Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert On Paul George Trade: ‘Indiana Could Have Done Better’

The Indiana Pacers shocked the NBA world earlier this month by trading superstar Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. After all the trade speculation surrounding George’s future, the Pacers seemed to go in a route that no one saw coming and left a lot of people scratching their heads.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Boston Celtics were all vying for George’s services. It seemed inevitable that one of these three teams would land George in a trade and as a result drastically improve their roster.

With George now set to play alongside reigning NBA MVP Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert isn’t happy about the way things panned out saying the following about the Pacers brass, via Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk:

“I will say Indiana could have done better than they did,” Gilbert said after Altman refused to directly address a question about George trade talks and shifted the discussion elsewhere.

The Cavs are a team in the middle of a mess. The perennial Eastern Conference champions have gone from the favorites to reach the NBA Finals for a fourth straight season next year to a squad that might all fall apart with feud brewing between their two best players, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

Cleveland, if they had been able to land George, likely wouldn’t be in a bind at this point. LeBron’s future with the team is very much up in the air, and the addition of George may have set his mind at ease as well as potentially convincing Irving to stick around a little while longer.

As for the Thunder, general manager Sam Presti has one season to convince George to stay in Oklahoma City. If not, George could very well take his talents to Los Angeles as many believe he plans to do next summer in NBA free agency.