The Clippers’ 2019 trade for Paul George may go down as one of the worst trades in NBA history.
I’m not ready to call it the most catastrophic NBA trade of this Century it’s moving up the ladder they gave up sgaa nobody knew he was going to be sgaa they gave up four first and two swaps and another pick OKC got SGA and Jaylen Williams from this trade there is a remaining 2025 swap with OKC where prey’s now like doing the evil doct Dr evil laugh and then there’s still a 2026 unpr protected first left there’s still an unprotected first sets left in this trade the SGA piece alone the franchise if it was just SGA and a second rounder it’s a disaster do Clippers just seem like they’re the old Clippers again but this is like this is why the team’s been cursed since they moved to Southern California it’s never worked out ever with this team
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29 Comments
This might be the greatest fleecing in NBA History.
Kevin Wildes – do the Nick impression 😂😂
Bill, don’t be afraid to bring up Doc the man responsible for that horrendous trade
This is all I can think about today as he leaves to Philly … yikes
The clippers got clipped ..
It's not the Clippers fault. If CP3 doesn't pair with SGA in his 2nd season, he doesn't become the player he does today. It was the genius of Presti! He saw the talent the Clippers saw. He just understood how to develop it. That doesn't happen, then the trade is bad but not the worst in NBA history.
Nobody knew SGA was gonna be SGA? Didn’t you hear Doc Rivers, very recently and not before or any time close to the trade, say he did?!?!
Good. Fuck the Clippers & LA basketball
Even though 5 years later, there is an overwhelmingly and still increasingly strong case that this is one of the worst trades in NBA history, I still don’t blame the clippers for doing it at the time. This was the only way that they were going to get Kawhi Leonard, whom at the time was fresh off taking the Raptors to their first NBA title in franchise history and was probably the best player in the world. Who knows what happens if the pandemic doesn’t happen in 2020 and they don’t eventually resume in the makeshift bubble. Or if Kawai doesn’t injure his knee in 2021.
Just like LeBron and Rich Paul are the CO-GMs for the Lakers, Lawrence Frank's co-GM is Kawhi and his Uncle Dennis. It's safe to say, LeBron and Klutch have been better at this.
This is worse than the infamous Celtic-Nets trade
Jerry West KNEW sga would become SGA!!!!!
The Celtics fleece everyone they trade with the kg trade to get him and get rid of him is still legendary. Danny Ainge likes trading players he knows are injury prone
What has OKC actually won? They were no more successful than the clippers during George's tenure. In the future it will age worse but rn it's not that terrible…i think lol
You also have to remember at the time George was a top 10 player in the league and they paired him during the apex of Kawhi's amazing 'wait, are we sure he's not the best player in the league?' run.
The Clippers had a feasible title window of 5 years and failed, yes, but Going for a title and whiffing is something fans can live with. The Celtics robbery of the Nets is still worse right now because Boston finally got a title out of it.
why does this guy take so much joy in the Clippers curse and Clippers being bad??
He cant hide it look at how happy he is.
He honestly hates them wayyyy more than the Lakers and it doesnt make any sense
They wouldn't have let SGA become SGA on the clippers
Shai and jalen…this is 2013 nets bad
He's never won anything????
He's a"cooler"
But but but…. Playoff P. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I think we can’t see the trade out until all the picks have played out.
So far, for OKC… SGA could almost be argued as a ‘one-for-one’ against PG13 (what SGA is now vs what PG13 was when he joined the Clippers).
Danilo Gallinari had one decent year in OKC and then went to the Hawks for 2nd round picks to free up cap space for young talent down the road.
Tre Mann – 2 and a half seasons of ok bench production, traded to the Hornets for a short term Gordon Hayward rental.
Jalen Williams – So far, so good. Producing for himself and OKC.
2023 1st round – Traded away. Okpala came in for a cup of coffee, Miami got the pick and got Jaime Jaquez Jr
2024 1st round – pick bounced around and back to OKC, getting Dillon Jones.
So far, it feels like Jalen Williams determines if the trade was a true fleece of the Clippers. The Clippers didn’t get a great return from the trade, but the Thunder can’t talk if they fall short even after the haul.
It's up there with the Herschel Walker trade to me. And Bill got one thing wrong, somebody did know SGA was going to be SGA. It was Jerry West, the guy who made the trade in the draft to get him just like he did with Kobe. But you have to remember, part of the haul that isn't listed in the returns on the trade was Kawhi Leonard signing with the clippers. He had just won the championship against my warriors and won finals MVP, and everyone knew he wanted to go to the Lakers and play with LeBron. So the pressure was on Jerry from ownership to deny the hometown rival from getting their guy. He had a verbal agreement from Kawhi that he'd make the surprise move and sign with the clippers if and only if the clippers could trade for Paul George.
I feel like everyone forgot about Kawhi watch 2020. BBL Drizzy was out here telling the media he'd buy Kawhi Leonard a mansion and give it to him for free if he resigned with the raptors. Everyone was trying to pull Kawhi from Toronto after he had just won the championship. It was absolute insanity and was the talk of the off-season once KD left the warriors
I knew watching Shai and Nembhard on the national they were going to be good NBA players.
Sonics should have been brought back by Ballmer. Ballmer would have done a VGK type expansion build and the clippers should have stayed in Anaheim. Samueli would have bought the team.
Nah Brooklyn still no1, brown and tatum could have been nets lol
It’s definitely looking like a worse trade every year that goes by, but remember at the time people considered this trade PG and Kawhi for SGA and all the picks because kawhi said he wouldn’t sign with the clips unless they got George. Still I don’t think it could’ve worked out any worse then it did for the clippers. Kawhi was hurt most of the time and George played less than 60 games every year except for this past year. Just unlucky. If Kawhi is hurt again for most of this year I think he gets waived and that pick in 2026 could be top 5. I’m gunna assume worst case scenario for next year would be like 10th pick (pre lottery drawing)
To me I view this trade in the same light as the Kyrie/Durant signing to the Nets. Most GMs would have done that it just didnt work out for reasons you couldnt anticipate. To pretend like most GMs if they had the cap spacd would not have made that trade as well I think is ridiculous. Kawhi had just won a Chip with the Raptors and PG was coming off being near the top of MVP voting at OKC.
it didn't work because Kawhi is injured all the time. it was supposed to be this super talented, all-rounder backcourt duo but we never saw a one healthy playoff run from them except the bubble in 2020. they hated being there and if it wasn't for covid they were most likely going to beat the Lakers and made the Finals and win the title as well. at least George was healthy and contributing most of the time. he carried the team to the WCF in 2021 with Reggie Jackson by his side. what did Kawhi do ever since?
Move them back to Buffalo 😤
Nope