Paul George plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder now, and that’s not going to change. But as the offseason drama in Cleveland continues to unfold, we’re finally finding out why a proposed trade deal that would have sent George to the Cavaliers fell apart.
Adrian Wojnarowski posted a story about Cleveland’s demands in a potential Irving trade on Friday, and buried deep in the story was a source that explained what went wrong with the draft night deal.
Indiana had Irving on its board as the No. 1 target for George, league sources said. The Pacers had a willingness to do a deal straight-up, but Cleveland declined several times, league sources said. What did nearly come together was a three-way trade that would’ve sent Kevin Love to the Denver Nuggets, Gary Harris to Indiana and George to the Cavaliers.
Here’s where the deal fell apart, league sources said: Indiana wanted no protections on a future Cavaliers first-round pick. Cleveland balked, insisting the pick have lottery protection — and Indiana moved onto the Oklahoma City package of Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
You may remember the Cavaliers actually celebrated when they thought a 3-team swap was going to net them George for Kevin Love. But Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard then sent the Cavs a text message telling them the deal was off. This, presumably, is the reason why it all fell apart. But it’s tough to blame the Cavaliers here, as most teams have heeded the lessons of the Brooklyn Nets and no longer trade unprotected picks in deals like this.
Offering Kyrie for George, of course, would have solved a lot of the offseason drama we’ve seen unfold in recent weeks. But how could the Cavaliers have known Irving was truly this unhappy in Cleveland?
