Why the Indiana Pacers won the Paul George trade.
It is quite easy to look at this trade a automatically think the Thunder got a steal, and the Pacers were scammed. Although it wasn't a horrible move for OKC, it will work out better for the Pacers in the long run. My reason behind this thinking is Paul George made it very clear that he was going to leave in the summer of 2018 to sign with the Lakers. The Pacers went into a rebuild like a handful of teams are doing. Although it might not look like much instead of the Pacers keeping PG13 in Indiana, and letting him leave after next season. They were able to acquire a solid young Shooting Guard in Victor Oladipo and a young Power Foward Domantas Sabonis. These will be two great building blocks to kick off the rebuild. I wouldn't disagree that the Thunder won the trade for the 2017-2018 season, but the Pacers definitely won it in the long run. Mainly because there is a very high possibility that Paul George will leave the Thunder after next years season. To go to the team he originally wanted to be on, that being the Los Angeles Lakers. All in all the Indiana Pacers won this trade because of getting young pieces for Paul George that was going to leave, and the Thunder lost in the long term because George will want to leave them too.