The Indiana Pacers shockingly traded Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night, something that dealt a real blow to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland was trying to land George in an effort to better matchup with the Golden State Warriors and appeared to be the favorite to land him after organizing a possible three-team trade with the Denver Nuggets. However, the Pacers turned it down because they wanted to send George to the Western Conference, according to The Athletic's Jason Lloyd.
The Cavs believed they had a three-team deal on draft night that would’ve brought George to Cleveland and sent Kevin Love to Denver, sources with knowledge of the negotiations told The Athletic, but the Pacers killed the deal. The Cavs privately believe now that Indiana wanted George out of the East, which is why it passed over deals with both Cleveland and Boston and instead sent him to Oklahoma City.
Indiana's front office has been heavily criticized for accepting OKC's trade offer of Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo for George, turning down better offers from both the Cavs and Boston Celtics. However, wanting to get George out of the East sheds more light on why they did that.
George averaged 23.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists this past season.
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