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.
The transactions came at a high price, but they immediately made Los Angeles’ less glitzy franchise a serious contender: The Oklahoma City Thunder received a package that included a promising 20-year-old guard who had just finished a second-team All-Rookie campaign, along with an unprecedented amount of draft capital.
It was Rivers’ duty as the Clippers’ coach at the time to give Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a call and let him know about the trade.
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 disturbed him, as it should, since if you are traded for someone else and the reason you are doing so is claiming to be attempting to win a title, that person is likely thinking, ‘Wait a second, 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’ scrappy 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 leading the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA championship in his only season on the team.
Gilgeous-Alexander had to go if that was what the Clippers needed in order to acquire their superstar duo.
“I was surprised by it,” Gilgeous-Alexander recently remarked. “I’m not asking why you would do that. It was logical. Paul seemed to have had an MVP-caliber year, in my opinion.
“I kind of used it as motivation to just get better and really become that kind of player.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, now in his fifth 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 those picks 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 window of LA was propped.
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 because 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, and they have the biggest stash of first-round picks in the history of the league.
DAYS AFTER JOINING THE Clippers, George called the agreement with the Thunder a “mutual decision.” Presti had a different viewpoint.
During a press conference that week, Presti stated, “That would infer that we were wanting to trade Paul George, which I think most people would agree that probably wasn’t on the top of our offseason priority list.”
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