NBA Teams Who Rejected These Trades...And Paid The Price

Andy Hoops

These NBA teams rejected these trades...and eventually it came back to bite them. Let's take a detailed look into all of these. Enjoy! contact@tablerock.com  I make all kinds of long-form NBA content which include player stories, analysis, breakdowns, and historical topics. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video! ► X: https://www.x.com/@andyhoopsyt ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andyhoopsyt ► Music:  Black Vortex by Kevin MacLeod Movement Proposition by Kevin MacLeod Inspired by Kevin MacLeod Sardana by Kevin MacLeod Eternity by Kevin MacLeod Faster Does It by Kevin MacLeod Basic Implosion by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (incompetech.com) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ► Sources: Stats and box-scores from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com, Statmuse.com, PBPstats.com #nba

Transcript

00:00When the Boston Celtics were shopping around Jalen Brown, one potential trade surfaced involving the Bucs, when they had a

00:07chance to get Giannis.

00:09That deal fell apart because the Celtics rejected it and did not want to include some of their young players

00:14in the trade.

00:15And thus, they settled for the deal with Philly instead.

00:182024 Finals MVP Jalen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks.

00:26My initial reaction was, wow, the Celtics made a mistake to reject that if this was their backup plan.

00:33These kind of situations, however, have happened way too many times to count, where a team is on the verge

00:38of agreeing to a deal that could change the course of their franchise, but they get cold feet and back

00:43out of it at the last second.

00:45Ultimately, these GMs regret their decisions for the rest of their lives.

00:49Let's take a look at teams who rejected some potentially franchise-changing trades, and what made them change their minds

00:56anyway?

00:57Were their decisions reasonable at the time?

00:59Without further ado, let's begin.

01:07OKC rejects Tyson Chandler

01:10The only trade in this video that was already a done deal and got approved by the league office, but

01:15when Tyson Chandler arrived to OKC and got his physical done, the team's physician stated there was a serious issue

01:21with his left big toe.

01:23Reportedly, he determined that the risk of re-injury was too great to give Chandler a clean bill of health.

01:29And eventually, the trade got rescinded.

01:32It was the quietest I've ever seen in our locker room before a game, because Tyson is somebody who I

01:37hold in high regards.

01:38In this deal, OKC was supposed to give up Joe Smith, Chris Wilcox, and Devon Harden.

01:44Which basically translates to absolutely nothing, because all three of those guys were useless at that point in their careers.

01:51They essentially could have gotten Tyson Chandler for free, but decided to reject the deal due to the risk of

01:56re-injury, to which Chandler claimed,

01:58quote,

01:58I'm super shocked. This is nuts.

02:02To be fair, there was a cause of concern at the time,

02:05because it was the same toe injury that lingered in his previous playoff run in New Orleans.

02:09And the same toe that forced him to withdraw from Team USA, because it still bothered him.

02:14But in hindsight, what we know now is that OKC botched one of the biggest opportunities they had.

02:20Because Chandler ended up on the Mavs, and became a major piece in helping them win the championship in 2011.

02:29He was so important to this team, and some would say, the most important acquisition that pushed them into championship

02:35status.

02:36But had he ended up in OKC instead, there's a real chance the Mavs never win the title.

02:41And the Thunder would be in the finals in both 2011 and 2012.

02:45And maybe even longer.

02:47The team's biggest issue at the time was at center.

02:50Kendrick Perkins was useless against any team that ran a smaller athletic lineup.

02:54But Chandler was a massive upgrade over him.

02:57As we saw in Dallas, his length, his quickness in rotating, and his help defense,

03:02plus his ability to convert as a pick-and-roll finisher,

03:05along with grabbing four offensive boards a game,

03:08these are the things that made it so difficult for Miami to deal with,

03:11as he was a legit seven-footer with a massive presence in the paint.

03:16OKC was missing this.

03:18They desperately needed a guy like Chandler in the early Durant, Westbrook, and Harden days.

03:22Like, there's no possible way this trade could have been bad for them.

03:25Now, if we try to justify why they would not go through with this deal,

03:29because even with his toe problem, the guys OKC were gonna give up didn't do much for the team anyway.

03:34The only way I see it is, the Thunder's ownership group had regrets when it came to Chandler's contract.

03:40At the time, the trade happened at the 2009 deadline.

03:43Chandler still had three years remaining on his deal,

03:46which would pay him about $11 million per year.

03:49For reference, he would be the highest-paid player on the team's payroll,

03:53and it wouldn't expire until the end of the 2010-11 season.

03:57Yet, that would still be before the max extensions of their young players kicked in,

04:01so I don't know.

04:02I guess his contract limited their flexibility,

04:04and his toe injury was reason enough to be concerned if he couldn't consistently stay on the court.

04:10Being locked into a huge contract with a lingering injury problem,

04:13that was the reason Sam Presti gave to reject the deal.

04:17And by vetoing this trade, OKC inadvertently altered the fate of two teams, maybe even more.

04:25Canada rejects two trades for Steve Nash

04:29There was a time early in Nash's career when the Dallas Mavericks explored trading him

04:34to both the Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies.

04:37Yet, both those deals got turned down.

04:40According to former Raptors GM Glenn Grunwald,

04:43around the summer of 2001, shortly after Vince Carter's impressive playoff run in Toronto,

04:47the Dallas Mavericks reached out to him and offered him a deal that seems kind of insane in hindsight.

04:53The Mavs offered Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki for Vince Carter and Antonio Davis.

04:58For the record, Davis also just had his best season ever in Toronto,

05:03his first and only All-Star appearance.

05:05And Carter was on top of the world.

05:07Vince put it on the floor, crossover!

05:10Odgins! Odgins! More Odgins!

05:13For Vincent Lamar Carter!

05:15While neither Dirk nor Nash have yet to become All-Stars.

05:19So at the time, it made sense for Toronto to reject this proposal.

05:23But a few years down the road, they regretted it.

05:27As Dirk and Nash became All-NBA players,

05:29Vince Carter became more and more disgruntled in Toronto,

05:32leading up to him infamously quitting on the team and demanding a trade.

05:37It was around 2004 and his trade value was so low,

05:40if they went back to the Mavs and tried to get the same deal,

05:43they'd get laughed out of the building.

05:45Imagine how different the Raptors could have been.

05:48A Nowitzki and Nash duo would cement them as a playoff contender for many years.

05:52But unlike the brutal bloodbath that is the Western Conference,

05:56they would have been in the East in one of the weakest periods of this conference ever.

06:00However, this wasn't the only time this happened to Nash.

06:03A few years before that Vince Carter proposal,

06:06the Vancouver Grizzlies held the number two pick in the 1999 draft.

06:11They notoriously used that pick to select Steve Francis,

06:14who immediately upon that selection was deeply upset.

06:24You could tell by the look on his face on draft night.

06:27Because he told the Grizzlies not to take him because he didn't want to move to Canada.

06:31So now, he refused to play for them and demanded a trade.

06:34The Grizzlies explored their options,

06:36and one of the options that popped up was a potential deal involving Nash.

06:41According to Nash's agent, Bill Duffy, he said,

06:44The Vancouver Grizzlies could have had Nash for Steve Francis.

06:48Stu Jackson, the Grizzlies' GM, turned that down flat.

06:51If he makes that deal, there would still be a franchise in Vancouver today.

06:55Oof, that hurts.

06:57Duffy is right.

06:58I think if Stu Jackson accepted the deal for Nash,

07:01Vancouver would get a player who grew up a few hours away from Vancouver.

07:05In theory, this makes sense because of what we already know.

07:08But at the time, Nash wasn't very good yet.

07:12In 1999, he just had a lackluster season

07:15and still had trouble grasping the speed of the NBA game.

07:18Dude averaged 8 points a game in his first year in Dallas,

07:21and the team was already shopping him around,

07:23not confident that this is the guy who can be a full-time starting point guard.

07:27Still, I think if Vancouver had a player like Nash who grew up in BC,

07:31it might attract enough fans so their attendance wouldn't plummet like it did.

07:34And perhaps the franchise could have stayed a few years longer in Vancouver.

07:39Instead, they traded Francis for a bunch of no-name roleplayers,

07:42and the draw of their team became non-existent.

07:45Thus, due to financial issues, they relocated two years later.

07:50The Hornets love Frank Kaminsky.

07:53Remember when the Boston Celtics went all-in

07:55to try and get Justice Winslow on draft night?

07:58Prior to the 2015 draft, the Celtics offered the Charlotte Hornets

08:02a colossal package of four first-round picks and two second-round picks

08:06in exchange for the Hornets' ninth pick of the draft.

08:09They wanted to use that ninth pick to draft Justice Winslow.

08:12But the Hornets rejected that deal, kept their pick, and took Frank Kaminsky.

08:17An interesting pick for Charlotte.

08:19They needed shooting in Frank Kaminsky at 7 foot tall.

08:22Here's the thing.

08:23They messed up in multiple ways here.

08:25One, they drafted Frank Kaminsky, which was a huge miss

08:28as he never developed into anything close to what Michael Jordan had envisioned.

08:33Two, I mean, rejecting four first-rounders is insane no matter how you put it.

08:37Now, this part is speculative,

08:39but there was a chance that some of the picks the Celtics included

08:42were the Brooklyn Nets picks.

08:45Remember in the trade where they sent away Pierce and KG,

08:47they got back three unprotected first-rounders and a few swaps.

08:51So, what if the Celtics included some of these Brooklyn picks

08:54in their offer to the Hornets?

08:56If that was the case,

08:57then the Hornets might have missed out on Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown, or both.

09:02However, the actual picks were never confirmed, so we don't know.

09:06Maybe they didn't include any of the Brooklyn picks,

09:08and if that was the case, it wouldn't be as punishing for the Hornets.

09:12I guess they already got punished by taking Frank Kaminsky.

09:16The more interesting part of this proposed deal was

09:18why were the Celtics so enamored with Justice Winslow to begin with?

09:23Well, he fit the bill of the type of player they were looking for.

09:26Long, athletic, a switchable defender who can guard multiple positions.

09:30They were in the beginning stages of rebuilding,

09:32and he seemed like a good player to help build the foundation of a new roster.

09:36It turns out Winslow did not do that well in the NBA either,

09:39so they dodged a massive bullet because the Hornets were idiots.

09:45Phoenix dismisses Kevin Garnett.

09:48Believe it or not, there was a time when Kevin Garnett was so close to joining Steve Nash in Phoenix.

09:54The 2007 offseason was headlined by the KG sweepstakes,

09:57with multiple teams shooting their shot to try and get him.

10:01Among those teams included the Lakers.

10:03They tried trading Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to Minnesota for KG to pair him with Kobe,

10:08but it was the Wolves who rejected the deal,

10:10and they were right to do so because it was a terrible deal.

10:13However, there was another deal in the works that involved the Wolves, Celtics, and the Suns,

10:18which would send Garnett to Phoenix, Sean Marion to Boston,

10:21and a package of role players and draft compensation to the Wolves.

10:24This deal was enticing for the Suns because KG was the perfect guy for their team.

10:29They needed an all-NBA defensive big man to pair alongside Amari Stoudemire,

10:34and the two of them in the frontcourt were a match made in heaven.

10:36KG won't have to carry the burden of scoring as much as before,

10:40and Stoudemire can rely on him to protect the paint.

10:43KG would have instantly fixed their biggest weakness.

10:47While Phoenix was a strong option for Kevin Garnett,

10:50it all fell apart when Steve Nash approached him with a phone call that broke the bad news.

10:56Garnett explained the details of the call.

11:09It's not clear-cut if the Suns flat-out rejected this deal,

11:12but according to what Nash said,

11:21That caused Garnett to no longer want to come to Phoenix.

11:25It was essentially a soft rejection of the deal,

11:28even though it was on the table ready to happen.

11:31Then, later on, Sean Marion, who was also part of the deal,

11:34wasn't willing to stay in Boston long-term,

11:36so that officially ended what could have been a legendary trade for the Suns.

11:41Ultimately, when the Suns backed out,

11:43it worked out perfectly for the Celtics, who got KG in a different deal.

11:47But for the Suns, one can only imagine what they could have been.

11:51They just had a season winning 61 games,

11:53so imagine KG and Nash teaming up to try and take down the Spurs, their arch-nemesis.

11:58We'd see so many more KG and Duncan head-to-head battles in the West,

12:02but this time, KG has an actual team.

12:06James Harden almost joins the Wizards

12:09During the 2012 offseason,

12:11when the Thunder realized that James Harden wanted out,

12:14before they traded him to Houston,

12:15they talked to multiple teams,

12:17one of which were the Washington Wizards,

12:20whom they were deep in discussions with.

12:22The trade proposal looked like this,

12:25Bradley Beal, who just got drafted,

12:26and sophomore Chris Singleton, for James Harden.

12:30This trade would pair Harden in the backcourt with John Wall.

12:33And even though it's hard to see them

12:35blasting through a conference run by LeBron James,

12:38they would have had for sure much better success than Wall and Beal,

12:41who never made it past the second round as a duo.

12:44Now, Harden's reputation in the playoffs has been shaky as his career progressed,

12:49but he also spent his entire prime desperately trying to find a crack in the Warriors' dynasty,

12:53which he could never do.

12:55According to the Washington Post,

12:57the trade was on the table,

12:58and OKC was ready to pull the trigger.

13:00But Wizards owner Ted Leonsis was unwilling to commit

13:04to what would have been a roughly $80 million five-year contract.

13:08This is the extension that Harden wanted,

13:10and it was the maximum that he could have made.

13:12But the Wizards were iffy about giving him that.

13:15It was basically the same deal that OKC also refused to give him

13:18due to salary cap implications,

13:20or else they would have done it.

13:22Now, to say how much the Wizards suffered by rejecting Harden,

13:26I don't know, honestly.

13:27Beal did develop into an all-star,

13:29but in terms of team construction,

13:31Harden would have benefited so much from playing with a primary ball handler.

13:35His best seasons were with CP3 as the point guard,

13:38but before they got CP3,

13:39he had to carry the offense in Houston for so long.

13:43Yet, if he ended up on the Wizards,

13:45he would have had John Wall from the start of his prime.

13:47I think his career trajectory would look a lot different,

13:50along with his playoff success.

13:54Milwaukee wants Monte Ellis instead.

13:57I think by now, we all know about the Monte Ellis trade in 2012,

14:01the trade that sent him from Golden State to Milwaukee

14:03in exchange for Andrew Bogut.

14:05This trade was very unpopular at the time,

14:08to the point where fans even booed their owner, Joe Lacob.

14:17But before this trade even happened,

14:19the Bucks received a similar offer that involved Steph Curry instead.

14:23For a long time,

14:24the idea that Steph Curry was dangled in front of the Bucks

14:27was seen as an urban legend,

14:28but it was confirmed to be true when Mark Lassery purchased the Bucks in 2014,

14:33and he received this information from high-level executives within the organization.

14:37At the time,

14:39the trade to get Curry to Milwaukee was basically agreed upon by both parties already,

14:43until the Bucks medical staff stepped in

14:45and gave off the indication that Curry's ankles would not hold up.

14:49Mark Lassery, right when he purchased the team,

14:51jokingly claimed,

14:52I think we got rid of that medical staff when we bought the team.

14:56This marked the second time in this video

14:58where injury concerns became the reason to reject the deal.

15:01But for the Bucks,

15:02they weren't the only ones who thought this.

15:05Curry, in 2012,

15:06had already been suffering debilitating ankle issues.

15:09He had a major surgery the summer prior

15:11and missed a ton of games.

15:13Rumor has it that the trade initially was for you

15:17to go to Milwaukee.

15:19Do you know that to be 100% true?

15:21The doctor part,

15:22like, I can't put a name to it,

15:23but I know that was a part of the conversation.

15:25Not to mention,

15:26Curry had been in numerous trade conversations before this,

15:29including a deal that involved sending him and Klay Thompson

15:32to the Hornets for Chris Paul.

15:34Reportedly,

15:35Ethan Sherwood-Strauss stated this was almost a done deal,

15:38but Paul told the Warriors

15:39he had no intention of re-signing there.

15:41And that's when it fell apart.

15:43Heck, even back on draft night in 2009,

15:46the Warriors already started to dangle Curry

15:48in trade discussions

15:49to potentially land Amari Stoudemire from Phoenix.

15:53So, when the Bucks rejected Steph Curry,

15:55this was not the first time he almost got traded.

15:58It's crazy though, isn't it?

16:00It takes a lot of luck to build a dynasty.

16:02And for the Warriors,

16:03the biggest break they had

16:04was Curry's ankles being so fried

16:06that the contract extension he signed

16:08turned out to be the biggest bargain in NBA history.

16:11I mean, four years, 44 million is an insane bargain.

16:15During his 2016 unanimous MVP season,

16:18he was the fifth highest paid player on his own team.

16:21I guess it wasn't just other teams

16:23that didn't trust in Curry's health.

16:25The Warriors were also concerned for a long time

16:27before he broke out.

16:30The Rockets missed out on a dynasty.

16:34Prior to the legendary 1984 NBA draft,

16:37the Portland Trailblazers proposed this iconic trade offer

16:40to the Houston Rockets.

16:41The Blazers had the number two pick of that draft

16:44and they offered this pick

16:45along with their young shooting guard, Clyde Drexler,

16:47in exchange for a Rockets center, Ralph Sampson.

16:51If the Rockets accepted this deal,

16:53they had a chance to build the dynasty of a lifetime

16:55because it would allow them to have both the number one

16:58and number two picks of the 84 draft.

17:00They would use the number one pick

17:02to draft Hakeem Olajuwon like they did

17:04in the original timeline.

17:06Hakeem Olajuwon of the University of Houston.

17:10And the number two pick would be used to select

17:12most likely Michael Jordan.

17:14This would secure them a big three of Hakeem,

17:17Jordan, and Drexler.

17:18And this big three would arguably

17:20be the most dominant trio in history.

17:22Except the Rockets rejected this proposal.

17:26You see, at the time, they and many others

17:29viewed the 7'4 Ralph Sampson

17:31as an untouchable generational prospect.

17:34His combination of skills at his size

17:36along with his defensive dominance

17:37was the precursor to what NBA scouts

17:40thought of Victor Wembenyama.

17:47Sampson was supposed to be the original Wembe.

17:49He had a dominant rookie season

17:51and appeared in all 82 games.

17:53So there was no indication his career

17:55would be crippled by injuries.

17:56Which we know now, it eventually did.

17:59To be fair, the Rockets still did very well

18:02even after rejecting this deal.

18:04Because their twin tower front court

18:05reached the finals in 1986.

18:07But much of their struggles came

18:09after Sampson's injuries popped up.

18:11That and their players being suspended for cocaine.

18:14So during the span from the late 80s

18:16to the early 90s,

18:17they had a hard time surrounding Hakeem

18:19with a competent supporting cast.

18:21And he too got frustrated with the organization

18:23amidst rumors of trade requests

18:25and confrontations with the front office.

18:28Eventually, they did win two championships

18:30so it all worked out in the end.

18:32But imagine if they actually accepted this deal

18:34and they became an instant dynasty

18:36right out the gates.

18:38It was the biggest missed opportunity

18:40in NBA history.

18:41Then again, perhaps the egos would be too much

18:44for the team to bear

18:45and they'd be fighting for touches

18:47and neither Jordan nor Hakeem

18:48would settle for anything less.

18:50I guess we'll never know.

18:53Anyway, that's all folks.

18:55Those were some of the most iconic trades

18:56that teams rejected

18:58and paid the price for.

18:59Can you think of any others?

19:01Let me know in the comment section.

19:03Thank you all so much for watching.

19:04I hope y'all enjoyed the video.

19:06And of course, as always,

19:07I'll see you next time.

19:09Peace.

19:17Peace.

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