NBA rumors: Warriors believed they were on verge of Paul George deal with Clippers before opt out, per report

The Golden State Warriors thought they had Paul George, according to The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami. Reportedly, they were prepared to max him out for the next four seasons, they thought they’d given the Los Angeles Clippers several satisfactory trade configurations, they were confident that George wanted to be in the Bay Area and they knew that their stars, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, were “100% on board.” Golden State didn’t catch its big fish, though, because the Clippers didn’t accept any of its proposed deals before George’s player-option deadline, which was Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.

Warriors sources told The Athletic that they believed they were “on the verge” of getting a deal done “several times” leading up to that deadline. George would have picked up his option, which would have paid him nearly $49 million, and then he would have gone to Golden State in an extend-and-trade transaction. (Under the new collective-bargaining agreement, extend-and-trade deals allow for players to sign for up to four years, including the years remaining on the current contract, up from three in the previous CBA.) The Clippers would have gotten back some combination of a future first-round pick, Andrew Wiggins, Chris Paul, Jonathan Kuminga or Moses Moody, “but definitely not all” of those assets, according to The Athletic.

Negotiations were tricky. Paul agreed to push his contract-guarantee date from Friday to Sunday, and Wiggins was pulled out of the Canadian national team’s training camp right before it began. Golden State reportedly didn’t put Wiggins and Kuminga in the same offer, and Los Angeles had concerns about what the trade might do to its long-term payroll. Warriors executives, though,”thought they’d solved the puzzle,” per The Athletic, and were ready to pay the 34-year-old star max money in order to reopen their championship window.

George is a nine-time All-Star, and, he would have helped Golden State in all sorts of ways. If Klay Thompson’s departure is inevitable, then George could have helped make up for what the Warriors are about to…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-rumors-warriors-believed-they-were-on-verge-of-paul-george-deal-with-clippers-before-opt-out-per-report/

Author : James Herbert

Publish date : 2024-06-30 20:32:48

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