Paul George says he ‘worked hand-in-hand’ with Thunder on trade

When the Oklahoma City Thunder season ended with a dagger in the heart from the Portland Trail Blazers, it was time to head in another direction.

The first step of this rebuild was sending All-Star Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers before also moving starter Jerami Grant and sending the face of the franchise, Russell Westbrook, to the Houston Rockets.

George spent two seasons in Oklahoma City averaging 25 points and 6.9 rebounds in the two seasons and being a legitimate MVP candidate in 2018-19. Those two seasons were special to George and he wanted to work with general manager Sam Presti and the Thunder front office to make a deal happen.

During his introductory press conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles, George opened up on the process.

At Clippers news conference Paul George says he worked “hand-in-hand with the front office” in Oklahoma City to engineer a trade to LA: “We had a great relationship. I played two good years there, and it was a mutual thing between both of us that the time was up.”

— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonWrites) July 24, 2019

George and the Thunder spent two solid seasons together, but it ultimately ended with two first round exits in the postseason. Oklahoma City knew it was time to move on and they got two good pieces from the Clippers as well as a lot of first round picks.

When George says “the time was up”, the team knew they had reached their ceiling with the core in place.