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What's the worst trade in NBA history?

The details:

Wilt to the Lakers (1968)
Lakers receive: Wilt Chamberlain
76ers receive: Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark, Darrall Imhoff
Wilt was coming off back-to-back-to-back MVP's.

Kareem to the Lakers (1975)
Lakers receive: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Bucks receive: Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Brian Winters
Kareem was the best player in the league and helped win them their first title a few years prior. But he also forced his way out in this case.

Malone to the Sixers (1982)
Sixers receive: Moses Malone
Rockets receive: Caldwell Jones, 1 first round pick
Jones was 32 and Malone was 26 and had just won his first MVP. Malone won his second MVP and a title in his first season with the Sixers.

Barkley to the Rockets (1996)
Suns receive: Robert Horry, Sam Cassell, Chucky Brown, Mark Bryant
Rockets receive: Charles Barkley
The Rockets had recently won 2 titles and traded away a lot of their young talent for a 33 year old Barkley.

Garnett/Pierce/Terry to the Nets (2013)
Nets receive: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry
Celtics receive: Gerald Wallace, Marshon Brooks, Kris Humphreys, Keith Bogans, Kris Joseph, 3 unprotected first round picks, 1 first round pick swap
Garnett, Pierce, and Terry were all at least 35 years old at the time of this trade. 2 of the picks turned into Tatum and Brown.

SGA to the Thunder (2019)
Thunder receive: SGA, Danilo Galinari, 7 first round picks
Clippers receive: Paul George
Self explanatory. One of the picks became Jalen Williams.

Westbrook to the Rockets (2019)
Rockets receive: Russell Westbrook
Thunder receive: Chris Paul, 2 first round picks, 2 first round pick swaps
Presti really schooled Morey on this one. Revenge for Harden I guess. And the DAY AFTER the previous trade on this list. Unreal.

Westbrook to the Lakers (2021)
Lakers receive: Russell Westbrook, 2 second round picks
Wizards receive: Kyle Kuzma, KCP, Montrez Harrell, pick #22
Westbrook was making the max and got all the blame. The Lakers won the title one year earlier.

Luka to the Lakers (2025)
Lakers receive: Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Markeiff Morris
Mavs receive: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, 1 first round pick
Much has been said already.


Honorable mentions
Because I could only pick 9 for the poll:

Wilt to the Sixers (1965)
Sixers receive: Wilt Chamberlain
Warriors receive: Paul Neumann, Lee Shaffer, cash
Wilt had already won an MVP and scored 100. But the Warriors were struggling to even stay afloat as a franchise so I picked the second trade.

Malone to the Bullets (1986)
Bullets receive: Moses Malone, Terry Catledge, 2 first round picks
Sixers receive: Jeff Ruland, Cliff Robinson
Malone was 31 but proved that he still had some gas in the tank after the trade.

Allen to the Sonics (2003)
Sonics receive: Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie, Ronald Murray, 1 first round pick
Bucks receive: Gary Payton, Desmond Mason
Ray Allen was in his prime and the Bucks almost made the finals with him while Payton was 34 years old. Thanks George Karl.

Gasol to the Lakers (2008)
Lakers receive: Pau Gasol, 1 second round pick
Grizzlies receive: Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Marc Gasol, 2 first round picks
It's important to note that Marc Gasol was a 2nd round pick who hadn't played yet.

Harden to the Rockets (2012)
Rockets receive: James Harden, Cole Aldrich, Lazar Hayward, Daequan Cook
Thunder receive: Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, 2 first round picks, 1 second round pick
The trade that defined Daryl Morey. This trade only happened because the Thunder were too cheap to pay up.


Because they were draft day trades:

Russell to the Celtics (1956)
Celtcis receive: Bill Russell
Hawks receive: Cliff Hagan, Ed Macauley

Pippen to the Bulls (1987)
Bulls receive: Scottie Pippen
Sonics receive: Olden Polynice

Kobe to the Lakers (1996)
Lakers receive: Kobe Bryant
Hornets receive: Vlade Divac

Nowitzki to the Mavs (1998)
Mavs receive: Dirk Nowitzki
Bucks receive: Robert Traylor

The hindsight vote will always be the BOS/Brooklyn trade because we have the luxury of seeing the end result

But the Luka one was the dumbest as it was happening, no hindsight required

Rick Robey from the Celtics to the Suns for Dennis Johnson.

Has to be one of the draft day trades. Bill won the most rings so I'll go with the Celtics getting him but all four were obviously elite steals.

Hard to rate the Kobe trade as there are rumors he strong-armed his way out of the Hornets immediately. I think that is why he slipped to the position he got picked.

itrsteve wrote:The hindsight vote will always be the BOS/Brooklyn trade because we have the luxury of seeing the end result

But the Luka one was the dumbest as it was happening, no hindsight required

This.

This is what people keep missing. Trades like the SGA trade or the Nets trade are dumb because we know what they turn into. SGA had talent but he was still young and unproven; I don't think anyone expected him to become the best player in the league.

The Luka trade was never good. It's not about potential or "maybe," it was bad right from the start. He was an MVP level legit superstar entering his prime and coming off of a title run. He was traded for a 32 year old, injury prone AD and a late first. No one does that.

The Wilt, Malone, and Kareem trades are the only trades that should really be in the same discussion, and Kareem forced his way out.

funkatron101 wrote:Hard to rate the Kobe trade as there are rumors he strong-armed his way out of the Hornets immediately. I think that is why he slipped to the position he got picked.

That literally has nothing to do with the failure of the trade.

Secondly, rookies can't strong arm their teams to do anything. They have never had that kind of leverage. Not that it would matter if they did or did not though since onus is on the team moving them to get back an adequate return. Unless a 17 year old Kobe playing the GM role too. Maybe Ace Bailey can trade himself or force his way out too. I don’t think its happening though. Just me.

Luka should have yielded more than what the Suns gave up for KD.
What makes the trade so bad is that the Mavs (supposedly) didn't put him on the market where the offers would have been insanely better.
Maybe it was the league pushing for this and that's why Flagg ended up in Dallas but assuming everything was on the straight and narrow, I really believe this was the biggest incompetence of a front office in the history of the NBA, and possibly sports.

I don't think it would win, but the Warriors/Celtics trade should have been in the top 9.
Robert Parrish and the #3 pick used for Kevin McHale
for
The #1 pick used for Joe Barry Carroll and the #13 pick used for Rickey Brown

(These weren't picks years down the road; it happened at draft time)

itrsteve wrote:The hindsight vote will always be the BOS/Brooklyn trade because we have the luxury of seeing the end result

But the Luka one was the dumbest as it was happening, no hindsight required

Right. At the time the Brooklyn trade seemed like an overpay but wasn't a disaster yet. I even remember Bill Simmons didn't like the trade for Boston You can see why that trade happened in the moment though. The Luka trade made no sense in the moment and has started to make more sense with them magically winning the lottery.

Luka trade is pretty bad, not necessarily the worst because they got AD out of it who is an elite player but we all know that if Nico actually shopped Luka around he could have gotten a massive haul versus what he got. The worst trade imo is the Nets/Celtics. It was awful at the time (we all know the Celtics big three were washed) and looks even worse in hindsight with Tatum/Brown going to Boston. That trade literally set the Nets franchise back like 5-6 years

I voted for the Barkley to HOU trade for the aftershocks it had on the Suns. Outside of Mark Bryant, none of those guys wanted to be here and played half ass in an order to get themselves traded again soon after the season started.

> Cassell played 22 games and while he did well enough, he was coasting along - He was later traded to the Mavs for a deal including Jason Kidd, so that actually helped us a bit.

> Horry managed to stick around for 32 games before making his exit: He feuded on court with coach Danny Ainge and then threw a towel in his face - Traded to the Lakers for Cedric Ceballos, so that worked out both ways.

> Chucky Brown did a whole 10 games for us - Traded for a guy who was immediately cut and a pick that never conveyed.

> Mark Bryant played 41 games for the Suns and contributed well enough given his role (having later returned as an assistant coach under Monty Williams) - Traded to the Bulls for Luc Longley.. who was meh.

Effigy wrote:

itrsteve wrote:The hindsight vote will always be the BOS/Brooklyn trade because we have the luxury of seeing the end result

But the Luka one was the dumbest as it was happening, no hindsight required

Right. At the time the Brooklyn trade seemed like an overpay but wasn't a disaster yet. I even remember Bill Simmons didn't like the trade for Boston You can see why that trade happened in the moment though. The Luka trade made no sense in the moment and has started to make more sense with them magically winning the lottery.

Thing to remember about that trade is that the Nets were already a solid and rising PO team before it, and the trade only ended up a disaster because Deron Williams mysteriously went from all-NBA to out of the NBA in like 2 years and the rest of the roster went bust. It'd be like if Donovan Mitchell turned into a journeyman by the end of next season.

Nets also had Brook Lopez--who was low level all-star-ish--and some good role players, Pierce and KG were just supposed to be side guys for a pretty young good team. It was a bad trade but they weren't wrong to anticipate they were going to be picking in the 20s for the next 3-4 seasons. Everyone would've bet on that.

This list lacks Ted Stepien

The Moses to Philly trade is lacking context as it was really more of a FA signing anyways.

The Rockets couldn't afford his salary and so arranged a trade with Philly as some measure of compensation. Unrestricted free agency didn't exist back then. The compensation for a FA signing back then was a formality mostly and was never expected to be equal value.

It'd be the Luka trade if it was a real trade and not a front to increase the Lakers valuation before their sale.

HotelVitale wrote:Thing to remember about that trade is that the Nets were already a solid and rising PO team before it, and the trade only ended up a disaster because Deron Williams mysteriously went from all-NBA to out of the NBA in like 2 years and the rest of the roster went bust. It'd be like if Donovan Mitchell turned into a journeyman by the end of next season.

Nets also had Brook Lopez--who was low level all-star-ish--and some good role players, Pierce and KG were just supposed to be side guys for a pretty young good team. It was a bad trade but they weren't wrong to anticipate they were going to be picking in the 20s for the next 3-4 seasons. Everyone would've bet on that.

I agree, Nets were solid and the falloff wasn't predicted by anybody. PG and KG were on the downslope but still far from "washed" as somebody else mentioned, but KG certainly more with the miles he had on him. I just think they weren't really bought into it at any point and Brooklyn got a half effort.

But god damn was that a sad day to be a Celtic fan. Everybody was miserable all around

I'm split between the Luka deal and the KG/Pierce to Nets deal.

Long term, as crazy as it is to say, the Luka trade won't hurt the Mavs because of their stupid luck (rigged) in the lottery. That KG/Pierce to Nets deal set the Nets back half a decade or more because of how quickly that whole thing flamed out.

It’s Luka and it’s not even close. Nico didn’t even shop him around and didn’t land a significant asset haul. AD is nice, but he’s injury prone and on the wrong side of 30.

Luka should’ve netted 5 1sts at a minimum

the clips were handcuffed. they wanted kawhi and kawhi wanted pg

sga was a second year player and he wasn't even starting,,,was he?