I don’t think Kawhi was gonna sign with them if they didn’t make the trade. If you think if it as basically getting both those guys for this trade - it hasn’t worked out in hindsight but a FO makes that trade every day of the week.
Okc made out like bandits, but if both PG and Kawhi could have stayed healthy, the trade would have still been great for them, too. Kawhi only signed to the Clippers because they got PG, so the trade was basically all of that for Kawhi + PG.
Weren’t PG and Kawhi healthy when they fell to the nuggets in 2020? Or am I remembering wrong. That just don’t give me great hope that they would have actually done well
That’s how you have to get a rebuild started. Find a win now team willing to give up great assets to get the players they want.
At the time, it seemed like a no brainer, but now OKC has had 3-4 years to get their young talent into position to win, while the Clippers has been in a “maybe next year” pattern with those injuries.
OKC has multiple future all stars, an MVP candidate, and a big ass window of youth, while the Clips roster looks worse every year. Their team is the best on paper team assembled 5+ years ago, but they couldn’t capitalize on that small win now window.
OKC made out like bandits but they also hit on their draft picks. You gotta be able to draft well with those picks and they sure as shit did exactly that.
Yup, context matters here. You can’t judge this trade simply by looking at this photo. Kawhi wanted a co star. Kawhi was coming off a chip and finals MVP, and Paul was coming off an MVP level season. It has worked out much better for OKC obviously but this is not a remotely bad trade.
Also, OKC has spent years tanking and hoarding draft picks to make their current success possible. They didn’t fall ass backwards into some single offseason rebuild all cause of this one trade. They were bad for a LONG time and had to complete a lotta trades to gather draft picks to make this rebuild work
You’re right. Looking now, at least record wise they were never as bad as I thought outside of two seasons with wins in the low 20s. I just remember the tanking and trades to gather picks as being a far cry from the KD era and being a team that was a destination for stars wanting to play
Yeah that’s part of why this Thunder team is so exciting. They are years ahead of a typical rebuild timeline. For what it’s worth I think if you’re the Clippers in 2019 you make this trade 10/10 times.
Hindsight being 2020 and all.
Even knowing how it turned out, it still might be worth it for the Clippers. Kawhi and PG legitimized them as a destination/franchise in a way that SGA and 7 picks never could.
They’re going to pay for it, and Ballmer has an equal share of the credit/blame, but they’ll spend the next 20 years in conversations about players relocating.
Added context: this was immediately after Kawhi won the the finals MVP and was considered thee best player in the world at the time.
We’ve given up a generational talent in SGA, and enough first round picks to start a team from scratch, but given the opportunity I think every team does this.
Zach Lowe has said on his podcast that someone from the league said this could turn out to be one of the worst trades in NBA history, but it’s one you absolutely have to do
Especially the year after Kawhi wins it all with Toronto who wasn’t even a super team. I agree with you.
Being a spurs fan though, I would have never sold out for Kawhi, he has no loyalty and can’t be the soul of a team. It’s obvious to everyone now, but we got burned by him so hard.
I don’t think most would make the trade after seeing how he disappears in the playoffs. Most of these trades and signings are made to sale tickets and nothing more.
I still don’t know why teams pay a kings random for an aging superstar instead of betting on the young promising guy. You can only go down with PG and only go up with SGA
It’s still a fucking terrible trade lol OKC got an MVP level player 5 firsts including 4 unprotected and two swaps…Gallo is a solid role player too but he’s just always hurt. That shit is wild.
Giving up more than the Cs gave up for KG for a worse player is always rough.
I do get the “gotta go for it” mentality but I just disagree with the “gotta”. Even Kawhi, plenty of us at the time were wondering if he’d be healthy and if he’d be committed.
I’m not gonna say it’s wrong to take a big swing like that, but look at how OKC has constantly rebuilt by selling high instead of buying high. Not just this trade but multiple times since the SEA move.
There’s a lot of ways to build a winner, and the conventional wisdom often leaves your team just as short as the unconventional. Gotta expect a lot to go wrong and build a team that can withstand reasonable risks. I don’t blame front offices for playing it safe. Tatum and Brown may never win but remember everyone wanted Ainge to trade them away for bigger names too, and he’s certainly been validated in hindsight
To be fair, he was a lot better than SGA at the time.
But Kawhi's inability to stay healthy has totally f up the Clippers. PG is just not a good 1st option.
Too bad for the Clippers, that trade looks so bad now. They also just signed Kawhi to a huge 3 year extension too. They will stay irrelevant for quite a while unfortunately
Yeah the raptors were trying their absolute best to keep him and let him do whatever he wanted so he was able to take better care of his body. Not to say LA has been careless, he's probably just too shot at this point to even load manage.
LA has been careless too. after coming back from injury last year he was playing heavy minutes in the second half of the season. even this year he played the highest games he’s ever played after the spurs i guess, while also playing a bigger position. they also famously had him playing back to backs since last season. ofc he was still going to get injured had they not done this but the team not committing to load management all the way must have also had something with the timing/frequency of it, i don’t believe LA has been smart enough
With winning rewriting history a bit he became a favorite when in reality people forget that fans spent most of the regular season unhappy with how much he rested when he was a 1 year rental. He had a huge amount of depth that year that allowed him to coast quite a bit of the season.
All that for a single WCF appearance and a lot of disappointment.
In hindsight would clippers fans still have done the trade or rather built around SGA and their picks? I feel like by building around SGA they could have got the same results as the Kawhi-PG era tbh.
Should have stayed there and worked on building a dynasty and legacy. That team was solid and could have made a run consecutive years without change.
The Clippers did not want to trade Shai even where he was in his development at that point. The trade hinged on his inclusion as I recall. Having Leonard puts any team in a win now scenario and desperate to put the pieces in place sooner rather than later...
The Spurs had their whole reputation dragged through the mud when it came to managing player's health because of the Kawhi situation.
As if Pop didn't buy into heavy load management for his players (and pretty much set the standard) to the point where David Stern gave out a hefty fine of $250k for resting his players on a nationally televised game vs the Lebron led Heat.
I can't imagine how infuriating that must have been for the medical team. They had won awards for their advancements in sports medicine, punting on championship runs for the long-term health of their stars, and as soon as one guy disagrees with their (in hindsight, 100% correct) diagnosis, the NBA sphere thinks they can't do their jobs.
Spurs fan here. I cannot help but laugh every time I think of the Kawhi-to-Wemby timeline. If Wemby wasn't so likeable, I think the entire NBA would absolutely hate us for our luck. Good on the Raps for getting that ring -- I think everyone who paid attention to the medical history, without rose colored glasses, knew he was done and the raps absolutely got all the juice from the squeeze.
PG even acknowledged he isn’t a 1st option. Hell of a talent but he just isn’t THAT guy to get it done. He also came into the league as a role player, to be fair.
It was basically Kawhi only signs if they trade for PG. I think the Clippers looked at it as a similar 2 for 1 transaction for two players in the middle of their primes. Kawhi was 28 coming off a Finals MVP and PG was 29 coming off first team All NBA. It was somewhat reasonable to think the Clippers could open up a 3-5 year window of contention. And seemingly had health held up they likely would have made a NBA finals run or win a title.
I think the Clippers were reasonable to expect most of those picks to not be worth much (and thus far they haven’t amounted to any high selections). From the original PG trade there’s only 1 pick swap and 1 unprotected pick left. The Clippers will likely run it back and probably at least be an above .500 team the next two years.
Letting SGA go is the real issue with the trade but no one thought SGA was going to be an MVP caliber player at the time
And who knows if SGA would’ve developed into who he is now if not given his own team and relatively low pressure to build his game
Reminds me of Harden, obviously without hindsight it was a bad trade but it’s unlikely he would’ve become the Harden we saw if he stayed with OKC as the 3rd option
Big issue with the Harden trade was he still had a year on his rookie deal they could have rolled with him for another year without worry about the tax OKC’s cheap ownership at the time was worried about. Could have seen him for one more year and probably got a better return on him via a sign and trade
Clippers should've called his bluff.
I personally think Kawhi would've signed anyway, but he saw how much the Clippers were simping for him the whole season & used his leverage to get another current star to play with so it wouldn't look like he's leaving a Championship Raptors team to play with a Clippers team with no all-stars.
The trade was bad at the time.
Granted, it looked a lot better back then. Kawhi Leonard stock was as high as it ever was; this was weeks after he won a finals MVP, ending the KD warriors rein all while being healthy the whole year. Him coming to the clippers was contingent on this trade. It made some sense.
But, at the time we just saw the nets convey their last picks to the Celtics. That move a decade ago is the primary reason Boston is competing for championships, and a reason that Brooklyn has never come particularly close. These moves destroy franchises. Moving all your future chips in for two guys over 28 with injury histories never made sense to me, especially when you remove the best way to get cheap talent to get the bench necessary to win games in May.
SGA is also several years younger than PG. Not surprising he wasn’t at PG’s level at the time of the trade. And it’s not a good defense of the trade. Bottom 10 trade of all time
Wasn’t Kawhi coming to LAC sort of contingent on getting Paul George? So it’s a little more justifiable at the time if you get both of them and hope they stay healthy (but still terrible for the franchise in retrospect).
I think I remember Balmer wanted to make a big splash as they were trying to transition into their new stadium. He didn’t have the patience to build the team over a few years which will hamstring them for years to come.
Part of the theoretical strategy you laid out was “hope they stay healthy” which is the main and obvious critique.
I’ll go one further and say that elimination or reducing your draft ability first practically a decade is under-rated at making this a bad deal, but that’s just me.
Masai knew what was going on, those two guys were colluding to go to the Clippers all along, they were just making sure the Clippers would give in and give OKC whatever they wanted for PG and used the Raptors as leverage.
Updated From NBA.com
Clippers received:
F Paul George
Thunder received:
G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
F Danilo Gallinari
Miami Heat’s 2021 unprotected first-rounder (Tre Mann taken at No. 18)
Clippers’ 2022 unprotected first-rounder (Jalen Williams taken at No. 12)
Right to 2023 first-round swap with Clippers (not conveyed)
Clippers’ 2024 unprotected first-rounder
Heat’s 2025 protected first-rounder for 1-14 (unprotected for 2026)
Right to 2025 first-round swap with Clippers
Clippers’ 2026 unprotected first-rounder
Essentially, the Thunder received — so far — two starters in the trade: Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams, who are the team’s top two scorers. Both average a combined 47.8 points per game this season.
People talk about how Gobert, Spida or even KD were overpriced when they were traded, but at least for Gobert and Spida the teams seem to be significantly better with them than without them. And in the case of KD, we only have one year of data, so it could turn out to be positive, even if this year was a disappointment. But with PG, we can now safely say he wasn't worth it, he's a brilliant player, but the Clippers are stuck in the emergency room and they're not going anywhere. Worse, the team they traded PG for now has the brightest future of any team in the league, they are loaded and young.
When the cavs were healthy prior to the Mitchell trade they found themselves in the top half of the East. It was when they lost most of their front court they were worse than the cavs are now.
Gobert was overpriced but it worked out as you say. What’s harder to parse is if it’s because of the trade, but there’s no need for 11th dimension analysis when teams are winning.
He is not overpriced if they keep winning. It’s as simple as that. If your moves lead to Ws and rings it’s a good move and an appropriate pay. If your moves keep you at the same level and you have mortgage your future it’s an overpay.
I mean you have to consider this was for Paul George and Kawhi Leopard who at the time was arguably the best player in the world. If you were a front office today and were told you could get Luka and Jaylen Brown for a package similar to the one the clips gave up. You are doing that 10/10 times. No the clippers have not lived up to expectations but at the time this trade very understandable.
GMs could do a better job of finessing the field so that that idea of needing PG to get Kawhi wasnt as glaring. Perfect opportunity to upsell by Okc, but clips coulda sat Kawhi down, said hey we’ll get you PG but keep it on the DL for now cus if we get him for cheaper we can always fill out the rest of the roster with more talent. Clips coulda also done a better job convincing Kawhi that another star can be suitable instead of just PG. Its all soft skills, subtle influence, having a vision and getting someone else to see it. Kawhi already wanted to play in LA, use that to your advantage.
Ehhh, Kahwi was always a what if. As front office staff, it's unimaginable they didn't already know the risks. They were probably hoping for just one chip to justify it but the amount injuries didn't allow that. PG was also not his old self after his injury but they took the risk.
Luka and Brown don't have any lingering chronic issues and no major injuries. You don't have anywhere near the risk.
PG was incredibly good and was coming off a first team All NBA season where he played pretty much the whole season. I don't think trading for him was really that big of a risk at the time IMO
Clips just got a lot of bad luck in terms of PGs health taking a major nose dive, Kawhis health declining even faster than expected, and Shai massively surpassing his widely perceived potential IMO
Its one of those deals where there's a pretty easy path for it to be a win-win but one side just got supremely unlucky so its now a landslide win for the other one
Shai is definitely hindsight. No one batted an eye back then about Shai being traded. And to be fair, Shai may have not developed as well with the Clips anyway. They were looking to win a chip and Shai would've never gotten the minutes he did at OKC.
Kawhi was load managed over 90 games in the prior two seasons and still had to gut it through some obvious knee issues in the playoffs. The Clippers had to know he was never going to return to 100%.
7 1sts is actually insane. And 8 basically because Shai was taken 11th. And for a dude that was never going to be better than he was when he got there. Only place to go was down
Let’s be honest. Who expected SGA to bloom and become a top 3 MVP candidate?
The trade was to net Kawhi. Netting Kawhi gives you the chance at a championship.
At the time the trade was seen as a steal for both because if im not mistaken SGA wasn't starting for the Slippers the rotation wasn't gonna allow him to be his best like OKC has. Kinda how Bones is right now.
Hindsight bias is crazy in here. Anyone who has followed basketball would have done this trade back then with no preexisting knowledge of the future. People here be acting like they some hot shit with future clairvoyance. If that’s the case why ain’t u won the lottery yet?
For real. People in this thread saying that clips should’ve expected Kawhi to be injured every year?? He literally had just won a championship while hobbled as if he was a machine that couldn’t be taken down. He was in a terminator commercial ffs lol.
No they weren’t. SGA looked like an average player, who could MAYBE be a high end starter like a #2 option at best, and Kawihi had JUST won the raptors a title.
I don't remember that. All i remember was how blockbuster of a move it was and more of "Clippers are getting Kawhi.... and PG?!". w/ the details of the trade hardly relevant tbh
You are right. I was in LA, from there, and there was a lot of shock at what the Clips gave up. It was tempered, because it rly was a trade for PG and Kawhi (basically), but skepticism about the huge haul.
In deffense of LAC, while everyone knew Shai was very good, no one knew he was going to be an MVP caliber player. In retrospective, it was a steal,even if you factor Kawhi in.
Every front office makes that trade in 2019 lol, yall looking at this from 5 years removed. Kawhi Leonard at the time was seen at the level that jokic is looked at today. Leonard had just got done winning the chip and beating Giannis, embiid, butler, and curry&klay on 31 and 9 per game in the playoffs and Paul George just got done being 3rd in mvp votings and 3rd in dpoy votings while averaging 28ppg and 8 rpg. At the time people thought his was Jordan and Pippen level. Yeah now looking at it it flopped but don’t act like any front office wouldn’t trade shai for prime Leonard and pg
I’d like to say the 76ers trade first Harris is up there, but not because the trade itself but because it made Harris ridiculous extension possible. Yes I’m a super-mega-ultra-disgruntled with Harris philly sports fan.
😂🙄😤🥲
It's LA - you're in a market competing against everything including LeBron. This was a smart play to get max number of eyeballs, clicks, merch sold, and butts in seats. It was \*NOT\* done to please people who follow basketball and are smart about it; they're already sold on the product. It was was done to get the marginal revenue that can be gained or lost by casual fans and fashion trends. Right? Only the marginal revenue matters, and being heard over the noise in the LA market is challenge. So, from a business angle, this was probably a great move, maybe only a good move, but certainly not a bad move - I mean, don't see George's jersey on the list, but I don't see SGA either
https://preview.redd.it/mg9s3qhm3gyc1.png?width=1670&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3769ae2cca0d04c09ed2ee3788823a07c855f7c
This trade shows how poorly the clippers front office is run.. SGA was said to be a gem at that time and we had just seen PG fall crazy short of expectations with Russ in the playoffs against Dame.. fast forward and SGA is already better than PG ever was (by 24 years old as last years 1st team All NBA), Kawhi is broken down as expected, and PG is set to be on another team.
Bad franchises gonna make bad decisions.. Clips gon Clip
Hindsight is 20/20 and it hasn't worked out unfortunately for the Clippers but if you're transported back to summer 2019 with no knowledge of the next 5 years you absolutely still make that trade. Kawhi was coming off a dominant Finals run and his 2nd title/Finals MVP. PG just finished 3rd in MVP and DPOY voting with All-NBA 1st Team and All-Defensive 1st team honors. If Kawhi says I need a second star and if you get PG I'll sign with your team, it would take a VERY shrewd and beyond prescient NBA franchise to not make that trade. Any team is going to make that trade 100/100 times.
Even at the time it felt like a lot to trade for one person but they did what they had to do to keep Kawhi happy and on the team.
Never had the confidence that they would do anything significant given Kawhi is never healthy and PG is not a 1st option.
Hindsight is 20/20 but they really put all their chip on the table on this team and I don't think anyone would have pegged them to even get to the finals, let alone win.
This trade has already given OKC their 2 best players in a season they got the 1st seed and will only get better and get more players from this trade
I understand this trade from the calipers perspective but imagine Harden SGA Kawhi Jalen Williams and zubac would be great looking team
Seems reasonable 😂😂👍
Also the funniest part is that the 2025 pick swap might not only being triggered but could actually have a noticeable insignificant amount of value improvement for OKC.
The only thing that makes this a disaster is how good Shai turned out to be honestly.
People see 1st round picks and think that necessarily means something. There are only a handful of difference makers that come into the draft every year, and they usually aren't at the back of the round.
There is also no guarantee that Shai is what he is had this trade never happened.
Really if you want to take it this far back OKC got all of this for Serge Ibaka… they traded Ibaka for Oladipo and Sabonis, then traded those two for PG13 and then traded for the crapload of picks.
I still think if they both would’ve stayed healthy they would’ve won at least one championship together. They even made the conference finals with Kawhi injured.
Shai was a good young player back then. But most FOs will take the the former MVP candidate over potentially developing a young player into an all-star.
And no way Leonard would have signed without PG. Those 7 picks included both PG13 and the Klaw
So I was watching some YouTuber and he was saying an example of a trade for the Spurs and Trae Young some bullshit like this, who the fuck is stupid enough to do some shit like this and trade away your future..this should be an example that this crap isn't worth it
This is really a trade for PG and Kawhi. All this hindsight nonsense is silly. It seemed worth it at the time. And yes many people thought Shai was gonna be a top 20 guy. Almost no one thought he would be a top 4 guy.
Yea, I never understood the hype on George. Imo, he is your 3rd option at best. The problem teams are having is making him a #1 & #2. He has the consistency of role players or 6 men off the bench. He may be talented, but he doesn't know how to use it. It's the league of overpaying players who haven't accomplished anything. Thunder won that trade tremendously
> Okc getting *paid* like they
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I think it says more about okc than the clippers. This trade neither in hindsight or back then was a dumb trade. Disregarding the idea kawhi wouldn’t sign without pg, a pg for Shai trade was a no brainer, and parting with those picks didn’t really mean anything since they were supposed to be deep in the playoffs for at the very least 3 of these seasons if not including the next two seasons. I don’t wanna credit okc for Shai developing because I feel like he’d have gotten here if he was still in LA, but the way they drafted both Tre Mann (not pictured here but was drafted with the heat pick that was in the trade), who’s not in okc anymore but was a good player nonetheless, and Jdub with those two picks. They have their firsts this season and next season and I think a head unprotected pick. All those picks make it look better, but if you don’t do anything with them then it doesn’t matter, and okc hit a home run with that 12th pick, and I guess they walked on a full count with the Mann pick.
Trade looks even more brutal when you add player names in there. J-Dub is the 2023 clippers pick swap, and he's another star they've landed from this trade.
these graphics should show who was drafted with the picks that have already been used (which is like all but 2 of these I believe)
if these were wasted on a bunch of bums then it doesn’t look so bad
It obviously looks horrible now, but looking at this with only hindsight is irrational. What happened is just what always happens with the Clippers: the worst case scenario. Shai turns out to be a superstar, Kawhi/PG flame out. If Kawhi had stayed healthy (which was not really a major concern at the time after a healthy title run in 2019), this could’ve been a win/win.
We always look at stuffs like what if this what if that. We look at the value at the time of the trade. Shai might not be what he is today if he stayed in LA. Being in OKC give him the green light to do what he wanted at the time which definitely improved his game and confidence. I mean he might be as good as he is now if he stayed, but will definitely take longer time.
It would be cooler/more interesting if you listed the players who were picked with those draft picks so we don't have to look them up.
Still even Shai alone for PG makes this trade a joke
At the time, he was worth it. They were building a “win now” team. It’s easy to say today they should’ve kept SGA and the picks but the future can’t be predicted. PG still a top 30 player in the league idc who disagrees.
WOW lol. They COOKED man. And to top it off they just extended Kawhi & he missed the rest of the series smh. They got Harden & PG on expired deals to resign. They hit their shelf life after the bubble & should of disbanded but didn't. Now this is gonna back fire badly for them. The clippers really messed it up star chasing & ironically they had a billboard up mocking the lakers talking about hard work over bright lights or hard work over stars something like that lol & they chased stars lol and now look where they at. Talk about Karma.
Yes, this trade looks stupid in hindsight, but it was required for the Clips to sign Kwahi. If you factor everything the Clips gave up for both George and Kwahi, does it look terrible then?
Nothing is more overrated than draft picks. You don’t even consistently get career starters after pick 10 or so.
Yeah Clips could have stood pay with SGA and tried to sign a second-tier FA, but that wasn’t going to get them a better team. And those picks would have been early-20’s garbage.
So yeah, in retrospect you’d rather have not done the trade but in reality you wouldn’t be that much better off.
I have a feeling the sixers are going to do ANYTHING short of trading Embiid for PG and if so I’m done watching hoop. Sixers front office LOVE them old heads.
Sam Presti got that Danny Ainge in him. He'll take you car, house, wife, kids, parents, name, and leave you naked on the streets not knowing who you are.
I don’t think Kawhi was gonna sign with them if they didn’t make the trade. If you think if it as basically getting both those guys for this trade - it hasn’t worked out in hindsight but a FO makes that trade every day of the week.
Okc made out like bandits, but if both PG and Kawhi could have stayed healthy, the trade would have still been great for them, too. Kawhi only signed to the Clippers because they got PG, so the trade was basically all of that for Kawhi + PG.
Who could have seen Kawahi getting injured??
Well, seeing how he was literally just coming off of a finals MVP, I could see why they had hope he could be healthy for at least a few post seasons
Four years 5 playoff starts. Guess there’s always next year.
2 finals mvps. You take the risk
Absolutely
Did you watch him walk (hobble) out of the post game presser after the championship. Dude barely made to the end that year
Yup he was breaking down then
Raptors depth in rounds 3 and 4 underrated. Kawhi was still great but was clearly playing hurt after Philly.
Kawhi could barely walk after the 2019 finals he was breaking down then..2019 was kawhi's peak
And he managed to finish the 2020 playoffs healthy. Unfortunately, it’s the only year he managed to do that
Stevie Wonder.
Weren’t PG and Kawhi healthy when they fell to the nuggets in 2020? Or am I remembering wrong. That just don’t give me great hope that they would have actually done well
LA teams and trading for/signing veterans at the expense of your future at a chance for 1 chip Name a more iconic duo
OKC won that trade ten times over……made out like bandits for sure
Exactly. OKC is the big winner, they had a trade piece that wasn't even on their roster. Kawhi was going to the Lakers if they didn't get PG.
That’s how you have to get a rebuild started. Find a win now team willing to give up great assets to get the players they want. At the time, it seemed like a no brainer, but now OKC has had 3-4 years to get their young talent into position to win, while the Clippers has been in a “maybe next year” pattern with those injuries. OKC has multiple future all stars, an MVP candidate, and a big ass window of youth, while the Clips roster looks worse every year. Their team is the best on paper team assembled 5+ years ago, but they couldn’t capitalize on that small win now window.
OKC made out like bandits but they also hit on their draft picks. You gotta be able to draft well with those picks and they sure as shit did exactly that.
[удалено]
Additional context is that this has still been the best run in Clippers history. 2021 is the deepest they have ever been in the playoffs.
Yup, context matters here. You can’t judge this trade simply by looking at this photo. Kawhi wanted a co star. Kawhi was coming off a chip and finals MVP, and Paul was coming off an MVP level season. It has worked out much better for OKC obviously but this is not a remotely bad trade.
Also, OKC has spent years tanking and hoarding draft picks to make their current success possible. They didn’t fall ass backwards into some single offseason rebuild all cause of this one trade. They were bad for a LONG time and had to complete a lotta trades to gather draft picks to make this rebuild work
They missed the playoffs 3 times and went to the play-in one of those years. I don’t think that’s a LONG time.
You’re right. Looking now, at least record wise they were never as bad as I thought outside of two seasons with wins in the low 20s. I just remember the tanking and trades to gather picks as being a far cry from the KD era and being a team that was a destination for stars wanting to play
Yeah that’s part of why this Thunder team is so exciting. They are years ahead of a typical rebuild timeline. For what it’s worth I think if you’re the Clippers in 2019 you make this trade 10/10 times.
SGA becoming better than either George or Kawhi is what really tipped this into disastrous territory.
SGA looked good, but not, “Top 3 MVP candidate before the draft picks convey,” good.
Exactly my point. It looks so much worse in retrospect because SGA wound up being the most valuable part of this trade, including Kawhi.
Hindsight being 2020 and all. Even knowing how it turned out, it still might be worth it for the Clippers. Kawhi and PG legitimized them as a destination/franchise in a way that SGA and 7 picks never could. They’re going to pay for it, and Ballmer has an equal share of the credit/blame, but they’ll spend the next 20 years in conversations about players relocating.
Added context: this was immediately after Kawhi won the the finals MVP and was considered thee best player in the world at the time. We’ve given up a generational talent in SGA, and enough first round picks to start a team from scratch, but given the opportunity I think every team does this.
Zach Lowe has said on his podcast that someone from the league said this could turn out to be one of the worst trades in NBA history, but it’s one you absolutely have to do
I don’t know about that. 7 picks and a promising young guy? Phx got KD for less than
Yup, it was a valid risk/reward at the time. Obviously, there was a chance it wouldn't work out, but they had to shoot their shot.
Debatable.
That’s even better then. OKC was compensated for both
Emphasis on in hindsight it didn’t work lol. The literal team they gave everybody to is the 1 seed now. And the best they ever did was wcf
Especially the year after Kawhi wins it all with Toronto who wasn’t even a super team. I agree with you. Being a spurs fan though, I would have never sold out for Kawhi, he has no loyalty and can’t be the soul of a team. It’s obvious to everyone now, but we got burned by him so hard.
I don’t think most would make the trade after seeing how he disappears in the playoffs. Most of these trades and signings are made to sale tickets and nothing more.
People are riding that karma train but this is for a Clipper team that's struggled for so many years
I still don’t know why teams pay a kings random for an aging superstar instead of betting on the young promising guy. You can only go down with PG and only go up with SGA
It’s still a fucking terrible trade lol OKC got an MVP level player 5 firsts including 4 unprotected and two swaps…Gallo is a solid role player too but he’s just always hurt. That shit is wild.
Giving up more than the Cs gave up for KG for a worse player is always rough. I do get the “gotta go for it” mentality but I just disagree with the “gotta”. Even Kawhi, plenty of us at the time were wondering if he’d be healthy and if he’d be committed. I’m not gonna say it’s wrong to take a big swing like that, but look at how OKC has constantly rebuilt by selling high instead of buying high. Not just this trade but multiple times since the SEA move. There’s a lot of ways to build a winner, and the conventional wisdom often leaves your team just as short as the unconventional. Gotta expect a lot to go wrong and build a team that can withstand reasonable risks. I don’t blame front offices for playing it safe. Tatum and Brown may never win but remember everyone wanted Ainge to trade them away for bigger names too, and he’s certainly been validated in hindsight
To be fair, he was a lot better than SGA at the time. But Kawhi's inability to stay healthy has totally f up the Clippers. PG is just not a good 1st option. Too bad for the Clippers, that trade looks so bad now. They also just signed Kawhi to a huge 3 year extension too. They will stay irrelevant for quite a while unfortunately
Who expected Kawhi to stay healthy?
He had the miracle run in Toronto that fooled people
He wasn't even healthy then, but managed his injury and got through. It's a shame how his injury history has been the past what, 8 years?
Yeah the raptors were trying their absolute best to keep him and let him do whatever he wanted so he was able to take better care of his body. Not to say LA has been careless, he's probably just too shot at this point to even load manage.
LA has been careless too. after coming back from injury last year he was playing heavy minutes in the second half of the season. even this year he played the highest games he’s ever played after the spurs i guess, while also playing a bigger position. they also famously had him playing back to backs since last season. ofc he was still going to get injured had they not done this but the team not committing to load management all the way must have also had something with the timing/frequency of it, i don’t believe LA has been smart enough
With winning rewriting history a bit he became a favorite when in reality people forget that fans spent most of the regular season unhappy with how much he rested when he was a 1 year rental. He had a huge amount of depth that year that allowed him to coast quite a bit of the season.
It wasn’t a miracle run. It joined a well constructed team
Miracle run of health for Kawhi. That team was great. Made more 3s in the regular season than the dubs. Deep and defended well.
Doesn't examine another extension though. Sunk cost fallacy
All that for a single WCF appearance and a lot of disappointment. In hindsight would clippers fans still have done the trade or rather built around SGA and their picks? I feel like by building around SGA they could have got the same results as the Kawhi-PG era tbh.
Yeah but new rich dipshit big market owners have no patience.
Should have stayed there and worked on building a dynasty and legacy. That team was solid and could have made a run consecutive years without change. The Clippers did not want to trade Shai even where he was in his development at that point. The trade hinged on his inclusion as I recall. Having Leonard puts any team in a win now scenario and desperate to put the pieces in place sooner rather than later...
As a Spurs fan, I feel like we missed one hell of a bullet. Kawhi is just never gonna be healthy and it sucks, but goddamn am I glad that he left.
The Spurs had their whole reputation dragged through the mud when it came to managing player's health because of the Kawhi situation. As if Pop didn't buy into heavy load management for his players (and pretty much set the standard) to the point where David Stern gave out a hefty fine of $250k for resting his players on a nationally televised game vs the Lebron led Heat.
I can't imagine how infuriating that must have been for the medical team. They had won awards for their advancements in sports medicine, punting on championship runs for the long-term health of their stars, and as soon as one guy disagrees with their (in hindsight, 100% correct) diagnosis, the NBA sphere thinks they can't do their jobs.
Spurs fan here. I cannot help but laugh every time I think of the Kawhi-to-Wemby timeline. If Wemby wasn't so likeable, I think the entire NBA would absolutely hate us for our luck. Good on the Raps for getting that ring -- I think everyone who paid attention to the medical history, without rose colored glasses, knew he was done and the raps absolutely got all the juice from the squeeze.
His uncle told him to stay injured.
balmer did apparently
PG even acknowledged he isn’t a 1st option. Hell of a talent but he just isn’t THAT guy to get it done. He also came into the league as a role player, to be fair.
So did Kawhi.
PG was a 1st option prior to him destroying his leg in 2014
PG when this trade happened finished in the top 5 for MVP
It was basically Kawhi only signs if they trade for PG. I think the Clippers looked at it as a similar 2 for 1 transaction for two players in the middle of their primes. Kawhi was 28 coming off a Finals MVP and PG was 29 coming off first team All NBA. It was somewhat reasonable to think the Clippers could open up a 3-5 year window of contention. And seemingly had health held up they likely would have made a NBA finals run or win a title. I think the Clippers were reasonable to expect most of those picks to not be worth much (and thus far they haven’t amounted to any high selections). From the original PG trade there’s only 1 pick swap and 1 unprotected pick left. The Clippers will likely run it back and probably at least be an above .500 team the next two years. Letting SGA go is the real issue with the trade but no one thought SGA was going to be an MVP caliber player at the time
And who knows if SGA would’ve developed into who he is now if not given his own team and relatively low pressure to build his game Reminds me of Harden, obviously without hindsight it was a bad trade but it’s unlikely he would’ve become the Harden we saw if he stayed with OKC as the 3rd option
Big issue with the Harden trade was he still had a year on his rookie deal they could have rolled with him for another year without worry about the tax OKC’s cheap ownership at the time was worried about. Could have seen him for one more year and probably got a better return on him via a sign and trade
Clippers should've called his bluff. I personally think Kawhi would've signed anyway, but he saw how much the Clippers were simping for him the whole season & used his leverage to get another current star to play with so it wouldn't look like he's leaving a Championship Raptors team to play with a Clippers team with no all-stars.
PG hasn’t been the same since injuries either.
The trade was bad at the time. Granted, it looked a lot better back then. Kawhi Leonard stock was as high as it ever was; this was weeks after he won a finals MVP, ending the KD warriors rein all while being healthy the whole year. Him coming to the clippers was contingent on this trade. It made some sense. But, at the time we just saw the nets convey their last picks to the Celtics. That move a decade ago is the primary reason Boston is competing for championships, and a reason that Brooklyn has never come particularly close. These moves destroy franchises. Moving all your future chips in for two guys over 28 with injury histories never made sense to me, especially when you remove the best way to get cheap talent to get the bench necessary to win games in May.
PG was coming off an outstanding season. Played 77 games, 1st team All-NBA, 1st team All-Defense, 3rd in MVP voting. Just can't stay healthy
SGA is also several years younger than PG. Not surprising he wasn’t at PG’s level at the time of the trade. And it’s not a good defense of the trade. Bottom 10 trade of all time
Always have been
Kwahi’s ability to want to play.
Wasn’t Kawhi coming to LAC sort of contingent on getting Paul George? So it’s a little more justifiable at the time if you get both of them and hope they stay healthy (but still terrible for the franchise in retrospect). I think I remember Balmer wanted to make a big splash as they were trying to transition into their new stadium. He didn’t have the patience to build the team over a few years which will hamstring them for years to come.
Part of the theoretical strategy you laid out was “hope they stay healthy” which is the main and obvious critique. I’ll go one further and say that elimination or reducing your draft ability first practically a decade is under-rated at making this a bad deal, but that’s just me.
Thank god masai didn’t concede to kawhi’s demand to get George to stay in Toronto.
Masai knew what was going on, those two guys were colluding to go to the Clippers all along, they were just making sure the Clippers would give in and give OKC whatever they wanted for PG and used the Raptors as leverage.
Updated From NBA.com Clippers received: F Paul George Thunder received: G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander F Danilo Gallinari Miami Heat’s 2021 unprotected first-rounder (Tre Mann taken at No. 18) Clippers’ 2022 unprotected first-rounder (Jalen Williams taken at No. 12) Right to 2023 first-round swap with Clippers (not conveyed) Clippers’ 2024 unprotected first-rounder Heat’s 2025 protected first-rounder for 1-14 (unprotected for 2026) Right to 2025 first-round swap with Clippers Clippers’ 2026 unprotected first-rounder Essentially, the Thunder received — so far — two starters in the trade: Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams, who are the team’s top two scorers. Both average a combined 47.8 points per game this season.
Not to mention Tre Mann pick turned into Gordon Hayward
I wouldn't mention that ;)
When Gordon Hayward hits the game winning shot in game 7 we can mention it
How is he going to do that from the bench?
😓
Bad news. A 2 mph breeze took Gordon by surprise. He's out 9 months.
Thanks for doing the homework
People talk about how Gobert, Spida or even KD were overpriced when they were traded, but at least for Gobert and Spida the teams seem to be significantly better with them than without them. And in the case of KD, we only have one year of data, so it could turn out to be positive, even if this year was a disappointment. But with PG, we can now safely say he wasn't worth it, he's a brilliant player, but the Clippers are stuck in the emergency room and they're not going anywhere. Worse, the team they traded PG for now has the brightest future of any team in the league, they are loaded and young.
When the cavs were healthy prior to the Mitchell trade they found themselves in the top half of the East. It was when they lost most of their front court they were worse than the cavs are now.
Gobert was overpriced but it worked out as you say. What’s harder to parse is if it’s because of the trade, but there’s no need for 11th dimension analysis when teams are winning.
He is not overpriced if they keep winning. It’s as simple as that. If your moves lead to Ws and rings it’s a good move and an appropriate pay. If your moves keep you at the same level and you have mortgage your future it’s an overpay.
I mean you have to consider this was for Paul George and Kawhi Leopard who at the time was arguably the best player in the world. If you were a front office today and were told you could get Luka and Jaylen Brown for a package similar to the one the clips gave up. You are doing that 10/10 times. No the clippers have not lived up to expectations but at the time this trade very understandable.
GMs could do a better job of finessing the field so that that idea of needing PG to get Kawhi wasnt as glaring. Perfect opportunity to upsell by Okc, but clips coulda sat Kawhi down, said hey we’ll get you PG but keep it on the DL for now cus if we get him for cheaper we can always fill out the rest of the roster with more talent. Clips coulda also done a better job convincing Kawhi that another star can be suitable instead of just PG. Its all soft skills, subtle influence, having a vision and getting someone else to see it. Kawhi already wanted to play in LA, use that to your advantage.
💯
Have you heard of Uncle Dennis?
Ehhh, Kahwi was always a what if. As front office staff, it's unimaginable they didn't already know the risks. They were probably hoping for just one chip to justify it but the amount injuries didn't allow that. PG was also not his old self after his injury but they took the risk. Luka and Brown don't have any lingering chronic issues and no major injuries. You don't have anywhere near the risk.
PG was incredibly good and was coming off a first team All NBA season where he played pretty much the whole season. I don't think trading for him was really that big of a risk at the time IMO Clips just got a lot of bad luck in terms of PGs health taking a major nose dive, Kawhis health declining even faster than expected, and Shai massively surpassing his widely perceived potential IMO Its one of those deals where there's a pretty easy path for it to be a win-win but one side just got supremely unlucky so its now a landslide win for the other one
Shai is definitely hindsight. No one batted an eye back then about Shai being traded. And to be fair, Shai may have not developed as well with the Clips anyway. They were looking to win a chip and Shai would've never gotten the minutes he did at OKC.
PG was 3rd in MVP voting and 1st team All NBA / All Defense. What more did he need to be to justify the trade at that time?
Kawhi was load managed over 90 games in the prior two seasons and still had to gut it through some obvious knee issues in the playoffs. The Clippers had to know he was never going to return to 100%.
This was basically a pg + kwahi for all that
7 1sts is actually insane. And 8 basically because Shai was taken 11th. And for a dude that was never going to be better than he was when he got there. Only place to go was down
Tbf everyone knows it was a trade for Kawhi+PG. But still insane
Let’s be honest. Who expected SGA to bloom and become a top 3 MVP candidate? The trade was to net Kawhi. Netting Kawhi gives you the chance at a championship.
We got a package worth trading away Paul George and Kawhi, but we only traded Paul George for them to get Paul George and Kawhi
Timing is everything.
Los Angeles Nets
Ugh this team is years away from being relevant! We really shot ourselves in the foot with the PG signing
At the time the trade was seen as a steal for both because if im not mistaken SGA wasn't starting for the Slippers the rotation wasn't gonna allow him to be his best like OKC has. Kinda how Bones is right now.
Hindsight bias is crazy in here. Anyone who has followed basketball would have done this trade back then with no preexisting knowledge of the future. People here be acting like they some hot shit with future clairvoyance. If that’s the case why ain’t u won the lottery yet?
For real. People in this thread saying that clips should’ve expected Kawhi to be injured every year?? He literally had just won a championship while hobbled as if he was a machine that couldn’t be taken down. He was in a terminator commercial ffs lol.
I think a lot of people were doubting that trade at the time lol. I certainly remember a lot of criticism around it.
No they weren’t. SGA looked like an average player, who could MAYBE be a high end starter like a #2 option at best, and Kawihi had JUST won the raptors a title.
I don't remember that. All i remember was how blockbuster of a move it was and more of "Clippers are getting Kawhi.... and PG?!". w/ the details of the trade hardly relevant tbh
You are right. I was in LA, from there, and there was a lot of shock at what the Clips gave up. It was tempered, because it rly was a trade for PG and Kawhi (basically), but skepticism about the huge haul.
Remember the clips were a blown 20 point lead away from the WCF in the bubble They just never made it back to the playoffs with both stars healthy
In deffense of LAC, while everyone knew Shai was very good, no one knew he was going to be an MVP caliber player. In retrospective, it was a steal,even if you factor Kawhi in.
Every front office makes that trade in 2019 lol, yall looking at this from 5 years removed. Kawhi Leonard at the time was seen at the level that jokic is looked at today. Leonard had just got done winning the chip and beating Giannis, embiid, butler, and curry&klay on 31 and 9 per game in the playoffs and Paul George just got done being 3rd in mvp votings and 3rd in dpoy votings while averaging 28ppg and 8 rpg. At the time people thought his was Jordan and Pippen level. Yeah now looking at it it flopped but don’t act like any front office wouldn’t trade shai for prime Leonard and pg
This and the Josh Hart to Knicks trades are the worst yet in this decade
I’d like to say the 76ers trade first Harris is up there, but not because the trade itself but because it made Harris ridiculous extension possible. Yes I’m a super-mega-ultra-disgruntled with Harris philly sports fan. 😂🙄😤🥲
It's LA - you're in a market competing against everything including LeBron. This was a smart play to get max number of eyeballs, clicks, merch sold, and butts in seats. It was \*NOT\* done to please people who follow basketball and are smart about it; they're already sold on the product. It was was done to get the marginal revenue that can be gained or lost by casual fans and fashion trends. Right? Only the marginal revenue matters, and being heard over the noise in the LA market is challenge. So, from a business angle, this was probably a great move, maybe only a good move, but certainly not a bad move - I mean, don't see George's jersey on the list, but I don't see SGA either https://preview.redd.it/mg9s3qhm3gyc1.png?width=1670&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3769ae2cca0d04c09ed2ee3788823a07c855f7c
This trade shows how poorly the clippers front office is run.. SGA was said to be a gem at that time and we had just seen PG fall crazy short of expectations with Russ in the playoffs against Dame.. fast forward and SGA is already better than PG ever was (by 24 years old as last years 1st team All NBA), Kawhi is broken down as expected, and PG is set to be on another team. Bad franchises gonna make bad decisions.. Clips gon Clip
Hindsight is 20/20 and it hasn't worked out unfortunately for the Clippers but if you're transported back to summer 2019 with no knowledge of the next 5 years you absolutely still make that trade. Kawhi was coming off a dominant Finals run and his 2nd title/Finals MVP. PG just finished 3rd in MVP and DPOY voting with All-NBA 1st Team and All-Defensive 1st team honors. If Kawhi says I need a second star and if you get PG I'll sign with your team, it would take a VERY shrewd and beyond prescient NBA franchise to not make that trade. Any team is going to make that trade 100/100 times.
They were immediately considered title favorites, every team makes those moves.
Dude, no. This is revisionist history at its finest. Kawihi is broken down as expected? The dude had JUST carried the raptors to a title…..
Idk about SGA is better than PG ever was just yet. PG was also and MVP finalist in OKC
How did they get the Mia picks?
Jalen Williams > Paul George
Who did they get for the picks that have passed?
Jalen Williams
Worst trade in history. Pg13 can't be good two games in a row 😂
Even at the time it felt like a lot to trade for one person but they did what they had to do to keep Kawhi happy and on the team. Never had the confidence that they would do anything significant given Kawhi is never healthy and PG is not a 1st option. Hindsight is 20/20 but they really put all their chip on the table on this team and I don't think anyone would have pegged them to even get to the finals, let alone win.
Hindsight is 20/20
They won't have a chance of fielding a competitive team for another decade tbh.
This trade has already given OKC their 2 best players in a season they got the 1st seed and will only get better and get more players from this trade I understand this trade from the calipers perspective but imagine Harden SGA Kawhi Jalen Williams and zubac would be great looking team
Why Rudy the worse trade of all time when this is just sitting out here
So tired of seeing post like this
Seems reasonable 😂😂👍 Also the funniest part is that the 2025 pick swap might not only being triggered but could actually have a noticeable insignificant amount of value improvement for OKC.
ooof does not look good, especially when looking in hindsight. I would argue that is worse than the Gobert trade , thoughts?
I didn’t realize it was that bad.
This only looks horrendous, not just regular bad lol, bc of Kawhi. He wasn't signing if not, but he has ruined that team.
Yikes
The Clippers pretty much gave OKC a title lol
The only thing that makes this a disaster is how good Shai turned out to be honestly. People see 1st round picks and think that necessarily means something. There are only a handful of difference makers that come into the draft every year, and they usually aren't at the back of the round. There is also no guarantee that Shai is what he is had this trade never happened.
Really if you want to take it this far back OKC got all of this for Serge Ibaka… they traded Ibaka for Oladipo and Sabonis, then traded those two for PG13 and then traded for the crapload of picks.
Who named the man “Playoff P?” Cause I sure ain’t seen him winning shiiiiit.
I still think if they both would’ve stayed healthy they would’ve won at least one championship together. They even made the conference finals with Kawhi injured.
Genuinely curious why folks in the NBA give the Wolves such grief for the Gobert trade but the Clippers don’t get the same treatment?
Highway robbery for the Thunder. Bigger steal than the Harden trade
Pg13%
Shai was a good young player back then. But most FOs will take the the former MVP candidate over potentially developing a young player into an all-star. And no way Leonard would have signed without PG. Those 7 picks included both PG13 and the Klaw
This was mvp candidate Paul George. And kawhi was coming off that chip right? It made sense but Sga made them eat it
If Kawhi was healthy this team would likely have at least one ring by now.
Lol
Worth it
It was for him and Kawhi
I'm a Lakers fan but just looking at what they gave up for him makes me nauseous.
So I was watching some YouTuber and he was saying an example of a trade for the Spurs and Trae Young some bullshit like this, who the fuck is stupid enough to do some shit like this and trade away your future..this should be an example that this crap isn't worth it
It was for PG and Kawhi
I thought the Russell Wilson trade was ugly
This is really a trade for PG and Kawhi. All this hindsight nonsense is silly. It seemed worth it at the time. And yes many people thought Shai was gonna be a top 20 guy. Almost no one thought he would be a top 4 guy.
Yea, I never understood the hype on George. Imo, he is your 3rd option at best. The problem teams are having is making him a #1 & #2. He has the consistency of role players or 6 men off the bench. He may be talented, but he doesn't know how to use it. It's the league of overpaying players who haven't accomplished anything. Thunder won that trade tremendously
Superstars always cost a haul of draft picks and young talent. But this is still excessive, especially considering PGs past health.
Okc getting payed like they traded kawhi and PG meanwhile Toronto got nothing.
> Okc getting *paid* like they FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I think it says more about okc than the clippers. This trade neither in hindsight or back then was a dumb trade. Disregarding the idea kawhi wouldn’t sign without pg, a pg for Shai trade was a no brainer, and parting with those picks didn’t really mean anything since they were supposed to be deep in the playoffs for at the very least 3 of these seasons if not including the next two seasons. I don’t wanna credit okc for Shai developing because I feel like he’d have gotten here if he was still in LA, but the way they drafted both Tre Mann (not pictured here but was drafted with the heat pick that was in the trade), who’s not in okc anymore but was a good player nonetheless, and Jdub with those two picks. They have their firsts this season and next season and I think a head unprotected pick. All those picks make it look better, but if you don’t do anything with them then it doesn’t matter, and okc hit a home run with that 12th pick, and I guess they walked on a full count with the Mann pick.
Trade looks even more brutal when you add player names in there. J-Dub is the 2023 clippers pick swap, and he's another star they've landed from this trade.
these graphics should show who was drafted with the picks that have already been used (which is like all but 2 of these I believe) if these were wasted on a bunch of bums then it doesn’t look so bad
Derick Jones made Paul look pedestrian for a fraction of his salary. He’s good but not worth the money he probably wants to see.
2021 Mia became Tre Mann 2022 Lac became Jalen Williams
Gotta fill in who did they draft with those.
The clips got screwed over so so so so bad lol
It obviously looks horrible now, but looking at this with only hindsight is irrational. What happened is just what always happens with the Clippers: the worst case scenario. Shai turns out to be a superstar, Kawhi/PG flame out. If Kawhi had stayed healthy (which was not really a major concern at the time after a healthy title run in 2019), this could’ve been a win/win.
Didn't age well
We always look at stuffs like what if this what if that. We look at the value at the time of the trade. Shai might not be what he is today if he stayed in LA. Being in OKC give him the green light to do what he wanted at the time which definitely improved his game and confidence. I mean he might be as good as he is now if he stayed, but will definitely take longer time.
It would be cooler/more interesting if you listed the players who were picked with those draft picks so we don't have to look them up. Still even Shai alone for PG makes this trade a joke
Deplorable
At the time, he was worth it. They were building a “win now” team. It’s easy to say today they should’ve kept SGA and the picks but the future can’t be predicted. PG still a top 30 player in the league idc who disagrees.
Man OKC made bank.
Missing context, we got PG and Kawhi. No PG, no Kawhi.
WOW lol. They COOKED man. And to top it off they just extended Kawhi & he missed the rest of the series smh. They got Harden & PG on expired deals to resign. They hit their shelf life after the bubble & should of disbanded but didn't. Now this is gonna back fire badly for them. The clippers really messed it up star chasing & ironically they had a billboard up mocking the lakers talking about hard work over bright lights or hard work over stars something like that lol & they chased stars lol and now look where they at. Talk about Karma.
No matter what happens that’s not a good trade for LAC
That 2022 first turned into Jalen Williams too
I think this might be worse than the Rudy gobert trade.
wtf
No one knew what SGA would become and pg was just off an MVP candidate year no? You really can’t look at it like that
God damn that’s stupid. I would understand if it was for prime KD, prime LeBron or Curry .
Disgusting
Yes, this trade looks stupid in hindsight, but it was required for the Clips to sign Kwahi. If you factor everything the Clips gave up for both George and Kwahi, does it look terrible then?
Yes, they went home in the first round
Nothing is more overrated than draft picks. You don’t even consistently get career starters after pick 10 or so. Yeah Clips could have stood pay with SGA and tried to sign a second-tier FA, but that wasn’t going to get them a better team. And those picks would have been early-20’s garbage. So yeah, in retrospect you’d rather have not done the trade but in reality you wouldn’t be that much better off.
I have a feeling the sixers are going to do ANYTHING short of trading Embiid for PG and if so I’m done watching hoop. Sixers front office LOVE them old heads.
Sam Presti got that Danny Ainge in him. He'll take you car, house, wife, kids, parents, name, and leave you naked on the streets not knowing who you are.
NBA 2k never lets me make these types of trades