The Cleveland Cavaliers heavily pursued a trade for Paul George before the Indiana Pacers sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and would have sent Irving to Indiana for George.
However, the deal fell through when the two sides couldn't agree on the protections on a first-round pick that also would've been sent to the Pacers, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
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.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert took a jab at the Pacers earlier this week, saying "Indy could've done better" than the deal they made with OKC.
If they couldn't land Kyrie, Indiana reportedly preferred to send George to a small market in the Western Conference.
Cleveland also had the parameters of a deal in place in which they would have acquired Jimmy Butler, but that fell through when the team parted ways with former general manager David Griffin. Irving was not included in that deal, meaning the Cavs close to having a Big 3 of LeBron James, George and Butler for the upcoming season.
Irving averaged 25.2 points and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 47.3 percent from the field last season, while George averaged 23.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
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