Cleveland came perilously close to pairing LeBron James with Paul George in 2017 as part of a broader effort to counter the Warriors’ newly retooled dynasty with Kevin Durant. After the Cavaliers’ famous comeback against Golden State, rumors swirled that Cleveland was pursuing a deal to land George from Indiana that summer, with the Denver Nuggets serving as a conduit. The idea was to form a LeBron-Paul George-Kyrie Irving trio to blunt Durant’s impact and repeat as contenders.
Tyronn Lue later confirmed on a podcast appearance that Cleveland did indeed explore a George deal while he was coach, saying, “Yeah, we tried to get him,” though he did not recall all the specifics of why it didn’t materialize.
George himself later corroborated the near-miss. On his own podcast, he described how a mediation effort led him to contemplate joining forces with LeBron, with Dahntay Jones acting as a go-between. The plan didn’t go forward because Indiana, then in the same division as Cleveland, wouldn’t deal him to a conference rival, and ball-moving logistics complicated the matter. The Cavaliers were particularly concerned about how the draft pick involved in any deal would be protected.
The pivot point in the talks was the draft pick protection. Indiana reportedly wanted no protections on a future Cavaliers first-round pick, while Cleveland balked and insisted on lottery protection. With those sticking points unresolved, Indiana ultimately shifted its focus to the Oklahoma City package that brought Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to Indiana, and the deal with Cleveland never happened.
If the Cavaliers had landed George, it’s unclear how Kyrie Irving’s future with the team would have played out. The trade would likely have come at the cost of Kevin Love, altering the 2017-18 Cavaliers core and potentially affecting how LeBron navigated his tenure in Cleveland. Still, the prospect of a LeBron-George pairing would have offered a different dynamic to contend with the Warriors, even as the question of whether it would have toppled that era’s dynasty remains speculative.
What happened next—Kyrie Irving’s trade to Boston and the Warriors’ continued dominance—ultimately shaped the Cavaliers’ trajectory and the broader NBA landscape. The near-miss underscores how a few asset-protection decisions and the timing of a trade can influence an entire franchise’s path for years to come.
Summary: The Cavaliers nearly traded for Paul George in 2017 to team with LeBron and Kyrie, but a disagreement over draft pick protections and Indiana’s division alliance prevented the deal, a near-miss that could have dramatically reshaped the Cavaliers’ fate that era.
Additional note: This episode highlights the high-stakes, what-if nature of NBA front-office decisions and how close combinations of stars can change the balance of power in a league defined by dynasties. If you’re looking for a hopeful takeaway, it’s that such near-misses reflect the ongoing pursuit of perfect fits in a sport where wide-open title windows can hinge on a single late-summer decision.