Pacers Thunder Fight Finals The trader behind it is Paul George?

From the beginning, all you need to do to reach the 2025 NBA Finals is to trade Paul George.

Strikingly, this year's Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers and Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder were both created by trading the assets obtained by George. How Pacers traded Paul George to build the team

Indiana picked George with the 10th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. During his time with the Pacers, George was selected four All-Stars and led the team to the division finals twice. However, in 2017, he told the team that it plans to sign other teams in the free agent market, with the first choice being the Los Angeles Lakers.

In order to avoid losing George for nothing, Indiana traded him to the Thunder on July 6, 2017, in exchange for 25-year-old Victor Oladipo and 21-year-old Domantas Sabonis. Under the training of the Pacers, Oladipo and Sabonis both grew into All-Stars, but as partners, their peak period was terminated in the first round of the playoffs.

By 2020, Oladipo began to encounter a right knee problem that ultimately led to the end of his career, so the Pacers traded him to the Houston Rockets as part of a four-party deal involving sending James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets, and the Pacers’ reward for the return was Carris LeVere and two second-round draft picks.

One of the second round picks became the 32nd pick in the 2023 draft. The Pacers packaged this draw with the 29th overall pick in the draft of the same year, and exchanged the Thunder for a 2024 first-round draft pick. The draft pick is one of two first-round picks Indiana traded to the Toronto Raptors in January 2024 in exchange for Pascal Siakam, this year's Eastern Conference Finals MVP.

Meanwhile, the Pacers traded LeVer to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a 2022 second round pick, a 2023 first round pick and a 2027 second round pick. The first two signings have become Andrew Nembhard and Ben Shepard, two rotation players of this year's division champion team.

Sabonis played for the Pacers until the February 2022 trading deadline, when the Pacers traded Sabonis and some additional assets to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Halliburton, Hilder and Tristan Thompson.

Now, Halliburton has grown into an NBA All-Squad-level point guard at the Pacers and is the absolute core of the team.

Finally, Indiana traded Hilder to the Philadelphia 76ers on the 2024 trade deadline, in exchange for two second-round picks – the first of which they traded again, turning the pick into Johnny Furfey.

Anyway, the Pacers turned George into Halliburton, Siakam, Nembhard, Shepard and Furfey. This roughly constitutes one-third of Indiana's entire lineup, half of the rotation, and two leaders of the team.

How the Thunder built the team through a trade Paul George

George played for the Thunder for two seasons, both of which were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

However, in July 2019, the Los Angeles Speedboats made an offer that Oklahoma City could not refuse. The Clippers were trying to sign Leonard in free agency at the time, but the two-time Finals MVP wanted a star partner in Los Angeles, so the club began to try to poach George from the Thunder.

Thunders head Sam Presti tried his best to put pressure on the Clippers, and eventually exchanged George for Shea Gilgers-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and several first-round draft picks.

Just to exchange for this year's MVP Gilgers Alexander is legendary enough. What's even more outrageous is that one of the signs traded at that time - the 12th pick in 2022 - became Jaylen Williams, who is the second leader of the Thunder team today. Most of the remaining assets in the

Starship deal package are related to this year's draft, so the Thunder have the 15th pick, 24th pick and 44th pick in the June draft, all from the assets they get from the George deal, which Presti can use to supplement any player that may be lost in the coming years due to rising salary costs.

Between SGA, Jaylen Williams and any players who may join in the future, the Thunder have used George's trade chips to build a budding dynasty. However, the first step to achieving the dynasty is to defeat their opponents in the finals this season. Interestingly, the Pacers’ Reconstruction Road also revolves around George’s departure, the most unique easter egg in this year’s finals.

(Text/Kong Yang)