Nothing infuriates fans and frustrates NBA executives more than bringing up corrupt trades from the past.
Go ahead and give it a try!
These interactions were sufficiently harmful to be worth revisiting, if only to see the results.
The trades we're looking at date back to the 2019 offseason, but it's amazing how deals that old continue to have a direct impact on the teams involved, even when the misfit player is no longer on the roster.
Painful as it may be to relive the past, some of these mistakes might serve as lessons, and the next time executives want to give up a decade's worth of draft picks or mortgage their team's future for a bright aging star on the market, they might think twice.
Who are we kidding? Trades like these, the kind that losing teams would love to undo, never go away.
The deal
The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Russell Westbrook, a 2024 second-round pick, and a 2028 second-round pick (Isaiah Jackson) from the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell, and the 22nd overall pick in the 2021 draft.
Already in the journeyman phase of his late career, Russell Westbrook simply wasn't a good fit for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021-22.
The Lakers seemed to be hoping Westbrook would shoulder more of the playmaking burden, allowing LeBron James and Anthony Davis to take it easy during the regular season. But with an eye toward playoff scenarios, the logic always fell apart: Westbrook's poor shooting and (at the time) shaky defensive reputation would be more of a hindrance than a help. The Lakers, not far from a 2020 title, wouldn't get any favors from Russell in the games that matter most.
Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who won another championship in Denver after Los Angeles traded them, would have been much better supporting players around James and Davis, and that's exactly what they did, helping the Lakers win in 2020.
In Westbrook's only full season with the Lakers, he averaged 18.5 points and shot a horrible 29.8 percent from 3-point range. Lineups featuring Russell, James and Davis were outscored by 3.0 points per 100 possessions.
Los Angeles finished the season with a 33-49 record, good for 11th place in the West. Concerns that Westbrook would have a limited impact on the playoffs proved to be hypothetical, as the Lakers watched the postseason at home.
The trade only got worse as time went on: The Lakers had to give up a 2027 first-round draft pick to send Westbrook to the Utah Jazz the following season. The main asset returning to L.A. in the trade was former All-Star D'Angelo Russell, whose scoring ability helped but whose defensive ineptitude was one of the factors that curtailed the Lakers' playoff chances in 2023 and 2024.
The Lakers squandered the final two years of James' prime, cost more assets to ship, and squandered flexibility and a real chance to compete for a championship in exchange for a player who was never expected to fit the team in the first place.
The deal
The Chicago Bulls acquired Nikola Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu from the Orlando Magic in exchange for Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., a 2021 first-round draft pick (Franz Wagner) and a 2023 first-round draft pick (Jett Howard).
Even if it was a straight swap of Buch for Carter, the Bulls would still have lost the trade, because the young center they sent to the Magic outperformed the veteran over the next three seasons: Carter recorded an estimated 17.2 total wins over that span, compared to Buch's 15.1, according to a comprehensive running metric from Dunks and Threes.
Chicago has just one playoff win despite playing with a “win now” mentality since the trade, while the rebuilding Magic finished ahead of the Bulls in the standings last season and won three playoff games.
There's no debate as to which team has the brighter future. Franz Wagner, who the Magic acquired with one of two lightly protected first-round picks the Bulls sent as a bonus, is arguably Chicago's most valuable asset today.
The trade was a complete failure for Chicago. Hasty, reckless and marked by a stunning misjudgment of what makes a winning basketball game, it was emblematic not of the decline of a center who excelled solely in scoring, but of the Bulls' insane pursuit of mediocrity.
This trait has continued into subsequent seasons and is a big reason why Chicago has one of the more bleak long-term prospects in the league.
Losing out on a trade is tough in the short, medium and long term, but the Bulls pulled it off with one of the worst deals in years.
The deal
The LA Clippers acquired Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, unprotected first-round picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026, an unprotected 2021 first-round pick (via MIA), a protected 2023 first-round pick (via MIA) and swap rights for a 2023 and 2025 first-round pick.
For a long time, it was hard to evaluate this blockbuster trade from the summer of 2019. Kawhi Leonard's decision to sign with the Clippers over the Lakers was reportedly hinged on the trade, allowing the Clippers to justify the hefty fee. It was as if LA traded away all of its assets in exchange for George. and Leonard.
Not only that, but the Clippers were essentially given a full five years to prove the cost was justified. The idea was that if the George-Leonard duo could propel the Clippers into a championship contender, the outlay of draft capital would have been worth it. It's unclear exactly what level LA would have had to reach to make the deal worthwhile. A Finals appearance might have done just that.
It wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to wait until the 2024 postseason to make a trade decision — a high-risk deal with a potentially big payoff like this one should have been given the benefit of the doubt for as long as possible.
But now the verdict is official.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was this season's MVP runner-up, and his Thunder finished one round ahead of the Clippers in the playoffs thanks in part to all the picks they acquired from the Clippers. Meanwhile, George could soon become a free agent (player option) and is not a sure thing that he will stay in Los Angeles. The Clippers were eliminated in the first round in part because Leonard could not stay healthy for a fifth straight season, and Oklahoma City has a better short- and long-term outlook than the veteran Clippers.
So the George-for-SGA trade was a disaster for LA, and the team must figure out how to maintain optimism as it heads into a brand new arena with an aging roster and limited flexibility.
At the time, no one expected SGA to be a first-team All-NBA selection and become a league-leading superstar. In all trade articles at the time, he was rated third behind Danilo Gallinari and draft picks. The Clips and Thunder were expected to trade Gilgeous-Alexander. thisThe deal would have been fair enough for both sides if it hadn't included any draft picks.
That was the risk the Clippers took in giving up everything to pair George with Leonard. It was a reasonable gamble, but one that clearly hasn't paid off five years later.
The deal
Brooklyn Nets get: James Harden, 2024 second-round draft pick (via Cleveland)
Houston Rockets get: Victor Oladipo Rodions Kurz, Dante Exum, Brooklyn's 2022, 2024 and 2026 first-round draft picks, 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027 first-round draft pick swap with Brooklyn, Milwaukee's 2022 first-round draft pick
Indiana Pacers get: Caris LeVert; 2023 second-round draft pick (via Houston)
Cleveland Cavaliers get: Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince
This is the biggest deal we've ever taken on, with so many moving parts and parties involved that it required a more thorough analysis by our team.
We're talking from the Nets' perspective here, so the analysis is a bit clearer: Brooklyn sacrificed five-plus draft picks for 16 games with James Harden playing alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Harden only played 80 games over his two seasons with the Nets, but a confluence of factors — his own injuries, injuries to teammates and off-court interference from Kyrie Irving — meant that this superteam was super for roughly a month's worth of games.
Brooklyn received two first-round picks, in 2023 and 2027, when it traded Harden to the Sixers, but gave the former to the Utah Jazz in a separate trade, and the latter is top-eight protected and could be converted into a second-round pick if not transferred before 2028. Ben Simmons was the centerpiece of Harden's return, but since the trade he has become the league's least valuable money-to-production contract.
Oh, Jarrett Allen is gone, as is Caris LeVert, a good sixth man.
The Nets made a killing in subsequent trades, replenishing their draft picks with the draft picks they acquired in the Kevin Durant trade with the Phoenix Suns, but the fact remains that moving Harden was an objective mistake.
Imagine how much better Brooklyn would be now with Allen, LeVert, those draft picks, the benefit of acquiring Durant and the more modest return they got in the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.
The deal
The Phoenix Suns acquired Kevin Durant and T.J. Warren from the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks (2023, 2025, 2027, 2029) and a 2028 first-round pick in exchange.
Some would argue that Kevin Durant is a player worth acquiring if they could get him. Forget the asking price, the long-term consequences, and his history of bad experiences in self-selected situations — none of that matters because KD is a unique, exceptional talent.
That's clearly what Suns owner Matt Ishbia believed when he spoke directly with Nets owner Joe Tsai to push the trade through during his first official week on the job: He was giving up too much for a player who had essentially made it clear he wanted to stay in Phoenix.
Durant's initial trade request, made on the eve of 2022 free agency, gave the Nets several options that went unfulfilled. He named the Suns and Miami Heat as possible candidates. Favourite destinations He then gave Brooklyn the option to fire head coach Steve Nash, and then ultimately decided to do so after failing to move KD before the season. When KD asked again, Miami was no longer a contender. That left only the highly motivated Suns, who somehow lost out.
Four unprotected first-round picks, a first-round trade and two prized young forwards was too high a price to pay for an aging superstar who has thus far earned the Suns one playoff series win (first round, 2023) and two head coaching firings.
Ishbia said with a straight face. Assert “The house isn't on fire,” he said, telling reporters that 26 other general managers would take their teams to unbalanced, injury-plagued, underperforming, top-heavy and ridiculously expensive teams that can't rebuild through the draft.
The truth is, Phoenix's spending on Durant did not create a championship contender — instead, it was the first step in putting the franchise in an impossible situation, where the only way to regain flexibility was to trade KD for an arguably inferior asset package.
Stats provided by NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary information provided by Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter:Good Hughes),and Hardwood Knox On the podcast, Bleacher Report Dan Favell.
