Cleveland Cavaliers: Trading for Paul George would backfire

If a Cleveland Cavaliers trade resulted in Kevin Love being moved for the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George, it would backfire for the Cavs franchise.

While the hottest topic in Cleveland is the possibility that the Cleveland Cavaliers could trade for the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George, it’s not a move that would pay off for Cleveland no matter how the Cavs looked on the court.

Win or lose, George would leave the Cavs after his first season in The Land.

George, who has a player option on his contract for the 2018-2019 season is 27-years-old and is determined to play with the Los Angeles Lakers out west, according to USA Toda’s Sam Amick.

According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and Brian Windhorst, some think that George would need to be convinced LeBron James would stay in Cleveland, perhaps for the remainder of his career, for him to agree to an “extend and trade” (a contract extension preceding a trade).

"The problem with Plan A is George isn’t currently available, sources tell ESPN. Indiana and Cleveland could work out an extend-and-trade, but George would need assurances from James that the four-time MVP would be staying in Cleveland beyond 2017-18 — which is the only remaining guaranteed year on his contract. This is a quagmire."

However, James agreeing to stay in Cleveland wouldn’t matter at all to George.

He’s currently 32-years-old and, like the Golden State Warriors, will vulnerable in a couple of seasons. With that said, the problem isn’t how long James is staying in Cleveland. The problem is that James’s days, like every other good thing, will eventually come to an end.

This offseason, the Warriors will have tough decisions to make in how they’ll re-sign Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston this offseason, especially if they want to have enough salary to pay Klay Thompson fairly in the 2019 offseason.

By the time Thompson’s contract expires, though, both Curry and Durant will be in their 30s. Thompson, having his first chance to be at least the second fiddle on offense for three seasons, could opt to leave and lead a team himself, since he’ll be 29-years-old.

If both of the current superpowers are set to fall by the wayside, there’s no need for George to commit to staying with the Cleveland Cavaliers for his prime. Especially when the Lakers are his hometown team and have both the young talent and assets necessary for the team to be competitive after his arrival.

Especially when George could eventually emerge as the best player in the NBA.

In trading for George (for one season, presumably) the Cleveland Cavaliers would have to give up at least Kevin Love while lacking the cap space to re-sign a comparable replacement in 2018 if George leaves.

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Sure, they could work out a sign-and-trade with the Lakers but such a trade would leave the Cleveland Cavaliers finding some combination of D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov that worked for them.

No matter who the Cavs selected and combined, they wouldn’t have a package of players that made the Cleveland Cavaliers even as close to as dangerous as they were with Love or George.

That’s extremely unfortunate, as 2018 is also the summer that James also would be able to opt out of his contract. With George leaving the Land in 2018, there’d be no way that the Cleveland Cavaliers could be as good as they were pre-George with the players they’d be replacing him with, James’ departure that summer would become a distinct possible.

In fact, it’d be a near certainty with the Lakers having nearly $40 million in cap space that summer, according to Spotrac. That would be enough to sign both George and James and, if they needed additional space, they should be able to move one of the contracts of Deng or Mozgov.

Ironically, trading for George would leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in the same position the Indiana Pacers currently find themselves in with George.

Do you think that the Cleveland Cavaliers should trade for Paul George? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.