Before Oklahoma City wound up settling on a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers which sent Paul George home and gave the Thunder a bevy of first-round picks and first-round swaps, the Thunder reportedly spoke to the Toronto Raptors about a move for George.
As much as George may have wanted to go home, the motivation behind his move was partnering up with Kawhi Leonard — who the Raptors were trying to hold on to. According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, George would have taken a move to the Raptors if it came to that.
Simply, Toronto didn’t have the depth of picks it needed to get a deal done — nor the certainty that getting George would make Leonard stay with the Raptors…
Woj also reported the Thunder offered Toronto Russell Westbrook, as well, giving the franchise three superstar players.
Though, it seems there wasn’t much of a chance the deal got done. Not just the trade involving Westbrook, the one with just George, according to a report from TSN‘s Josh Lewenberg:
Leonard also asked the Raptors for Paul George, although a deal with Oklahoma City was never as close as some have reported and – despite those reports – Russell Westbrook was not included in the preliminary, and very brief, talks between the teams. In fact, those talks never even reached the team’s highest-ranking execs.
