A Paul George trade is as inevitable as it has been for weeks. However, recent news around the league have hinted at a certain sequence of events.
It isn’t a secret anymore that Paul George will be traded. In fact, its pretty obvious. The political cartoon in the Indy Star featured a Paul George Lakers uniform. Every reporter you follow on Twitter has heard “something” about his/her team making a call on Paul George. Every trade-machine-using blogger has made it known what they think the trade is going to look like.
That is not what this post is going to focus on.
I could use strong diction and knowledge of the NBA to tell you what a three-team PG trade would look like. That is not what this is about. This isn’t about the return the Pacers could get for Paul George or the team’s efforts to find a suitor for him. This article isn’t about a potential rumor and what it could mean for the future of the Pacers and PG. In fact, this is not about the Pacers much at all.
This is about the culmination of events that are increasing the likelihood of Paul George landing in a very specific location.
Boston. This may sound boring – almost expected. Your favorite writer, or maybe a radio host you admire, may have already told you of this possibility. It makes sense after all, the Celtics are one good player away from being in the top tier of NBA teams.
But, the Cavaliers want Paul George too. So do the Lakers. So do the Wizards. So does every team in the league. He is Paul George, after all.
But recently, all the signs are pointing distantly from those teams, and all at Boston.
A Woj report was released today suggesting the Celtics are gearing up for a run at Gordon Hayward and Paul George. But, a Woj report was just the icing on the cake for this saga. To really begin the pot-stirring, we need to look somewhere else for insight into the PG-to-Boston odyssey.
That’s right, Minnesota. The announcement from Marc Stein just yesterday that the always available Ricky Rubio is once again available was the first domino in the Celtics-PG saga. What does Ricky Rubio have to do with anything? Originally, nothing. But then a multitude of reports surfaced of a team having interest in acquiring Rubio. What was that team?