Last week, the Indiana Pacers were informed by their superstar Paul George that he will not return after his contract is up in the summer of 2018 and will likely sign with his hometown Los Angeles Lakers. Upon hearing the news, the Pacers immediately began fielding trade calls for George in order to get pieces in return instead of letting him walk away for nothing next July. No matter how low or high the offers seem right now, the Pacers will likely be trading George sometime around the draft and definitely before the NBA's February trade deadline. It's a great courtesy of George to let general manager Kevin Pritchard franchise know of his intentions so they can move on in a direction they see fit, but what prompted him to let the team know?

According to Nate Taylor of Indy Star, George didn't want the same situation that happened with Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder last year to happen to him.

One reason George made the decision Saturday to inform Pritchard of his intentions was that he wasn’t comfortable putting the Pacers in a similar situation that the Oklahoma City Thunder went through last year.

The Thunder, a similar small market team, chose to have Kevin Durant play out the final year of his contract in the 2015-16 season. Durant then signed with the Golden State Warriors in free agency and the Thunder received nothing in return. With Durant, Oklahoma City took Golden State to a seven-game series in the Western Conference finals. Without Durant last season, the Thunder slipped from 55 to 47 wins and fell in five games in the first round of the playoffs to the Rockets. Durant helped lead the Warriors to the NBA championship earlier this month.

Just before the 2014-15 postseason, what would be the second-to-last year of Durant's stint with the Thunder (at least to date), Durant told members of the media that he would like to remain with the Thunder for the remainder of his career. He did add that he didn't know if anything would change, but that he wanted to be among the greats to play with one team.

“I love it here, man. I love my teammates, I love the city, I don't really think about anywhere else, said Durant. “For me, I love staying in the moment, and I'm one of those guys that would love to stick it out with one team my whole career. Kobe [Bryant], Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki type. That's awesome.”

Well, fast forward about two years, and Durant moved on to the Golden State Warriors team that beat him and his Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference Finals despite having a 3-1 lead in the series to win a title with them in 2017. Durant faced a lot of hatred and criticism along the way, some of which crossed the line, but you can be sure George was aware of it all. He doesn't want to mislead the fanbase or the organization, which could mean potentially getting assets in return and not completely dooming the franchise.

George, according to a source, knew it wouldn’t be easy to be upfront about his plans with Pritchard — especially after Pritchard told him the Pacers’ plan this offseason was to build a roster for next season around him to compete in the Eastern Conference with the intentions of convincing him to re-sign.

George respects Pritchard, former team president Larry Bird and coach Nate McMillan. He also values the strong relationships he has forged with several people on the team and in the franchise’s front office.

Stay tuned for the latest on the Paul George trade saga.