Never mind the GOAT; who's the GET?

[-Sammy-]

Let's only consider legitimate attempts on teams' parts to improve. No end-of-career trades to dump salary or help a vet chase a ring; no tank-trades, whereby a team starts a rebuild and move its assets to stack picks.

To make it more interesting, let's leave out all trades initiated by a confirmed trade request on the part of an unhappy player.

Who is the greatest player, playing in his relative prime, to be moved because a team thought it was the right course to improve its chance to compete for a title?

Within these guidelines, who's the greatest-ever player to be traded?

Post edited for clarity

[EliteSmarts]

Dennis Rodman

He was major factor in the Bulls getting the 2nd 3peat. One of best defenders in the league, hel if a rebounder which meant extra possessions for the Bulls. Overall he was the perfect fit for What the Bulls needed after losing Horace Grant.

[bwgood77]

Who's the greatest-ever player to be traded?

Let's only of legitimate attempts on teams' parts to improve. No end-of-career trades to dump salary or help a vet chase a ring; no tank-trades, whereby a team starts a rebuild and move its assets to stack picks.

To make it more interesting, let's leave out all trades initiated by a confirmed trade request on the part of an unhappy player.

Who is the greatest player, playing in his relative prime, to be moved because a team thought it was the right course to improve its chance to compete for a title?

The last sentence in your post changes the question quite a bit from the first bold line in your post, so I imagine those who don't read whole post will have different answers.

I won't go through history in my head, but obviously guys like Shaq, KG, and a bunch of others like AD/PG13, Harden the first time,etc, were not traded to improve the team's chances to win.

Recently CP3 is a big one especially since the team trading him and picks for Westbrook obviously thought it would help them.

This last Harden trade is another one. I'm not completely sure though Brooklyn thought it would improve their chances as much as they knew he wanted out.

The Suns traded Kidd for Marbury...not entirely sure they thought it would improve them because it partly was due to Kidd's domestic abuse case. There were other not great but very good players traded like Dennis Johnson for Rick Robey, Majerle for Hot Rod Williams and Marion for an over the hill Shaq....of course these wouldn't be thought of as "great" players or be considered, but the Suns have been contenders or good and made terrible trades quite a bit.

[BenoUdrihFTL]

Can't find anything about Wilt requesting to be traded from the Warriors but I have no idea of their actual intent in trading him

[bisme37]

Bill Russell was traded to the Celtics for a performance of the Ice Capades.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2016/06/22/bill-russell/

[Cipoteman]

Torn between Shaq and prime Kawhi since Shaq was already declining but it's between those two IMHO at least in the past 30 years

[Roscoe Sheed]

It may not satisfy all of the requirements of the OP, but probably Kareem

[Fencer reregistered]

Bill Russell was traded to the Celtics for a performance of the Ice Capades.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2016/06/22/bill-russell/

If we allow draft-day trades and the like, those will dominate the rankings. And by the way, all Ice Capades stories aside, the Cs really did trade one active HoFer plus the draft rights to a second one for the pick they used on Russell.

Leaving draft deals and so on out:

-- How did Moses Malone get from Philadelphia to Houston?
-- What exactly was the Sixers' Jerry Stackhouse trade?
-- Ratliff/Mutombo was, IIRC, a real intentional trade.
-- Ray Allen/Gary Payton has to rank high.
-- Bob McAdoo was pretty good when the Celtics traded him away.
-- Besides the draft pick used on McHale, the Celtics also got Robert Parish for the pick they got for McAdoo.
-- The Celtics also outright traded for Dennis Johnson, Scott Wedman and Bill Walton.
-- Previously, the Celtics traded away Paul Westphal.
-- Did Paul George demand all his trades?
-- Did Chris Webber?
-- The Pistons got a pretty good player in Sheed.
-- Lots of guys on the "fringe all-star" level have been traded. As a Celtics fan, I recall one example being Ainge.
-- Speaking of Ainge, was Ray Allen asking out when the Celtics traded for him?
-- Jrue Holiday has been traded twice.

[xdrta+]

Can't find anything about Wilt requesting to be traded from the Warriors but I have no idea of their actual intent in trading him

Well, Wilt did want to be traded (to Philadelphia) but the biggest reason was the same reason Boston traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Money. Mieuli and the Warriors were going broke and he picked up $150,000 in the deal, which went a long way in those days. Plus, they had Nate Thurmond.

[TheBobster]

One case that comes to mind was brought on by the hiring of Bob Cousy as Cincinnati coach in 1969. He wanted a younger team so traded Jerry Lucas and eventually Oscar Robertson in separate to San Francisco and Milwaukee. I'm not sure whether there was request from Robertson to be traded, but it was with Robertson's consent since he had a no-trade clause in his contract and vetoed a trade to Baltimore for Gus Johnson.

[wojoaderge]

Bill Russell was traded to the Celtics for a performance of the Ice Capades.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2016/06/22/bill-russell/

If we allow draft-day trades and the like, those will dominate the rankings. And by the way, all Ice Capades stories aside, the Cs really did trade one active HoFer plus the draft rights to a second one for the pick they used on Russell.

Leaving draft deals and so on out:

-- How did Moses Malone get from Philadelphia to Houston?

You mean the other way around. He signed an offer sheet with the 76ers

Moses (Blazers and Braves), The Big O (Royals) or Dr. J (Squires)

[Dan Z]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Kareem to the Lakers yet.

EDIT: I see that Roscoe Sheed mentioned it.

[Dan Z]

What about Rasheed to the Pistons?

[Fencer reregistered]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Kareem to the Lakers yet.

He's excluded because he demanded the trade.

Shaq to the Heat is borderline by thread rules.

Shaq to the Suns would be totally fine.


In other news, Ben Wallace was an S&T throw-in to the Pistons in Orlando's Grant Hill S&T.

[Triple M]

Kidd to the Suns or Nets

[Dan Z]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Kareem to the Lakers yet.

He's excluded because he demanded the trade.

Shaq to the Heat is borderline by thread rules.

Shaq to the Suns would be totally fine.


In other news, Ben Wallace was an S&T throw-in to the Pistons in Orlando's Grant Hill S&T.

Khris Middleton was in a similar kind of trade (S&T for Brandon Jennings).

[TheBobster]

Really the cases pointed out in this thread come down to -

Julius Erving, Nets to 76ers (brought on by merger economics, not as an effort to improve the team)

There is a long list of star players who requested a trade -

Wilt Chamberlain, 76ers to Lakers
Oscar Robertson, Royals to Bucks (I checked, there was a request)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bucks to Lakers (same with Kareem)
Charles Barkley, 76ers to Suns
Charles Barkley, Suns to Rockets
Shaquille O'Neal, Lakers to Heat
Kevin Garnett, Timberwolves to Celtics
Chris Paul, Hornets to Clippers

And some used free agency to force a trade -

Moses Malone, Rockets to 76ers
Bernard King, Warriors to Knicks
Scottie Pippen, Bulls to Rockets
Kawhi Leonard, Raptors to Clippers
LeBron James, Cavaliers to Heat
Kevin Durant, Warriors to Nets

(I tried to limit the list to MVP-level players who were still in their prime)

[Lalouie]

kareem

[payton2kemp]

Lebron.

The Cleveland Cavaliers agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the Miami Heat to acquire the rights to five future draft picks and receive a traded player exception for free-agent forward LeBron James, Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced today. Per team and league policy, terms of the contract were not released.

https://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/trade_100710.html

[LivingLegend]

James Harden has played on 4 superteams and has never been to the Finals.

Does that count?