Paul George to the Cavs trade was closer than we thought

The Cavaliers may have been closer to a Paul George trade than we thought. And thanks to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Dave McMenamin and Brian Windhorst, we now know exactly what offer was on the table.

The Cavaliers were just moments away from finalizing a three-team deal that would have sent George to Cleveland, Kevin Love to Denver and Gary Harris and other pieces to Indiana, according to ESPN.

Plans were put in place for a call to be arranged between George and Gilbert, an important step before the trade would become final, sources said. The front office began making other plans to complement George as free agency was about to begin.

But then Pritchard, who had been on the conference call when the deal was tentatively agreed to, sent the message that his team was backing out, sources said. There was no deal.

In mid-July, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski spoke on The Jump about the deal that almost was, stating that Indiana “was about to give permission to Paul George to get on the phone with Dan Gilbert.”

Indiana pulled out of the deal, though, according to Wojnarowski, and later said yes to the Thunder’s offer.

Had Paul George gone to Cleveland, maybe David Griffin keeps his job with the Cavs, Russell Westbrook is out preparing for another one-man show season, and Kevin Love is living in a new home. Maybe LeBron James isn’t “concerned” about this Cavaliers offseason, either.

But that’s some alternate reality, and here on Earth we have George joining Westbrook in Oklahoma City and Victor Oladipo and Damontas Sabonis in Indiana. We’re also left wondering if this Cavs team will do anything to shake this lineup up ahead of the season.

For now it looks like no team is ready to challenge the reigning champion Warriors.