The Oklahoma City Thunder finished the Paul George trade on Tuesday night by using the No. 12 pick in the 2026 NBA draft to select Michigan center Aday Mara. Nearly seven years after the deal was agreed to on July 6, 2019, the final draft piece tied to that move is now in Oklahoma City’s hands.
For readers following the Paul George trade because of what it eventually produced, the reason it still matters is simple: this was the last visible step in a return that helped build a title team. The Thunder ended up with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Danilo Gallinari and other assets from that broader chain, and Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams were the two best players on the club that won the 2025 NBA Finals. Gilgeous-Alexander later added back-to-back MVP awards in 2024-25 and 2025-26, a reminder of how much value came back from a deal that once centered on Paul George.
The selection of Mara also fits the pattern that has defined the return from the start: Oklahoma City kept turning draft capital into usable pieces. The No. 12 pick in the 2022 draft became Williams, while Gallinari gave the Thunder one season of 18.7 points and 5.2 rebounds in 62 games in 2019-20, when they reached the playoffs as the No. 5 seed. Those gains helped transform a trade that once looked like a clean player swap into something much larger for Oklahoma City.
There is still one piece from the wider asset chain that has not been resolved. The Thunder also have a 2027 protected first-round pick from the San Antonio Spurs in play, and that pick entered the picture when Oklahoma City traded the draft rights for Nique Clifford to the Sacramento Kings during the 2025 draft. A protected first-round pick means the selection only changes hands if it falls outside the agreed protection range; if it does not, the obligation can carry forward or be deferred depending on the terms. The exact cutoff has not been spelled out here, which is why the full ledger is not quite finished even after Tuesday night.
That unfinished detail does not change the larger conclusion. The Thunder have now completed the Paul George trade return, and the final result is a roster and asset base that helped deliver an NBA championship. What remains is the paperwork of the last pick, not the value of the deal itself.
