LOS ANGELES — The biggest news for the Clippers on Thursday wasn’t the drafting of Minnesota guard Cam Christie in the second round at No. 46, but about the uncertainty of Paul George and his future with the team.

George has a player option for $48.7 million and has to let the Clippers know by Saturday whether he’ll opt in on his deal.

George can become a free agent if he and the Clippers are unable to come to an agreement on an extension before Sunday. He’s eligible to get a four-year deal worth $221 million from the Clippers before that date, something George is seeking.

So far, the two sides have not been able to get a deal done.

“We love Paul,” said Lawrance Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations. “We very much want to retain Paul, but we also very much understand and respect the fact this is a business and players have a finite amount of time to be able to not just make the most amount of money, but to be able to pursue whatever they want.

“We hope Paul’s decision is to be here. He’s been awesome. He’s been an All-Star three of the five years. He’s one of the best two-way players in the league. He’s a terrific person. He’s got a great family, so we hope he’s here. But also respect the fact that if he chooses to opt out, that’s his choice. He’s earned it and we’ll see how things play out.”

When Kawhi Leonard agreed during the regular season to a three-year contract extension with the Clippers for $152 million, the team had extension conversations with George, 34, about a similar deal.

No deal was reached.

The Clippers are currently a second-apron team, which makes it very prohibitive for them to make deals under the new collective bargaining agreement rules.

“When your better players are in their thirties and you’re trying to build a sustainable roster, it impacts it,” Frank said. “...It’s not even about the money as it is: How are you going to build a sustainable roster, maintain your tools to have transactional flexibility? And with that comes really, really hard decisions and we totally respect the fact that look deals get made when they make sense for both sides. We’re hopeful that we can find a deal with any player we negotiate with that we want both sides to feel good about and respect the fact that for each of our players they’re going to have choices. They’ve earned it and they have to make the most sense for them.”

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