Woj: Pacers wanted to trade George for Irving straight-up, but Cavs declined it

[CelticsElite]

Take that lebron. Thanks griffin! Basically the cavs wanted to move kevin love and not Irving. Now they got to move Irving for trash most likely lol

The Indiana Pacers had Kyrie Irving as their No. 1 target when working on a Paul George trade in June.

The Pacers were willing to trade George for Irving straight-up, but the Cavaliers declined the offer several times.

Cleveland instead worked with the Pacers on a three-way trade involving Kevin Love going to the Denver Nuggets with Indiana getting a package centered around Gary Harris.

The deal fell apart when Cleveland refused to trade a future first round pick without any pick protections. The Cavaliers insisted on a lottery protection for the pick.

The Pacers pivoted to a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder in which they acquired Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.

[hpantazo]

Why were the Pacers in such a rush to move George? If they had waited a little, they would have had several better offers than what they moved him for.

[CELTICSofBOSTON]

I am so glad we have competent management.

[GetLucky]

They didn't want Gary Harris and a lottery-protected draft pick, so they took Oladipo and no pick instead. What incompetence.

[Kaz]

nvm

[Surferdad]

Cleveland doesn't need lottery protection on their picks, right?  Why would they insist?  That's a head-scratcher. 

[CelticsElite]

Cleveland doesn't need lottery protection on their picks, right?  Why would they insist?  That's a head-scratcher. 

what happens if kyrie, lebron and George all leave in 2018? That's why they wanted the protection

[timpiker]

I have thought that Irving requested a trade before the George stuff.  If Woj is right then maybe the Cavs had no idea Irving wanted out....until now.

[green_bballers13]

Considering that Cleveland is the favorite to make it back to the Finals, wouldn't they be opposed to sending their second best player to an EC competitor?

It looks like CLE is going to have to trade Irving at this point, but there are 14 teams in the West not named GS. I think they will try to trade him to one of those teams (basically, 1/2 the league). I don't think they will have a shortage of suitors looking to secure Kyrie.

[Moranis]

Considering that Cleveland is the favorite to make it back to the Finals, wouldn't they be opposed to sending their second best player to an EC competitor?

It looks like CLE is going to have to trade Irving at this point, but there are 14 teams in the West not named GS. I think they will try to trade him to one of those teams (basically, 1/2 the league). I don't think they will have a shortage of suitors looking to secure Kyrie.

I don't think the Cavs are opposed to it at all, but trading Irving for George really didn't make any sense for Cleveland because that would mean Cleveland's 3 best players could realistically only play 2 spots on the floor.  I mean how were James, George, and Love all supposed to play together and who would be their PG.  I guess the Cavs could have then moved Love, maybe to Phoenix for Bledsoe, Chandler, and 4.  I suppose that would have been an interesting team Bledsoe, Smith, James, George, Thompson with Korver, Shumpert, Jefferson, Frye, Chandler, Rose?, and 4 or whatever they moved that pick for.  That probably makes them a better matchup against the Warriors given they swapped Irving and Love for much better defenders in Bledsoe and George, but that team really would be all in this season and hoping that both James and George come back going forward. 

It seems pretty obvious if that rumor is true though, that Cleveland had no idea Irving was unhappy before the draft or they probably make that trade (since George is better than Irving and that is like the only trade they could have made of Irving where they actually got a better player back) and then would have worried about what to do with Love and the roster fit later on.  It is also obvious that Indiana is filled with incompetence in its management.

[Somebody]

Considering that Cleveland is the favorite to make it back to the Finals, wouldn't they be opposed to sending their second best player to an EC competitor?

It looks like CLE is going to have to trade Irving at this point, but there are 14 teams in the West not named GS. I think they will try to trade him to one of those teams (basically, 1/2 the league). I don't think they will have a shortage of suitors looking to secure Kyrie.

If GSW was willing to offer Klay the Cavs would be dumb not to do it, he's a perfect fit with Rose-Klay-Bron-Love-TT

[coffee425]

the small ball lineup of Korver/JR Smith/George/Lebron/KLove would've been terrifying.

Nothing but rebound, LBJ and Paul as playmakers, and all are shooters.

This would've been my counter against GSW's lineup of death

[SHAQATTACK]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......no wonder the GM was fired .......

If you dream Irving might be unhappy ....and that deal comes up .....thats good as it get to keep Lebron happy and Cavs in contention.

wow......

[celticsclay]

the small ball lineup of Korver/JR Smith/George/Lebron/KLove would've been terrifying.

Nothing but rebound, LBJ and Paul as playmakers, and all are shooters.

This would've been my counter against GSW's lineup of death

Korver and Smith are very bad players against Golden State. Korver in particular can't even remotely attempt to cover Curry/Klay/Durant. They would score some points for sure, but would ultimately get dominated by the Warriors having 3 two way players in Durant, Green and Klay.

[Moranis]

the small ball lineup of Korver/JR Smith/George/Lebron/KLove would've been terrifying.

Nothing but rebound, LBJ and Paul as playmakers, and all are shooters.

This would've been my counter against GSW's lineup of death

Korver and Smith are very bad players against Golden State. Korver in particular can't even remotely attempt to cover Curry/Klay/Durant. They would score some points for sure, but would ultimately get dominated by the Warriors having 3 two way players in Durant, Green and Klay.

I think he would have guarded Iguodala in that particular lineup.  Smith on Curry, James on Thompson, George on Durant, Love on Green, with Korver on Iguodala.  The real problem with that lineup for the Cavs is they have no one that could even pretend like they could guard Curry as none of them have the foot speed to stay with them.  That would however force Curry to move more offensively and use his foot speed, which would lead to more contact on him and might eventually wear him down.  And I don't think Curry could guard anyone on the floor for the Cavs on the other end of the court (he would likely be on Korver, who could just shoot over him).  It would have been a much more interesting matchup though as George would be a real problem for Durant on both ends of the floor, and thus would have altered any series (I still think the Warriors would win, but it would have been closer).