According to Paul George, Anthony Davis agreed to come to the Indiana Pacers during the 2015-16 season.
At this point, the fallout between Paul George and the Indiana Pacers has been well documented. George wanted out of Indiana then he didn’t. George requested a trade and then he didn’t. Then he was traded.
Earlier this year, George claimed that he had convinced the “best power forward” in the game to come to Indiana. At the time, it was rumored that Anthony Davis was the unnamed power forward.
That would have been quite the accomplishment considering Indiana does not have a history of signing the top players at any position, but rather bringing in aging veterans or giving out second chances to once-rising talent.
After months of speculation, Paul George himself confirmed that the commitment came from then-New Orleans Pelicans All-Star big man Anthony Davis. Below is the video posted by former NBA player Matt Barnes after George’s appearance on his All The Smoke podcast.
"We had a top-three player in the league at this time, power forward, that I was trying to get to come to Indy,” George said. “He wanted to come. I bring it to the front office, they ain’t do it. They deaded it.”"
When asked who that player was, George responded with:
"“It was AD. Me and AD talked. AD wanted to come to Indy. Close to Chicago, he was like, ‘Man it’s perfect. Y’all got something going over there.’”"
Now, the question is should the Pacers have traded for Anthony Davis prior to the 2017-18 season? It is rare that a star wants to come to Indiana, making it seem incredibly difficult to pass up on an opportunity like having AD in the blue and gold.
However, the haul that the Pelicans would have demanded would have been a massive hindrance to the Pacers’ future beyond PG and AD. It’s likely that somewhere between two and five first-round picks would have been involved.
When you look a the Pacers’ roster at that time, the names Myles Turner, Thaddeus Young, Glenn Robinson III, and C.J. Miles stick out. With those names, the number of first-rounders sent would likely be closer to five or more, and, frankly, that may not have been enough to get a deal done without a third team involved.
Even if Indiana somehow pulled off the trade for AD prior to the 2017-18 season, what’s the best-case scenario? George and Davis create a championship-caliber duo that is the best in the east after Kyrie Irving bolted from Cleveland. The team around them is nothing special and no match for the Golden State Warriors in the middle of a dynasty. It would have taken convincing beyond AD to get the Pacers past the Warriors.
Regardless, it turned out to be just another item on the “what if” list for the Indiana Pacers.