The Jays' era in Boston was chaotic. It had its peaks and valleys throughout their time together on the Boston Celtics. Now, the team has started a new chapter with Paul George, who could be a better weapon than most give him credit for, even if he's not a star anymore.
Funny enough, getting George in Boston should serve as a reminder that the Celtics tried to get him back when he was a star. George had been linked to the Celtics for months in 2017. In fact, the night Jayson Tatum was drafted, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski revealed that Boston and Indiana were in serious talks involving George.
Indiana and Boston are engaged in serious talks on a Paul George trade, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 22, 2017
The following week, George was traded to Oklahoma City, and the rest was history from there. Boston's offseason went in a different direction. Not necessarily for the worse at the time, but after failing to get George, they signed Gordon Hayward and acquired Kyrie Irving. Celtics fans still know all too well how that went.
It's fair to say that if Boston had traded for George instead, things could have gone very differently at the start of the Jays era.
Acquiring Paul George would have averted the Kyrie Irving disaster
Boston's plans back in 2017 were to pair George with Hayward, per Wojnarowski himself. Adam Kaufman revealed what Boston planned to offer Indiana for George before they made their deal with the Thunder.
I'm told #Celtics offer to IND for George is LAL/SAC pick from PHI, '19 MEM OR LAC pick, Crowder, $$ filler (Zeller pop name, Bradley poss).
— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) June 27, 2017
For the record, George was on an expiring contract and made it clear he wanted out of Indiana. This was a rare time to get a superstar in his prime for less than what he was worth. The only reason the Thunder's offer beat the Celtics was because they offered them the opportunity to retool (and in all fairness, the Pacers chose right).
Still, if Indiana had gone the other way around, this could have changed everything in the Jays era. Isaiah Thomas may have stayed in Boston, but his inability to replicate his success after 2017 may have negatively affected his legacy as a Celtic.
It also sounds like the Nets pick later sent to Cleveland in the Kyrie deal would have stayed, giving Boston another top-10 pick. There's no telling who Danny Ainge would have picked, but knowing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the No. 11 pick and the Cavaliers wound up with the No. 8 pick... who knows?
Also, Boston's eyes had been fixated on Anthony Davis. The only reason they couldn't pull off a trade for him was that he and Irving had the Derrick Rose rule in their contracts, and part of that clause was that teams could not have two players with it. George did not have that, which meant Davis would have been on the table.
If that had happened, Boston might have pulled off that deal for Davis, including the Jays and whatever pick they would have gotten from Brooklyn. And maybe Hayward never gets hurt on opening night.
Maybe Al Horford stays, further cementing himself as a Celtics legend in his own right, and Boston cements a dynasty, though to be fair, they still would have had to go through LeBron and the Hamptons Five.
Looking back on times like these, it's amazing to think of how the cookie crumbled. There's nothing we can do about it now, but if Boston had won the George sweepstakes, there's no telling what would have come from the Jays era.
Hell, we don't know if there would have even been a Jays era in the first place if everything went according to plan then.
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