When the Paul George trade happened, there were a fair few people out there who were thinking to themselves “That’s actually not such a horrible deal for the Thunder”. Sure, they lost their superstar, but let’s look at the facts: Paul George has degenerative shoulders. His shoulders are like the opposite of Dwight Howard’s shoulders (which are the ideal human shoulders). There’s a 60% chance that he never plays organized basketball at any level ever again.
Meanwhile, the Thunder haul was sick:
-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This smooth dude is averaging over twenty PPG per game right now and he’s gonna get kicked off my channel if he keeps it up. A second-year player unexpectedly getting booted from DTB is great news for fans of that team.
-Danilo Gallinari. He’s getting a bit old but he’s still good. He gives you 70% of Paul George’s production for 0% of the trade demands. Combine him with SGA and you get 150% of Paul George’s production for, again, 0% of the trade demands.
-A whole stack of picks. Like six first-round picks up until 2026. Sure, the Clippers don’t need those picks when they’re contending for championships year after year and molding themselves into a free-agent destination, but what if it all falls apart? They’ll be like the Nets 2.0 in terms of betting their future on fragile “superstars”.
All that for a guy whose shoulders are made of cottage cheese, broken toothpicks, and gruesome anatomical slurry? Where do I sign up?