Since the Indiana Pacers were swept out of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, a few things changed for the franchise. Most notably, NBA legend Larry Bird stepped down from his role as President of Basketball Operations. Longtime general manager Kevin Pritchard stepped into Bird’s old role and many began thinking Pacers All-Star Paul George could be headed out of Indianapolis very soon, despite Pritchard saying the two were on the same page. After the 2017 All-NBA teams were announced and PG-13 was left off all three teams, those thoughts about George leaving ramped up ten-fold.
George is currently not eligible for a designated max player contract, which the Pacers could offer him if he hit some of the qualifications. One qualification he barely missed last season was making one of the three All-NBA teams. They would keep him with the team on a huge $200 million contract and he would be ineligible for a trade for at least one year. He’s expressed his willingness to remain with the team under one condition, winning.
With many teams chasing top talent, trying to challenge the NBA’s elite teams, George’s name has been thrown around plenty. Some have interesting assets to offer the Pacers and other have promises of more success for George to join them He’s an All-NBA talent and an All-Star, of course teams want him. He even has some executives throwing subtle winks his way during late night talk shows even though they’re reportedly waiting for the summer of 2018.
Paul George was briefly connected to the Atlanta Hawks but most of the rumors have been about George possibly heading to the Boston Celtics or joining the Los Angeles Lakers and becoming the face of the rebuilding franchise, one he loved growing up in California. But could the loser of the 2017 NBA Finals be a team that throws their name in the running for George?
ESPN’s Zach Lowe hosted an episode of ‘The Lowe Post’ podcast on Tuesday night with co-workers and fellow ESPN insiders Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne as guests. The trio reflected on the 2017 NBA Finals so far and looking ahead to the remainder of the series. They also touched on potential offseason plans for the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Eventually, they moved on to talking about the Cavs seemingly impending elimination in the finals and the internet speculation about having to get rid of a player on the Cavs to put up a better fight against the Warriors next year. One theory from people on the internet was a potential Paul George trade to the Cavs. According to all three insiders, the Pacers aren’t looking to trade Paul George, right now.
(The Paul George discussion begins at approximately the 52-minute mark.)
Windhorst – People are gonna say ‘well you gotta trade Kevin Love for Paul George’. The problem is, I don’t think, at least to my information, that the Pacers are interested in trading Paul George. At least not right now.
Lowe – I heard the same thing this week from someone who would know and it sort of surprised me because I think we all assumed when Larry (Bird) stepped down and Pritch (Kevin Pritchard) stepped in and the ‘writing is on the wall’ for what’s gonna happen there. The most recent thing I heard was they’re gonna try and regroup and get a couple better players to put around him and make a run at keeping him.
Ramona – I’ve actually heard the same.
Windhorst – Triple confirmation!
Lowe – Also would be very smart sort of posturing by the Pacers.
Windhorst – That’ll be on a blog and then our editors will e-mail us, ‘you gotta write this news story’.
You’re welcome, Windhorst.
