If the Thunder (up 3-1) and the Pacers (up 2-1) advance to the NBA finals, both of the teams in the finals will be the after-product of trading Paul George.

In 2017, the Indiana Pacers traded Paul George for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo. Domantas Sabonis was traded for Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers’ franchise player, and Victor Oladipo was flipped multiple times, eventually resulting in the Pacers acquiring Andrew Nembhard. Both of these players are major parts of the Pacers core which is on its way to potentially make the NBA finals.

Subsequently, in 2019 the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Paul George for Sophomore year Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as a multitude of first-round picks, one of them resulting in Jalen Williams.

At the time, these both seemed like fair exchanges for Paul George. The Thunder had some very good years with Paul George after trading for him, including him finishing third in MVP voting. The Clippers also weren’t unwise to trade for Paul George. At the time, they were basically trading for both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, so it seems like a very fair return for both teams.

In hindsight, neither team made it past the Conference Finals with Paul George on their roster, while the teams that traded away Paul George are currently flourishing.

This is not at all meant to be a knock on PG. He is one of the best scorers of this generation and worthy of the Hall of Fame. It’s just crazy to see how well these trades panned out for the teams that got rid of Paul George.