Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

zubac for muscala

 

This one still hurts and is second worst IMO.

 

That was terrible but I think this is even worse because of the money and players lost and negative impact.. That one did hurt.

 

We have had some doozies...

 

Agreed. How does it rank in NBA history?

 

It's one of the worst trades in sports history in my opinion. I wish I was exaggerating but I honestly can't think of anything that just sank a contender like this.

You would literally have to just spend an afternoon researching on Google to come up with something on the same level or worse but I'm just not sure it exists. Certainly not in the last couple of decades.

Coach will likely be fired. GM could go too.

and there's no easy way to get back out of it. High chance we have to dig a bigger hole by giving up picks or the couple of young guys we have just to make the team respectable. So any move you compare it to would have to sink the team for at least a couple of years.

It's bad. It's really really bad.

 

So after about 10 minutes of extensive research (i.e. googling), the Babe Ruth trade was worse IMO given how much it impacted the trajectory of the Red Sox and Yankees for decades.

 

Eh, Westbrook trade is obviously terrible, but I don’t think it’s close to the worst trade in NBA history.

Yes we sacrificed our depth, but it’s not like we gave up a player who blossomed into a superstar. And we only gave up one first round pick (and there weren’t really any good prospects that ended up being picked at that range or later). Westbrook’s contract is terrible, but there’s only one more year. In theory, we could head into next off-season with the same situation as if we never made the Westbrook trade.

Of course the context of Lebron’s final years makes this all much worse, but just saying, there have been trades in the NBA with much more debilitating long term consequences.

Off the top of my head, the Nets trading a bunch of their players AND IIRC like 3 first round picks plus a few pick swaps, all for the corpse of KG and Pierce, was much worse.

Zubac trade is also overblown. With Lebron’s groin injuries, that season was already a lost cause at the trade deadline. Plus, on paper a “stretch 5” kinda made more sense. But more importantly, we never had any long term plans for Zu. We were NOT going to re-sign him. Our plan was always going to be to trade for AD while trying to free up another max slot to swing for Kawhi. We weren’t going to let Zubac get in the way of that. Had we kept him past the trade deadline, we wouldn’t have picked up his qualifying offer anyways and he would have walked in free agency.

Again, terrible trades, just not the WORST.

Honestly the Nash trade may have been worse than these two. We gave up 4 picks for a 40 year old in a sign and trade (2 first rounders, 2 second rounders). Nash was a free agent. He wanted to come to LA.

Yes, I don’t think we had the cap to sign him outright to the contract he wanted so we would need to cooperate with Phoenix in a sign and trade. But the idea that they had enough leverage to get 4 picks out of us doesn’t sit right. After all Nash had done for that organization, I’m sure we could’ve convinced them to accept for less.

 

I tend to think like Savory Griddles and don't view trades with draft picks as poorly.

That Nets trade was bad, but they weren't coming off a recent title.

 

The Nash trade ended terrible because of an injury, though granted we gave way too much, this trade was made worse by Westbrook actually playing. Just my very humble opinion but this is much worse.

 

it's not the worst trade in NBA history or even close to it

the worst trade in NBA history is either the st. louis hawks trading bill russell to boston or the kareem trade to LA

 

Completely agree.

 

Some of the worst trades in history were gamble and lost outcomes, whether they were high risk high reward, putting all your eggs in one basket and swinging for the fences or betting on potential that never panned out. Trading for Russ was worse than all of those because it was a “WTF are you thinking and wtf did you expect?!?!?” scenario.

 

yeah I don't know what it is but my brain seems to not want to distinguish between trade and FA. Not much difference if I had remembered to mention all the talent we gave up for Russ too which more than hurt a little bit. What I wouldn't give for those guys back now and the possibility that we may have resigned Caruso too.
Kuzma: 17/9/3 and 35% from 3 defending great, 6'9" guarding 3-5
KCP 12/3/2 and .383 from 3 - another solid wing defender
Montrell: 14/7.2/2 solid backup 5 offensive mostly (honestly we could let him go if it had cleared more room for Caruso) - AD and Dwight are enough
To re-up all these guys and Caruso would be the same as what we are paying Westbrook
then Caruso: 8/4/4 & 2 steals 35% on 3s we know Alex's real benefits don't show up in stats. Great guard-wing defender. Disrupts lanes.

How much nicer would it be to have these guys combined with Monk and Reeves?