Paul George and Russell Westbrook were nearly involved in a CRAZY trade where they would have been to Toronto to play with the Raptors. The duo joined forces once again when Russ was signed by the Los Angeles Clippers after his trade from the Lakers and buyout from the Utah Jazz. The two previously spent time together with the Oklahoma City Thunder where after two years together they were unable to even get out of the first round of the playoffs. That all changed when Paul George was traded to the Clippers in 2019 for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and five unprotected first-round picks to incentivize Kawhi Leonard to sign for the team. Westbrook has bounced around since then but the situation could have been entirely different if Raptors president Masai Ujiri has pulled the trigger on this outrageous trade that would have sent shockwaves throughout the NBA.
At this time the Raptors were coming off of an NBA championship after beating the Golden State Warriors in 6 games in the 2019 finals. Though maybe things go differently for Steph Curry’s team had they had a healthy Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard has been named finals MVP and it seemed as though Toronto had a team that was good enough to run it back if he had stayed.
Looking back, the Raptors could have had George, Westbrook, and Leonard for a potential title run in 2019-2020. Did Masai Ujiri make a huge mistake by not doing this trade when the Raptors had the chance?
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0:00 – The Raptors win the 2019 championship
1:23 – The Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes
1:57 – Enter the OKC Thunder
3:29 – How Kawhi ended up in LA
4:55 – Why the Raptors rejected the trade
6:47 – Why the Clippers have struggled
8:12 – Where would Toronto be with this trade?
This is Amateur Hour Sports. On this channel, Jacob Gramegna analyzes and breaks down the latest on the Toronto Raptors NBA team from trade rumors to post-game reactions, analysis and much more. By subscribing to this channel you will be there first to watch and enjoy 3-4 videos a week all focused on this team and on game days Jacob goes live on the channel for a watch party where he interacts with chat, answers your questions and analyses the game as it happens with play by play and commentary. Join the Amateur Hour Army today by subscribing and consider becoming a member to give the extra support to the channel and help create better content more often.
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16 Comments
You need to replace Blondie. You got so much joy from having her company and we enjoyed watching.
Man. If this happened. I would call westbrick, westwin.
The Clippers saw the Kawhi trade and said "wait we can do the same thing and achieve the same results" lol
Did you wish the Raptors made this trade?
TFC won the championship in 2017 ! i guess football (soccer) does not count.
If the Raptors made the trade it wouldn't be that bad. You'd have Kyle, Green,Serge Kawhi, Westbrook & George plus maybe Gasol. Veteran team, anyone gets injured plenty of others to fill the roll. For the Clippers though it dismantled a plucky hard working team that could have eliminated the Warriors in the first round that year. If Kawhi just signed by himself in LA the team would have had better results. And now SGA is a superstar elsewhere in OKC while the Clippers are still waiting for those two guys to lead the team.
Go get Dame, Masai.
Right, since 2019 the Raps have been "A Juggernaut", an NBA Championship contender year in and year out, other Franchise's have feared the Dino's since they did not make such a pathetic trade, giving away our ALL NBA level players for those two broken down old war horses. WHEW we were so lucky not to make that pathetic trade and have a lineup of Kawhi/Lowry/OG/Green/PG13/Gasol/Norm Powell/Ibaka/Westbrook/Boucher etc. What a shambles of a Line up that would of been, but instead we have been just so damn good since then, no?
This trade would have cemented the Raptors as a perennial contender, given this is what Kawhi had asked from Masai in order to sign with us. It would have given us the chance to try our hands at establishing a potential dynasty. Instead we have a team struggling to make the play-ins, with no future in sight. In hindsight, this would have saved the Raptors – not RUINED the Raptors. Poor take, in this rando's opinion.
I would do this trade 101 times out of 100! We keep Kawhi and get two all star caliber players, along with Lowry, Powell, while keeping Ibaka or Gasol
Pascal Siakam,
Fred VanVleet,
Kyle Lowry + One of Ibaka / Gasol for salary matching purposes
Pick used for Malachi Flynn
Pick used for Scottie Barnes
2 more first round picks
FOR
Paul George
Russell Westbrook
Assuming one of Ibaka OR Gasol, Green, OG Anunoby, Boucher and Norm off the bench with Nurse leading the way – we remain very competitive, if not three peat over the next couple of years. MLSE would've happily paid the extra money for the championship and added revenue.
Instead we are playing monkey's slippery slope for a play-in tournament spot 🥴
The best decision Masai never made. Masai could’ve made that trade and Kawhi would’ve either signed with the Clippers anyway or signed with the Lakers. Uncle Dennis wasn’t gonna let Kawhi stay in Toronto. Raptors would’ve been in lottery hell for years to come. Now the Clippers are an aging team that struggles against teams with youth.
How would this have hurt us buddy…? We'd actually have superstars on the team not this siakam Fred bs and most definitely been a winning team all these Years and right now currently. Instead we're stuck with these ghetto version players and draft picks wouldnt have mattered cause We'd still be good rn cause… Like we would have possibly been a dynasty here. Westbrook alone could have been magical in running a team while still having the legs even if injuries to kawhi or Paul George. We would have been good but instead we're this……
Great retrospective look at a past decision, people still question…. Some how 😂, we can see masai knew wat he was doing… dodge that mess cleanly 😂
Think you flipped you're lid!! Kawhi wanted to go back home southern Cal.No one is hurrying to Toronto,to play in Canada.Raps got a one year rental! The raps fan base is brutal on there team& players.Chicago in the same boat,yet players aren't being torn apart by the fan base.Sure there not happy with the results of the team! But not every player on the team is being ripped to shreads by the fan base.Pascal,FVV,OG GTJ, have been all but spit on by this fan base. The only one given a free pass is Barnes,and by next year he will be under the bus also.Raps fans got the trophy once and need to realize how difficult it is to get that. Mistreating you're key players will force them to leave, regardless of$$ .FVV will leave this summer,you all gonna be back in the cellar dwellers.
Toronto need a real 4K PG.