Adding Paul George for a bargain basement price puts the Thunder back among the West elite with a chance to make this a long-term proposition.
Just for a minute, forget about everything Oklahoma City Thunder related that took place between July 4,2016 and Friday afternoon.
No tears over Kevin Durant’s Independence Day departure to the Golden State Warriors. No cupcake trash talk, or Russell Westbrook photographer outfits meant to disparage his departed co-star. No triple-double talk. No MVP award for Westbrook that — as well-deserved as it was — could only feel so good because it was awarded more than two months after his team fell in five games in the first round of the playoffs.
Amid this NBA landscape that now demands multiple stars to survive, just hone in on this shocking truth: Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti lost a former MVP small forward for nothing almost a year ago, and replaced him via trade with the Indiana Pacers on Friday with an MVP-caliber talent in Paul George for the bargain basement price of Victor Oladipo and Donatas Sabonis. And that, NBA fans, is what you call making the best of a bad situation.
The out-of-nowhere trade puts the Thunder right back where they were before the walls caved in, back among the Western Conference elite with a chance to make this a long-term proposition. A few tidbits to share on the deal, as told to USA TODAY Sports by three people with knowledge of the situation. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet finalized.
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• While Westbrook isn’ t expected to sign the five-year, $217 million extension offer on Friday night, he knows the offer is there with a pen waiting when he wants it. It will be there until the deadline at the start of the regular season, and now all the noise about what it means that he isn’ t signing it right away is lessened because of the George acquisition.
No matter what happens next, Westbrook — judging by his gleeful dance on social media after the deal went down — is a happy superstar. And by the looks of George’s social media — i.e. the old picture he posted to Instagram with Westbrook with the caption, «The Brodie #OKC» — he’s just fine with the move too. Now, the world waits to see how it works.
• So long as Westbrook doesn’ t sign the extension, that means both of these stars can be free agents next summer. For George’s part, here’s the lay of the financial land: If all goes well and he decides to re-sign next summer, he can land a five-year, $177 million deal that dwarfs the maximum salary deal he can sign elsewhere (four years, $132 million) .
Now, as has been reported by yours truly on multiple occasions, George is indeed hell-bent on signing with his hometown Los Angeles Lakers next summer — with one caveat. As I reported this week, George is also a prudent professional who will be keeping an open mind about his options depending on how this final year of the contract goes. Translation: The Thunder have a chance here.
• In the spirit of today’s star-driven NBA, this will come as a no surprise: Westbrook was intimately involved in this process and completely on board with this plan. That hardly guarantees he’ ll sign the extension, or that George will re-sign, but it does ensure that Westbrook’s days of carrying the lion’s share of the Thunder load are over for the foreseeable future.
With George sharing the ball with Westbrook, the Thunder envision a more dynamic offense that includes wide-open looks for Doug McDermott, the 25-year-old shooter for whom they traded with Chicago in February. So long as they bring back restricted free agent Andre Roberson as planned, they saw him playing alongside George at the shooting guard spot and — they hope — veteran and unrestricted free agent Taj Gibson filling out the power forward spot yet again (if not, they love the athleticism and length of George playing alongside 6-foot-9,23-year-old forward Jerami Grant) .
Center Steven Adams would be a 23-year-old man relieved down low, where the pressure to be the sort of scorer he simply isn’ t would be removed and he could score as needed while defending like those days when Durant was still around. And while big man Enes Kanter will play his same scoring role off the bench, this much should be remembered: As electric as Westbrook’s MVP campaign was, the Thunder finished the regular season just 17th in the league in offensive rating (105 points scored per 100 possessions) . By comparison, George’s Pacers were 15th (106.2) .
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As for the defense? It was above average even before they landed one of the league’s best perimeter defenders, with the Thunder ranking 10th in defensive rating last season (105.1 points allowed per 100 possessions) .
• This deal was at least four months in the making. The Thunder and Pacers discussed the prospect of George going Oklahoma City’s way at the trade deadline in February, then again as the draft approached on June 22. All along the way, one truth remained: The Pacers liked the 25-year-old Oladipo and the 21-year-old Sabonis, even if the former is owed a combined $82 million over the next four seasons and the latter is nothing more than a promising prospect at this point.
All along the way, the Thunder paid close attention to George’s public comments about his priorities. They looked past the endless mentions about the Lakers and noticed the focus on winning, on his desire to compete for a championship. And now, Oklahoma City has found itself about as good a replacement for Durant as they could ever imagine.
We’ ll know next summer how it all panned out. But as resilient recoveries go, this is about as good as it gets.
Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick .
