8:39pm: The Pacers are asking all teams for trade ideas but would ideally net a pair of first-round picks and a starter, David Aldridge of TNT tweets.
Regardless, Zach Lowe of ESPN adds that the club is intent on finding a deal fast.
6:42pm: As we broke down earlier today, Paul George has informed the Pacers that he doesn’t intend to return to the franchise when he hits free agency next offseason. Although the Lakers appear to be the forward’s preferred destination, one place he could end up in the meantime is Cleveland, as Adrian Wojnarowski writes for The Vertical and Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio confirms.
Not surprisingly, after receiving word that George has no intention of returning to the Pacers, president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard has been aggressively seeking trade partners potentially interested in a rental. Considering that, per Nate Jones of the Indianapolis Star, Pritchard only learned about this Saturday, it’s been a busy 24 hours.
While Wojnarowski writes that the Cavaliers lack the young players and lucrative draft picks that the Pacers may seek for George, they’re one of the few teams who could directly benefit from what appears likely to be a simple one-year All-Star rental.
Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com quickly weighed in on the revelation that Cleveland and Indiana have been in touch, going so far as to suggest that the Cavs could dangle Kevin Love. Still, Vardon cautions, even that may be too much for a player apparently destined to leave for Los Angeles.
An inevitable George departure in 2018, though, may not be so inevitable after all. Vardon adds that competing in the NBA Finals next season (something Cleveland has made a habit of recently) could convince George to stick around in Ohio.
It’s a theory shared by Bobby Marks of The Vertical, who tweets that the Lakers may not want to sit idly by under the assumption that George will end up in Los Angeles next summer.
“Sitting on the sideline for Paul George could backfire in Los Angeles,” he tweets. “Short term could turn long-term when surrounded by a championship level team.”
At the end of the day, speculation will continue to pour in surrounding George’s eventual departure, inevitably casting the Pacers into temporary chaos. In the mind of Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star, however, the Pacers can only blame themselves for where they find themselves.
“Way to miss the essence of Paul George. Way to miss the obviously closing, now completely shut window to salvage your franchise. Way to doom the Pacers to irrelevance for the foreseeable future,” the scribe pens.
Here’s the next superteam. Cavs get PG13 for JR and Shumpert or Thompson(any combo of the three), sign Wade for veteran minimum(declines option from Bulls). Then you roll out a starting lineup of Kyrie, DWade, PG13, LeBron, and K Love.
Thompson, while overpaid, is much more important than Love in this scenario. While Love’s shooting and rebounding skills are definitely worthy of trying to hold on to, he is an average defender at best. Thompson’s offensive rebounding and defensive skills would be sorely missed if he was traded (and Love was pushed to center). Also, Wade would be a terrible fit in that lineup. You’re talking 4 iso guys trying to share one ball.
Why would they want those contracts
Pacers would never take those clowns in return for PG. They’re not in it for charity.
It’s better than getting nothing and letting PG walk
Not really, getting nothing is better than cap strapping your team with mediocre players.
Lol that’s comment was so funny… “clowns”
Shump, JR of Thompson would have little value for the Pacers. Love is a legit star they can either try and retool the team with or trade for other long term assets. If you think of it, it makes perfect sense for the Pacers because George’s rental tag won’t garner mush while Love could net more because he would have 2 or 3 years left of control.
Oh yes, Love had so many playoff victories while with Minnesota. Outside of a contender he is NOT someone you build around, especially at his age and price.
Ok…so in that case, why should anyone want Paul George, Jimmy Butler, etc? Neither has won a title, they are all around the same age and they will all be getting $20 mil or better. Your logic doesn’t make sense.
Not enough basketballs, that lineup would be doomed.
So just add more basketballs, duh. They aren’t expensive.
A Lebron,Kyrie, George tandem would knock the Warriors out in 5. That would be sick to win a ring with Cleveland then just dip to LA but can’t see it.
Just because he’s saying he wants to go to LA next year doesn’t guarantee he will. If he got traded to Cleveland, for example, and liked it there (and say they at least make the Finals) then who’s to say that George wouldn’t resign in Cleveland for a chance to continue chasing rings? Or say the Clippers made a surprise trade for him and they experience success with him. Who’s to say he wouldn’t just resign with them (he’d still be playing in LA)? While I do think that George, if he stays in Indy throughout the year or is traded to some team who isn’t a serious championship contender (potential cap issues aside; Cleveland, San Antonio, Boston, etc), will bolt to LA, his main issue with the Pacers is that he feels they can’t win a championship with the team currently constructed around him…and he’s not wrong (coming from a Pacers fan). Even if he bolted to the Lakers next offseason, the team would still be at least another two years from being a serious contender and definitely wouldn’t be better than Golden State. That’s why I think if he got traded to a championship caliber team, like Cleveland, he might end up staying there instead.
I doubt he stays, maybe he wants to win the Lakers their first ring since 2010.
The Cavs would be shallow as ever trying to pay him as well. He wants max.
We all know it was the Cavs bench that lost them the finals and even with PG they can’t beat the GSW.
The Cavs can get Paul George and then clone him, and they will still lose to the Warriors. More stars does not mean there will be chemistry and team play. Golden State has the mega stars AND they play as a team. Can’t replicate it. It’s Golden State’s league and the title is theirs next year, if they want it.
What indication has there been that adding PG to Cleveland wouldn’t work out? I mean Golden State is without a doubt the team to beat and teams hope to have half as much chemistry as the Warriors did this past season, but there’s nothing to suggest PG wouldn’t fit with LeBron and Kyrie. If a team has a chance to add a superstar to an already great team, you do it and worry about chemistry later. That’s what the offseason and regular season is for.
Also nothing to suggest it would work.
There was nothing to suggest Durant to the Warriors would work either. The point is, you choose a path and do your best to make it work.
X2
You are one of they few people on here that makes sense. Cleveland can get Paul Goerge, George Miken, Boy George or any other George they want, and they would still lose to Golden State…
If an incoming player wants to win a chip then chemistry can be worked out real fast, especially with LBJ at the helm. It’s all about x’s and o’s and I think LBJ and Irving (olympic teammate) can facilitate that.
All Paul George did was screw the Pacers by making this proclamation. He’s tied the hands of the Pacers by extremely limiting their trade options and return. Unless you get a team like Cleveland or San Antonio where winning is a possibility then why go for him? I’d like to see him go to San Antonio. He seems like a Pop type of player
I actually don’t see him being a fit in San Antonio. Making a proclamation like this is a, for lack of a better word, selfish move. Pop seems to go for the players who are willing to put the team first before themselves, and George making this proclamation isn’t a team-first move.
Can’t argue that. I was looking at it as him being a Spur for more than one year once he got there and saw the environment and commitment
He did a good thing for the Pacers because they now know where he stands yet handicapped them a bit by stating his intent to got to LA after the season. Silly move. But in his defense, he told it to them team and it appears the story was leaked.
Orlando?
Boston for 3rd and others?
Cleveland/Detroit Detroit gets Thompson and so on,Cleveland gets Drummond,George and Pacers get Jackson and Draft Picks?
Why would they trade? they’re division rivals. Those trades almost never work, for either team.
PG thinks he’s better than he is. Thinks he’s the guy to call out teammates publicly etc, he hasn’t earned it. Doesn’t seem like a personality fit for SA, not to mention he’s not mentally tough. Years of watching him not take over the leadership of the Pacers was painful.
I used to play a little
I’ll politely (and humbly) take credit for this idea being floated around as I mentioned this a couple of times on other posts made here today. Your welcome.
Actually Chris Broussard and Colin Cowherd talked about it 2 weeks ago. That’s where I got it
To Boston for third pick and Kelly olnyck?
No, Cleveland Kevin Love
Still wouldn’t beat GSW
celtics need to stay away from this. don’t blow the assets you have on a one year rental
Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Josh McRoberts, Wayne Ellington and the 14th pick for Paul George. Teams with better assets could make offers obviously, but they might not be willing to give those up. His value for 1 year should be a slightly decent amount more than 1.5 years for Cousins was. Indiana gets 2 young combo guards/wing that can play both sides of the ball relentlessly, and a back of the lottery pick right in front of their own. They get multiple shooters in the trade as well. At least keeps them competitive while rebuilding around Turner
Lol so Indy gets a bunch of crap to load up their salary cap? Sounds ideal
If you’re Boston why not shoot your shot?
Regardless if the cavs can actually get PG or not they have to at least try. A bunch of the comments above question if it would work or say it wouldn’t make a difference but the bottom line is we don’t know for sure. However what we do know is this current version of the cavs isn’t going to get the job done. At this point the only players completely safe on the cavs roster are LBJ and kyrie. The obvious peace to go if PG is going to head to the cavs is Kevin Love. Not sure what else it would take but I’m sure the cavs would be willing to part with most of their players if it meant getting PG. Personally I would like to see Thompson go, he was pathetic in this finals and he doesn’t give them very much except effort. I understand effort is important but at some point talent and skill have to come in and aside from offensive rebounding Thompson doesn’t have much of those. I think PG would narrow the gap significantly because one he is a very good defender and the cavs aside from Lebron, shump and JR (when he decides to play serious defense that is) are pathetic defensively. The second reason is he gives Cleveland a 3rd ball handler/ playmaker. One of Clevelands biggest problems in the finals was the cavs only had 2 players that could handle the ball at an elite level while golden state has 5-6. The cavs need at least one more player that can get his own shot when he needs to and can set his teammates up because he can get his own shot. Now the cavs don’t have practically anything in the way of draft picks to trade so the deal is going to have to revolve around Kevin Love and whatever else the pacers would want. Or perhaps they could get a third team involved that has the draft picks to entice Indiana. Bottom line is Cleveland that’s to look at any and every possibility to catch up to golden state.
So send K Love to Boston, a crap ton of picks to Indiana, and PG to the Cavs? I don’t see why Boston wouldn’t just want to go all out and get PG themselves.
PG is going to Golden State somehow because lol
Cavs aren’t doing anything till they figure out what is happening w David G
I think a combination of love going to the Celtics and pg going to Cleveland would work for everyone. pacers get young players and picks to make it work
Why would caves need a p g when Ky r I e and lebron have the ball in hand on every offensive possession. Maybe get a third one on one player to spell them like Mel o?