PG-13 Traded to OKC.
According to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne the OKC Thunder have traded for Pacers Paul George for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. The Thunder came out of nowhere regarding being in the George sweepstakes. It’s a great pick up for OKC because pairing him up with the MVP Russell Westbrook that should be a dynamic 1-2 punch. This trade is interesting because leading up to free agency the teams that were linked to a Paul George trade was the Rockets, Lakers, Cavs, and Celtics. What everyone heard was that it was going to be hard to get him because he’s potentially going to be a rental. After seeing the package, what the Pacers got it clearly shows that the Jimmy Butler trade on draft night to the Timberwolves was the tone setter for the trade market. The Bulls sold Jimmy Butler so short by accepting the offer for Levine, Dunn, and a swap of draft picks, it set the trade market so cheap that the Thunder went to the Pacers saying were not offering them the moon and the stars for Paul George. So, in my opinion, if the Butler trade didn’t go through then Paul George would still be a Pacer. The bigger story of this is that everyone thought he was going to be traded to the Boston Celtics because they had the most assets to offer. The Pacers were looking for a starting player and draft picks, which the Celtics had. Seeing what they got from the Thunder this is a cheap haul because many thought they would’ve gotten more than what they did get. If you’re a Thunder fan, you’ve got to be excited because they just made a huge improvement to their team, but the question that everyone is going to ask, Does this help them beat the defending champions Golden State Warriors? The answer is probably not, but it’s the right step in the right direction.
