It couldn't get better for the Oklahoma City Thunder than their 2019 trade with the Clippers involving Paul George, right? How could it, when they received Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, four unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick, and two first-round pick swaps? Nothing will top getting a championship out of it, as OKC did, but the trade still managed to get even sweeter on Wednesday.
After nearly a year (364 days, to be exact) since the league launched an investigation into the allegations that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard's Aspiration endorsement deal (we've since learned about the deal with Daktronics), the NBA announced that the findings indicated Los Angeles was guilty. There's a slew of punishments to prove it.
None compare to the five first-round picks that the Clippers will lose (2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033) as a result.
Thunder's Paul George trade looks even better
Leonard wanted George to team up with him on the Clippers seven years ago, which is why LA paid Oklahoma City the price it did for George. Of course, they did so, thinking that they'd come out of it with a championship, but it was the Thunder who did (and could add more to that).
So, essentially, the Clippers gave up five unprotected picks for George because of Kawhi, and then lost five more first-round picks because they circumvented the salary cap. Oh, and we can't forget that they lost George for nothing a couple of summers ago when he left in free agency for the Sixers.
The Thunder are still winning, years after trading George.
Even if all that Los Angeles had given up for George was Gilgeous-Alexander (which obviously never would've happened), Oklahoma City still would've won. Or, if all the Clippers had given up was the 2022 pick the Thunder used to draft Jalen Williams, OKC would've come out on top. They got both players, and more!
The Clippers did all of that in 2019, believing it'd lead them to their first title in franchise history, but they made it to the conference finals only once, and that was in 2021. They wanted Kawhi so badly that they mortgaged their future to get him the co-star he wanted, not knowing that it'd mean giving up on a future multi-time MVP (or their chances of getting lucky again in the draft until after 2033).
Oklahoma City didn't need another reason to be glad that everything worked out the way it did, but Los Angeles is the gift that keeps on giving, apparently.
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