Paul George trade to the Celtics falls short during NBA draft

So much for the Boston Celtics trading for Paul George during the 2017 NBA draft.

At first, it looked like the Celtics would finally pull off the long-awaited deal with the Indiana Pacers. As the draft picks kept rolling in, though, the thought began to fade.

The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported serious talks:

Indiana and Boston are engaged in serious talks on a Paul George trade, league sources tell @TheVertical.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 22, 2017

Later, though, things started to fall apart:

Sources: Boston, Indiana talks for Paul George had gained significant momentum, but sides are still apart on a possible deal.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 23, 2017

Sources: For now, Boston-Indiana talks on Paul George have stalled. Live: https://t.co/pVi69Gfatv

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 23, 2017

It’s not hard to figure out why the two sides might come to such an impasse—the Celtics don’t want to give up too much because every team in the league knows George is on his way out. The Pacers want quite a bit in return because they’re losing a superstar player.

Comments by Pacers team president Kevin Pritchard say it all, according to USA Today‘s Nate Taylor:

“For me it was gut punch,” Pritchard said. “It was a total gut punch because we had many conversations over the summer about players that we’d like to add, a little bit of a style we’d like to play. In my opinion, I was very inclusive with (George) and the message over the summer up until this weekend was, ‘Let’s build a winning team.’ When that came in that he wanted to look at another place, it was gut punch for us.”

The real gut punch now, though, would be failing to do a deal for George at all. The front office has to hope it can play the market against itself and still get a great price.

For now, Boston has backed off despite also missing on Jimmy Butler. Who steps up and gives the Pacers what they want is impossible to say.