The Cavs Nearly Made A Draft Night Deal For Both Carmelo Anthony And Paul George


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Carmelo Anthony and Paul George both start the 2017-18 season with new squads this fall. They happen to have landed on the same team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. The moves came months apart, with George headed to the Thunder at the NBA Draft in June and Anthony finally leaving the New York Knicks shortly before Knicks media day earlier this week.

A Russell Westbrook/George/Anthony combination sets up a fascinating experiment on the Thunder, who may now feel they can compete against the growing competition in the NBA’s Western Conference. But just as Anthony said he could have been on the Houston Rockets if a trade didn’t fall through, the former Knick also said a trade involving George almost happened for an Eastern Conference team.

Anthony gave an interview to Sirius XM radio on Thursday and revealed there were talks of a megatrade that brought both Anthony and George to the Cleveland Cavaliers. As reported by ESPN’s Ian Begley, Anthony revealed there were talks to get both players on LeBron James’ squad but that talks fell through at the last minute.


“Me and PG have a very close friendship, Anthony said about his new teammate. The two have played on Team USA together, sure, but then Anthony told the world there was some draft night talk about the two playing together in Cleveland.

Actually, it was funny because me and PG was supposed to be in Cleveland on draft night. we were communicating about that. The deal was actually done and it got called off on draft night, so me and PG stayed connected throughout the course of the season.”

One would assume that Anthony misspoke and the “season” is actually the “offseason,” unless this is a previous draft night and both players have been on the trade block for longer than we all thought. Both players did end up together after all, but it we would be looking at a very different NBA if that draft night trade went through. Who knows where Kyrie Irving would be if George and Anthony were suddenly his teammates.

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