The Warriors believed several times on Saturday that they were close to a deal to acquire Paul George from the Clippers, sources tell Tim Kawakami of The Athletic.
Kawakami hears that the teams were involved in “very serious negotiations” right up until the Saturday afternoon deadline for George to decide on his $48.8MM player option for next season. George ultimately declined the option, putting him out of the reach of Golden State, which doesn’t have any cap space to pursue him in free agency.
The Warriors had committed to giving George a four-year maximum-salary contract (ie. a three-year extension on top of his option year) if the deal had gone through, Kawakami adds. That was the main holdup with L.A., which has been unwilling to go beyond three total years in its talks with the 34-year-old forward.
There were several versions of a trade that the Clippers seemed willing to accept, Kawakami states, and Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both endorsed the idea of adding George.
George also provided “strong indications” that he wanted to be traded to the Warriors, according to Kawakami’s sources, but L.A. never gave final approval to the deal and George opted for free agency.
According to Kawakami, Andrew Wiggins, Chris Paul, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and a first-round pick were among the Warriors’ potential outgoing trade chips that came up in discussions. If the two sides had agreed to a deal, it would have included some – but not all – of those pieces.
It’s a potentially devastating outcome for Golden State because George would have been an ideal replacement for Klay Thompson, who appears likely to be headed elsewhere. Even though Thompson can’t start talking to rival teams for a few more hours, an NBA source tells Kawakami that he has already said goodbye to several high-ranking members of the front office.