NBA Best Player Trade Suddenly Paul George Trade R…..
While the LA Clippers brass was having a celebration, Doc Rivers carried out a difficult task.
On July 10, 2019, the Clippers had just completed an NBA powerhouse one-two punch that had the potential to tip the scales in their favor.
After pursuing Kawhi Leonard for a considerable amount of time, the Clippers were able to secure his commitment to free agency by signing him and his hand-selected co-star, Paul George.
Before being hired in the middle of the season to coach the Milwaukee Bucks, Rivers told ESPN, “He understood it, but he is a competitive dude.” “That bothered him, like it should, because whenever you get traded for someone else and then the reason you’re trading him, it is to say you’re trying to win a title, then that guy’s thinking, ‘Well, wait a minute, what about me?'”
Sam Presti, general manager of the Thunder, was adamant that Gilgeous-Alexander be included because he saw him as a long-term member of the team’s core. As a rookie, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 10.8 points and 3.3 assists, which helped him play a big part in the Clippers’ tough No. 8 seed. Rivers thought he had star potential.
But George was a superstar in his prime who had been selected to the Oklahoma City first team of the previous NBA season. He was practically infatuated with Leonard, who had just proved how much he could influence victory by guiding the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA championship in his only season on the team.
Gilgeous-Alexander had to depart if that was what the Clippers needed in order to acquire their superstar duo.
“I was surprised by it,” Gilgeous-Alexander recently said. Not like, ‘Why would you do that?’ It was logical. Paul seems to have had an MVP-caliber year, in my opinion.
“I used it a little bit as motivation just to get better and really turn myself into that caliber of player.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, now in his sixth season in Oklahoma City, has emerged as a top contender for the MVP award in the NBA. One of his co-stars this season has been second-year forward Jalen Williams, who was chosen with one of the selections that the Clippers traded for.
The Clippers, on the other hand, have not yet realized the full potential of their seismic summertime trades, missing the NBA Finals partly because of Leonard and George’s injuries. (The addition of former MVP James Harden in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, which the Thunder helped to facilitate, propped back open LA’s window.)
And despite their competition for the top seeds in the Western Conference and the possibility of a playoff matchup, the two teams are still connected since the Thunder took advantage of a special series of circumstances in the summer of 2019.
Oklahoma City is still benefiting more than four years later, as they have the biggest stash of first-round picks in the history of the league.