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Oklahoma City Thunder: What a Paul George-for-Blake Griffin trade would’ve looked like

By Justin Curran

Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images
Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images /
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 Before the Los Angeles Clippers stunned the NBA world by trading Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons, there reportedly were talks to send the All-Star to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

On ESPN‘s, “The Hoop Collective” podcast, Royce Young and Brian Windhorst discussed how the Oklahoma City Thunder received calls from the Los Angeles Clippers regarding Blake Griffin:

"Young: “They offered [Griffin] around to everybody.”Brian Windhorst: “I don’t know if that’s true.”Young: “I know that they made calls to Oklahoma City for Paul George. I’m pretty sure they made calls to Minnesota for players. So they tried to get some bigger-name players. It just wasn’t happening.”"

Now I know this is just a rumor, but that seems like it makes sense. Now that Griffin is on the Detroit Pistons, it’s interesting to think about what might have been.

For starters, both George and Griffin would be back their hometowns.

Another thing that’s interesting about this potential deal would’ve been the contract situation.  This past offseason saw Griffin signing a five-year mega extension worth $173 million. That deal also pays him nearly $39 million in the 2021-22 season.

Paul George has a different contract situation, as you all probably know.  He has an option to stay in OKC next year, but there’s no chance that actually happens. He should opt out and maximize his earnings in free agency, no matter where he chooses to go.

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    • The Clippers would have made this trade is to try to persuade Paul George to re-sign, though it still would’ve been a big risk for the Clippers to take.

    George has been outspoken about testing free agency this upcoming offseason for some time now. So why would he want to stay with a bad team just because he spent half a year there?

    By that logic, why didn’t he just stay in Indiana?  The hometown thing matters a little bit, but it doesn’t matter all that much.

    Now at the end of the day, this trade didn’t end up happening. But what could’ve been some of the hold ups for the Thunder?

    First of all, I don’t think the team wanted to break up its trio that finally is starting to build chemistry. By adding Blake Griffin, they would have to start from scratch in that category.

    Secondly, would you want to make that big of a commitment to Griffin?  He’s been injury-prone his entire career. In fact, he hasn’t played in over 70 games since the 2013-14 season. Would you want to invest almost $200 million in a guy who’s prone to injuries?

    Lastly, the Thunder still want to re-sign Paul George this offseason. I think you throw out your chances of re-signing a guy when you trade him for someone else; but hey, I’m not a GM.

    But just imagine for a second what this deal would’ve looked like from the Thunder’s perspective.  You’d have a frontcourt of Adams and Griffin. That’s scary. But then you have to remember all of the scoring you’re missing from George.

    Next: 2018 NBA Draft big board: End of January

    Overall, this is just a hypothetical that isn’t going to happen anymore, but it’s interesting to think what would’ve been in an alternate universe.

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