Not having a general manager or team president in place hasn’t stopped the Cleveland Cavaliers from continuing their pursuit of Paul George.
According to ESPN.com’s Chris Haynes and Marc Stein, the Cavaliers remain hot on George’s trail. They even held “serious” discussions with the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers about a three-team deal that would have landed Kevin Love in Colorado:
The Nuggets were recruited into the talks to furnish the Pacers with the combination of promising young players and draft picks that they are seeking before consenting to surrender George. Aaron Mintz, George’s agent, informed Indiana management just over a week ago that George, 27, has no intention of staying with the club beyond the expiration of his current contract in June 2018.
?The three teams could not agree to a final trade construction in time to complete a deal on draft night Thursday. However, sources say the Cavaliers won’t abandon their trade pursuit of George, believing that acquiring him and George’s potentially winning a championship next season alongside LeBron James is the one scenario that could convince the two-way menace to abandon his well-chronicled desire to join the Los Angeles Lakers as soon as possible.
Negotiations could resume between the three sides even though the draft is over, but Pacers team president Kevin Pritchard hasn’t seemed in a rush to complete something. There’s a very real chance he waits to see how free agency shakes out, mainly because of the Boston Celtics.
Trading for George now bilks the Celtics of cap flexibility, hamstringing their ability to sign Gordon Hayward. If the Pacers wait, and the Celtics end up signing Hayward, Danny Ainge might be willing to furnish Indiana with a more enticing offer, knowing that George is the second star he’ll be getting this offseason.
Failing that scenario, it feels like George will end up with the Lakers or Cavaliers. We already know he wants to be in Hollywood, and Cleveland is about the only team that’ll fork over pretty much everything and anything it can for a player entering the final year of his contract.
