying they cannot beat out the Nets but being clear favorites over them is pretty unimaginable). If that isn’t “enough” than what is?
Also, you framed this as a completely unrealistic Kemba + throw-ins for George deal, so whether it’s enough seems like the wrong question. Under that deal we’re getting a massive upgrade along with a long term commitment from that upgrade. Even in a world where the Clippers are being blown up, which isn’t happening, and George is interested in Boston, the price for George is going to involve a bevy of picks and swap rights. You could ask if that would be worth it and it might make more sense as a question. The answer would still be a resounding yes, but the question would make more sense than asking if we want a borderline top 10 player on a regular max contract for his early 30s in exchange for a chronically injured player that, even at his best, was never as good as George.