CLEVELAND -- In what was one of the worst defeats in Cleveland Cavaliers history, Paul George scored 36 points for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the team's 148-124 rout at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday.
It appears, however, that the real loss for the Cavs may have come last summer. According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, LeBron James' current frustration with his franchise isn't rooted in a stretch that has seen the Cavs lose 11 of their last 15 games, but rather their failure to acquire George and now-Milwaukee Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe last offseason.
Windhorst, a longtime Cavs insider, made the revelation on the Wednesday episode of 'The Lowe Post' podcast with Zach Lowe.
"What’s really pissing LeBron off is that he felt like the Cavs could have gotten Paul George and Eric Bledsoe and they didn’t get them,” Windhorst said.
It's not the first time someone has suggested such mega-trade fell apart.
According to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan, former Cleveland general manager David Griffin was in talks to send Kyrie Irving and Channing Frye to Phoenix last June in a three-way deal that would have seen the Cavs acquire both George and Bledsoe. The deal, of course, fell through, with George eventually landing in Oklahoma City and Bledsoe being traded to Milwaukee.
The Cavs, meanwhile, sent Irving to Boston later that summer in a trade to acquire an injured Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets' 2018 first-round pick.
Windhorst went on to speculate that James was also unhappy with the Cavs-Celtics trade, particularly after learning how injured Thomas was. Following his implementation into the Cleveland lineup earlier this month, the Cavs have won just three of their last 10 games.
And thus, the Cavs find themselves in the predicament they currently do. And until the team starts winning again, it's hard to imagine James being much happier anytime soon.
