Paul George is now in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder will hope that he and Russell Westbrook will form a bond and compete well enough to convince both to return long-term. The Pacers dealt George to OKC on the eve of NBA free agency, bringing Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis back in a trade that stunned most.
There were a number of teams linked to George in rumors leading up to the deal, but the Thunder were not among them. One of those that was long linked to George was the Cavaliers, who reportedly failed to find enough assets for Kevin Love that could be sent to Indiana in a three-team deal.
However, the most recent bit of NBA gossip, courtesy of ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, is that the Cavs thought they were on the doorstep of landing George. They were so close, according to Woj, that Indiana was about to have George speak to owner Dan Gilbert.
Just how close was Paul George to teaming up with LeBron? pic.twitter.com/e6ulIp0FFA
— ESPN (@espn) July 18, 2017
In the end, the Pacers backed out and chose the Thunder’s offer over whatever it was that would have sent George to Cleveland. Now, this rumor comes conveniently the day after reports that LeBron James was frustrated with the Cavs’ offseason and failures to land another star to close the gap on Golden State. If you play the “who would have the most to gain by leaking this rumor” game, it’s not hard to figure out what side this is probably coming from.
The Cavaliers may have genuinely been close to a George trade. They might have thought they had him, only to see Indiana get cold feet about sending George somewhere in the East where he could torment them for years should he stay. Even if that’s so, it won’t appease James, who could care less how hard you tried if the results didn’t show up.
