Revisiting the worst trade in NBA history.

[Wolveswin]

The SGA trade doesn’t make the list. Only with hindsight. Which certainly changes every trade made in NBA looking back 5, 10, 15 years after trade.

Luka trade was the worst. Because Luka was/is a proven top 5 (top 3) player in his prime and young and Mavs didn’t field offers from the rest of the league.

I mean, SGA trade (from Clippers for George) is actually a working example of what Mavs should have done. A young player with upside and many picks. Imagine that type of package for Mavs AND winning the #1 overall (assuming the conspiracy would still be in place if Mavs did not trade Luka to Lakers).

Magic would have put Banchero+ or Wagner+ on table for Luka.

Rockets would have emptied the clip (way more than what was traded for KD). Say Green, #10, Sheppard, Sengun or Jabari in talks plus tons of picks (juicy Suns owed).

Imagine one of those two packages plus Flagg rebuilding Mavs quickly.

And yet neither Paolo or Wagner are as good as AD. Rockets offer without including Amen and or Jabari/Eason is trash.

Yeah you missed whole point of my post. Not worth explaining unless you re-read and try again.

[robbie84]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It's actually embarrassing.

And to those who are saying Luka for AD isn't the worst trade in NBA history- let us know what was worse. Also when has another top 3-5 NBA player who hasn't reached his prime- who just carried his franchise to the NBA finals-was traded. And if they were traded, was it for a declining, 32 year old (33 after all star break in 26), injury riddled, soft, beta player..?
I'll wait.

[eskis]

Not long ago it was boston - brooklyn trade that was the worst wow things change fast

[CS707]

Can’t be the worst trade in history when it’s amounted to nothing so far. At this point the PG13 trade is worse than the Luka trade.

[YogurtProducer]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It's actually embarrassing.

Yep - why even watch if you think its rigged

[Jedi32]

The Clippers still owe 3 more 1st round picks to OKC.

SGA won a chip in Oklahoma before ballmer and the clippers organization was able to do so in Los Angeles. Let that sink in for a moment. At this current moment SGA> the entire clippers organization. That will probably forever be the worst trade ever imo.

[clippertown]

At least Dallas got back AD for Luka. The Clippers gave away the #1 pick that turned into Kyrie Irving in a deal that traded an expiring Baron Davis for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. This was the epitome of incompetence.

[DENSportsGuy715]

I'm glad this NBA history because my beloved hometown, Denver, owns the worst trades in NFL & MLB history.

[Warspite]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It's actually embarrassing.

And to those who are saying Luka for AD isn't the worst trade in NBA history- let us know what was worse. Also when has another top 3-5 NBA player who hasn't reached his prime- who just carried his franchise to the NBA finals-was traded. And if they were traded, was it for a declining, 32 year old (33 after all star break in 26), injury riddled, soft, beta player..?
I'll wait.

You claim to be a Celtics fan and you don't know about Ed Macauley for Bil Russell or Joe Barry Carroll for Robert Parish and Kevin McHale?

[GrindCityHustle]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It wasn't rigged every year. Stern was good about parity when it came to that but when MAJOR money was at stake you best believe he did what was best for the league and owners. He was just good about spacing it out so it wasn't a full WWE type fest.

I think Adam Silver is actually a better commish overall but yeah anyone at this point that 100 percent thinks there is no corruption needs to relook again. Silver was forced into a corner on Flagg by the old timers. We do get smaller market teams getting a chance now but the escrow account had money taken out. We here like seeing Indiana in the finals but the people who aren't into basketball as we are don't care and aren't watching that. That means less money spread out to the league. Its really all about money now because of that TV deal which I dont think is sustainable long-term as ive watched since 95-96 and the league has down turns even if the stars are there.

[GrindCityHustle]

Not long ago it was boston - brooklyn trade that was the worst wow things change fast

I think because it took Boston a while to actually get the title and everyone finally fully developing. The Brooklyn trade is worse as it felt dumb going all in on dudes that were 35 but the Clips trade hurts more like a slow acting poison as it isn't even fully cashed in yet.

Celtics got lost in the shuffle for years after getting to the ECF when Tatum was super young and the they kind of missed the boat for years until they fully locked in again

SGA success just seems like it happened quicker. Like the mentorship from Paul. The 2 tank seasons with OKC and he then was rolling from then on towards the top without stopping.

[Black Jack]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It's actually embarrassing.

And to those who are saying Luka for AD isn't the worst trade in NBA history- let us know what was worse. Also when has another top 3-5 NBA player who hasn't reached his prime- who just carried his franchise to the NBA finals-was traded. And if they were traded, was it for a declining, 32 year old (33 after all star break in 26), injury riddled, soft, beta player..?
I'll wait.

Rookie McHale and young Parish for Joe Barry Carroll was worse. Multiple titles and McHale was close to MVP level. Luka is fat and hasn't done much yet in a Lakers uniform. Win some rings first.

The lottery isn't rigged but we just magically get politically convenient outcomes like:
Flagg to Dallas (soothed fan anger)
AD to New Orleans (owner favor)
Kyrie to Cleveland (Dan Gilbert was mad LeBron left)
Ewing to NYC (cmon)
Wemby to SA (perfect franchise to manage his career)

It's not that the lottery is rigged, it's that franchises like Charlotte and Sacramento are just unlucky!

Lottery doesn't have to be rigged all the times but those key outcomes sure do always work out in ways the league wants.

[HotelVitale]

Not long ago it was boston - brooklyn trade that was the worst wow things change fast

That was a pretty weak trade that became a disaster because of awful luck. The Nets overpaid for some fading vets without question, but they had every reason to assume the picks they were giving up would mostly be in the 20s. Nets had prime Deron Williams (a top 10 player) plus prime Brook Lopez, plus a nice supporting cast and KG/Pierce to round them out. Deron Williams suddenly became mediocre and then unplayable, very very strange occurrence (be like if Donovan Mitchell was a vet min guy two years from now). The expected outcome of that trade was getting some good vet depth and leadership to make like a 4th seed into a legit CF contender—in exchange for 3 late 1sts.

The Luka trade otoh was a completely inexcusable miscalculation of leverage and opportunity. The expected outcome of that was trading a young pre-prime MVP-level guy for an aging and very injury-prone worse player. Could’ve got way way more than that even if they were fully convinced of the need to move Luka.

[Heezzi]

The SGA trade doesn’t make the list. Only with hindsight. Which certainly changes every trade made in NBA looking back 5, 10, 15 years after trade.

Luka trade was the worst. Because Luka was/is a proven top 5 (top 3) player in his prime and young and Mavs didn’t field offers from the rest of the league.

I mean, SGA trade (from Clippers for George) is actually a working example of what Mavs should have done. A young player with upside and many picks. Imagine that type of package for Mavs AND winning the #1 overall (assuming the conspiracy would still be in place if Mavs did not trade Luka to Lakers).

Magic would have put Banchero+ or Wagner+ on table for Luka.

Rockets would have emptied the clip (way more than what was traded for KD). Say Green, #10, Sheppard, Sengun or Jabari in talks plus tons of picks (juicy Suns owed).

Imagine one of those two packages plus Flagg rebuilding Mavs quickly.

Not even close.
Neither Banchero nor Wagner move a needle for the Mavs when it comes to winning now. The Mavs traded for a guy the season before was 2nd Team All NBA, All Defense Team, and in the season was traded in was ranked 6th for MVP voting. Received a good defender in Max Christie that was starting for the Lakers, as well as salary dumped Maxi Kleber.

If you think that was the worse trade in history, you don't know ball.

[HotelVitale]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It's actually embarrassing.

And to those who are saying Luka for AD isn't the worst trade in NBA history- let us know what was worse. Also when has another top 3-5 NBA player who hasn't reached his prime- who just carried his franchise to the NBA finals-was traded. And if they were traded, was it for a declining, 32 year old (33 after all star break in 26), injury riddled, soft, beta player..?
I'll wait.

The lottery isn't rigged but we just magically get politically convenient outcomes like:
Flagg to Dallas (soothed fan anger)
AD to New Orleans (owner favor)
Kyrie to Cleveland (Dan Gilbert was mad LeBron left)
Ewing to NYC (cmon)
Wemby to SA (perfect franchise to manage his career)

It's not that the lottery is rigged, it's that franchises like Charlotte and Sacramento are just unlucky!

Lottery doesn't have to be rigged all the times but those key outcomes sure do always work out in ways the league wants.

I can’t tell if you’re serious but I’d just ask you to think through your evidence here. First you have 5 examples spread out over 40 years, which means you have at least 35 times when nothing that that could possibly be construed as rigging took place (that’s if we’re only counting #1 overall picks). Mathematically it seems pretty likely that one kind of ‘convenient’ thing for the nba would happen once every 8 years right? Also there are SO many examples of bad marketing outcomes for the draft lotto, it’s been kind of a nightmare for the nba if you look at the last 30 years of winners. Cooper Flagg is one of the only hyped prospects to go to a big market in these 30 years, and the biggest prospects have consistently tended to go to crappier teams and markets.

Also several of your examples really really don’t work. You seem to know that, given the reasons you stated:
‘Dan Gilbert was mad’
‘Favor to owner’
‘Soothed fan anger’
For the first, who gaf about Dan Gilbert? Lebron left in open FA for obvious and good reasons and Cleveland after him was back to being the same irrelevant small market team they’d been for most of their previous history. For the second, New Orleans is the smallest and maybe least relevant NBA team so owners don’t get special favors, and also they got a really good deal for AD—who also was 100% going to leave that team of his own accord if they didn’t trade him. No need for any favors there. For the last, it maybe made Dallas fans happier but it actually made the NBA’s problems much worse—everyone thought the Luka trade was such BA it had to be rigged, and then you do the worst possible thing to confirm that? That made fans trust in you sink even more, and it increased overall anger and dissatisfaction a ton.

If you’re serious about this I’d ask why you want to see a pattern there, when it’s not there mathematically and when you’re really straining to find more evidence for it.

[Black Jack]

It's mind boggling that so many years RealGMers believe the lottery is rigged.

It's actually embarrassing.

And to those who are saying Luka for AD isn't the worst trade in NBA history- let us know what was worse. Also when has another top 3-5 NBA player who hasn't reached his prime- who just carried his franchise to the NBA finals-was traded. And if they were traded, was it for a declining, 32 year old (33 after all star break in 26), injury riddled, soft, beta player..?
I'll wait.

The lottery isn't rigged but we just magically get politically convenient outcomes like:
Flagg to Dallas (soothed fan anger)
AD to New Orleans (owner favor)
Kyrie to Cleveland (Dan Gilbert was mad LeBron left)
Ewing to NYC (cmon)
Wemby to SA (perfect franchise to manage his career)

It's not that the lottery is rigged, it's that franchises like Charlotte and Sacramento are just unlucky!

Lottery doesn't have to be rigged all the times but those key outcomes sure do always work out in ways the league wants.

I can’t tell if you’re serious but I’d just ask you to think through your evidence here. First you have 5 examples spread out over 40 years, which means you have at least 35 times when nothing that that could possibly be construed as rigging took place (that’s if we’re only counting #1 overall picks). Mathematically it seems pretty likely that one kind of ‘convenient’ thing for the nba would happen once every 8 years right? Also there are SO many examples of bad marketing outcomes for the draft lotto, it’s been kind of a nightmare for the nba if you look at the last 30 years of winners. Cooper Flagg is one of the only hyped prospects to go to a big market in these 30 years, and the biggest prospects have consistently tended to go to crappier teams and markets.

Also several of your examples really really don’t work. You seem to know that, given the reasons you stated:
‘Dan Gilbert was mad’
‘Favor to owner’
‘Soothed fan anger’
For the first, who gaf about Dan Gilbert? Lebron left in open FA for obvious and good reasons and Cleveland after him was back to being the same irrelevant small market team they’d been for most of their previous history. For the second, New Orleans is the smallest and maybe least relevant NBA team so owners don’t get special favors, and also they got a really good deal for AD—who also was 100% going to leave that team of his own accord if they didn’t trade him. No need for any favors there. For the last, it maybe made Dallas fans happier but it actually made the NBA’s problems much worse—everyone thought the Luka trade was such BA it had to be rigged, and then you do the worst possible thing to confirm that? That made fans trust in you sink even more, and it increased overall anger and dissatisfaction a ton.

If you’re serious about this I’d ask why you want to see a pattern there, when it’s not there mathematically and when you’re really straining to find more evidence for it.

Lottery is rigged when its convenient. Gilbert has clout and was thinking of suing IIRC.

Basically most lotteries arent rigged but a few strategic ones are. Simple thesis.

If you won't admit the Ewing lottery was most likely rigged I mean...