Cavaliers Failed to Create New LeBron James Superteam to Combat Warriors in 2017

From 2015-2018, no two teams dominated the NBA more than the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The two teams met an astonishing four straight times in the NBA Finals.

In 2015, the Warriors ultimately took down the shorthanded Cavaliers 4-2 in a series that likely shouldn't have even gone that long.

In 2016, the Cavaliers stunned the NBA world when they completed the first 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history against the Golden State Warriors.

However, from 2017 onward, it became a complete domination by the Golden State Warriors after they acquired Kevin Durant.

The Cavaliers had a superteam of their own with LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love; however, they were actually looking to create an even bigger one.

At the time, there were reports of the Cleveland Cavaliers attempting to trade for Paul George, but a new conversation with Clippers head coach Ty Lue confirmed the actual failed trade.

During a conversation on the Club Shay Say podcast, Lue admitted to the trade when asked by Shannon Sharpe.

"Yeah, when he was in Indiana," Lue admitted about trading for Paul George.

"We tried to get him...

We tried." Revisiting the Failed Trade According to multiple ESPN contributors in 2017, the Cavaliers believed they had a done deal, sending Paul George to Cleveland in a multi-team trade.

"On the afternoon of June 30, the sides thought they had a deal," ESPN said.

"On a conference call between the teams, everyone tentatively agreed.

George to the Cavs, Love to the Nuggets, Harris and other pieces to the Pacers, sources said." Unfortunately, Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard decided in the final hours that he was no longer willing to go through with the deal.

"Plans were put in place for a call to be arranged between George and Gilbert, an important step before the trade would become final, sources said.

The front office began making other plans to complement George as free agency was about to begin," ESPN said.

"But then Pritchard, who had been on the conference call when the deal was tentatively agreed to, sent the message that his team was backing out, sources said.

There was no deal," ESPN concluded.

Would it Have Been Enough to Defeat the Warriors? It's tough to say whether or not adding Paul George to the Cavaliers would have been enough to defeat the Kevin Durant, Steph Curry Golden State Warriors.

Even with Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and LeBron James, the Cavaliers only won one game against Golden State, and it just seemed like Cleveland didn't match up well with them.

However, George was a legitimate superstar at that point in his career and would have made a huge difference for Cleveland.

At the same time, that era of the Golden State Warriors was arguably the greatest team in the history of basketball.

With all the hypotheticals in mind, Cleveland still wouldn't have defeated them.

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