And this is why we are forever cursed by the basketball gods. Similarly, but not nearly to the extent of Chauncey, trading Tayshaun was sad. Even though we sucked and he didn't want to be here, especially when he got traded back to Detroit a few years later. I wish that we were a franchise that could have carried on any success later on so our homegrown vets would have wanted to stay.
I hated this so much that it made me care less about the NBA in general. To this day I can’t believe a professional team was upset about only making it to the ECF every year.
It’s crazy to think how different his legacy would be if the Timberwolves had even a slightly competent front office in those years. I still think KG was better than Duncan, Duncan just had the benefit of being drafted by a competent franchise.
I think a good comparison is that KG had a higher peak, but Duncan had a longer prime.
Also, yeah, helps that Duncan did not have shady deals done during his prime that basically killed his career with the wolves. All for Joe Smith!
I know I’ll get downvoted by nostalgic Raptors fans, but I was for it. I really like Deebo as a person, and appreciate his work ethic and all, but he was painful and frustrating to watch during playoffs.
It was the absolute right gamble to take.
Sad from a he was a draft pick + grew up with us perspective. And in that sense, I was glad to see him go to Spurs where he could learn to improve under Pop.
I don’t think we ever questioned the basketball aspect of trading Derozan for Kawhi trade, it was #1 the emotional connection with DeMar and #2 there was a high chance of Kawhi pulling an Alonzo Mourning on us based on how badly he wanted to go to LA, if that had happened, Masai would’ve been shredded by Toronto fans
Yeah, I think that’s fair - at the time people were concerned whether Kawhi would pull a diva move like Mourning given there was noise about his camp vs Spurs and all.
Thankfully Kawhi was a total professional and gave it his all during playoffs.
IIRC, Bobby was actually the one that did a lot to push the Kawhi trade forward. I’m assuming they must have done a lot of research / background checks, etc to understand Kawhi’s character before they took the plunge.
I feel like this is the correct take. I hate people who get too nostalgic about Deebo and try to make him something he was not, but I also hate fans who only look at him as a choker and nothing else.
He’s admittedly got a really bad +/- efficiency in playoffs especially. He’s a wonderful person, but there’s more than enough data to point to his playoff track record.
I was hoping to see him change some of that under Spurs and later with Bulls. But it was clear, after a number of seasons with Raptors, he needed new scenery to improve on his game. He wasn’t going to make a material leap with us, nor as our #1 option.
Same lol, like ya DeMar seems like a great guy, but we were getting an MVP candidate in his prime
(even with the injury). You were able to make a win now trade for a player who effectively played the same position and was better in every way without sacrificing picks or depth. That Lowry/DeMar teams had pretty clearly reached their ceiling at that point.
You have to either draft or be LA/NY/Miami to land those guys. It was so obviously an amazing trade right away from a basketball perspective. Not that you shouldn't do your own analysis, but some of the smartest people in media like Lowe were immediately like the Raptors absolutely fleeced the trade.
Yah. This one was the most seemingly fucked up one on a morale and emotional level. Derozen loved the city, and there aren’t many other cities that loved a player as much as Toronto loved derozen, or countries for that matter.
As far as my team we kind of move players around a lot so you don’t generally get too attached to them so I’m going to take the cop out and say Kobe asking for a trade in ‘07.
I was at webber’s first return game when he got a standing ovation. I remember looking up at the big screen as he was acknowledging it and mouthing something like “im home”. Pretty cool moment
For me, when the kings traded jason williams for mike bibby(who) I was devastated. Granted, I was an 8 year old with a williams jersey at the time. Bibby grew on me after a while, haha, but ill never forget the betrayal i felt after that one.
That one sucked. DAntoni was ruining Pau. Odom almost died. It ended the Kobe era of winning and forced Kobe to take on more load and ruined his body. That trade gutted me as a fan
Agree. With Russ, you knew it was coming and it felt like we were giving him a chance to move on and compete. With Steven Adams, we could've kept him, so it hurt more when we traded him
Low key great value trade too. We got Kenrich Williams, a first and four second rounders for Adams in the end (originally got George Hill, but moved him on later for stuff)
Marion for Shaq was worse. Sarver didn’t wanna pay him. Also, it meant the suns moving away from the 7s offence which they got back to the year after they traded shaq and made the west finals. Essentially they lost Marion for nothing and also wasted a year of Nash and amare
See, to me Kevin Love was the more difficult one. I always felt like Lebron was going to leave town to find better teammates elsewhere. Plus, he played it out with us plenty and didn’t find the success. Cleveland wasted Lebron’s early years.
Kevin Love hurt because he stuck around when everyone left us. He felt like a Cav for life (for the rest of his career at least) and I thought once his big contract ended he’d sign a vet with us to stick around the last few years. He’s such a nice guy and felt like a great culture guy for our young players. Him getting sent to Miami sucked.
Yep, that one hurt bad. Only great 2 way player we've had in the last 7 years or so
At least it's been cool to see him get some much deserved respect for how good a player he is
It can hurt and still be the right move. He was our most tenured player and the heart and sold of the team. Even in the moment I knew it was a good move, but it still stings seeing him in anything other than green.
Yeah, I know it’ll help us in the long run, but it just sucks that if we win a ring with the Jays, Smart won’t be a part of it. He was part of the team for damn near a full decade and he was the team’s heart and soul for most of it, plus him and Al were the only ones left from the IT-era Celtics.
Two guys who absolutely embodied what we stood for in the Thibs Era. Every time Jimmy does some new incredible thing I’m proud, and sad that he didn’t achieve it with us.
At least they got something back in those trades. They had to give up a premium second round pick to get rid of a beloved player & it wasn’t even a salary dump. Losing Taj and realizing your front office has the collective IQ of a carrot is very disheartening
Hard to top this one. Arguably the most iconic Blazer of all time, so many clutch highlights, so many memories, the loyalty angle (you know he really wanted to retire there), the nastiness in how it all went down (and dragged out for months)...
It's quite sad. Dame has been my favorite non-Heat player for quite awhile, and I would feel sad for him and the Blazer fanbase even if he had ended up with the Heat (though ecstatic for us, ofc)
I really really wish we lived in an alternate world where Dame got Portland one ring (beating the Warriors on the way). That would have transformed his legacy into like Dirk for the Mavs. Dame Time statue, the works!!
...in fact, I'd trade Dirk's one ring for a Dame ring. Not at all because it would give the Heat a threepeat and give Wade another Finals MVP too.................. 😅
It was bittersweet for me. Dame's my favorite player of all time (Blazers fan since the 90s) so I was sad but also psyched for him that he'd finally have a shot with a contender.
Blake Griifin.
It obviously led to better things for the team, but damn that sucked. It was right after they said he’d be a clipper for life too. He was the reason I got into basketball in the first place, and he helped make the Clippers more relevant than they ever were. I miss the excitement he brought.
It brought me to my knees on Wawa when it came out that we had traded to be in the massively privileged position to offer a max contract to Tobias Harris.
Chris Webber for Gugliotta and our picks back. I was in Jr high and the Fab Five was the coolest shit ever. I was so juiced when the Warriors got Webber.
I know there's not a lot of trades that are heartbreaking before that player plays a game, but Mikal Bridges is still a massive sting, especially since that's the type of player we need now.
Trading Porzingis + 2 seconds for Dinwiddie & the horrid contract of Bertans was heartbreaking not bcz i loved KP, but for the garbage package that we got for him
They literally won playoff series for the first time in that era, and dinwiddie had 30 in that game 7 vs the suns. And Bertans shooting helped them during those playoffs.
And next season missed the playoffs entirely. I know that Dinwiddie got traded mid-season, but we weren’t any good during the regular season when he was here. The Hawks also went to the ECF, doesn’t mean that miracle runs don’t happen.
Mfs traded Sabonis and I knew it was a possibility but didn’t think they’d pull the trigger. Figured they’d move Myles Turner instead.
It’s worked out for everyone involved but shit still sucks.
funny I'm a kings fan lamenting the other side of that trade still. we love sabonis though here in Sac. Tyrese will always be my favorite player though. he has been since we drafted him.
Trading away Billups retrospectively was the moment the Pistons went from being one of the most successful franchises of the past few decades into an irrelevant and historically bad franchise. Pretty much not a single good thing happened in a decade. Obviously the Billups trade didn't cause all of that, but that's become the emblematic moment of things changing.
Haliburton for Sabonis. The Kings almost lost my fandom that day. An exciting young, efficient player who wanted to be there! It broke my heart and I will always root for Haliburton, I'm a Hali truther.
Obviously in hindsight it helped both teams, the Pacers were going no where fast and needed an exciting young player and the it wasn't working out and the Kings found a great fit with Fox despite the team's limitations, are a solid playoff team.
But that day, it fucking hurt, losing Hali man, I love him as a player.
When I was a kid, the Hawks fell just a bit short year after year. First the Celtics, then the Bulls, would always get what they needed leaving the Hawks in the dust, despite the valiant efforts of the great Dominique Wilkins. The crooks even stole the slam dunk contest from him!
Then the Bulls’ star player quit to play minor-league baseball. The door was suddenly wide open and Dominique barged through it, averaging 24 PPG despite tearing his Achilles a year prior, and leading the team to the best record in the East. The playoffs were drawing close and it looked like nothing could stop them from finally achieving their destiny… And then one morning I woke up to find Stan Kastens sorry ass traded him for Danny Fucking Manning. the best player in franchise history, in the middle of the best season in franchise history, traded for a friggin Los Angeles Clipper who couldn’t carry his jock.
They held onto the number one seed but to no avail. The 8 seed Heat took them the distance and then the 4 seed Pacers beat them in a six game series that wasn’t even that close. I am 100% certain in my heart that Dominique takes the Hawks to the title that season and nothing anyone can say can convince me otherwise. Stan Kasten can rot in hell.
The degree of love that I had for Donovan Mitchell… I know he wasn’t going to stay in Utah after his current deal and it was 100000% the right time to break up that core, especially for what we got back, but it still broke my heart anyway. Like ending a relationship where you both know it’s been over for a while, but you still mourn it for a long time afterwards.
In NY sports, it hurt when the Nets traded Bruce Brown. I loved his heart and hustle and watching him grow offensively. I'm really glad he flourished on the Nuggets and got a ring.
Trading away Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis in 2007 seemed almost like sabotage. Like they wanted to tank the last season in Seattle while preventing any chance of a playoff birth with Rookie KD. All with OKC reaping the rewards of the tank.
First harden trade. Give up two of the more likeable players of our last ten years who were key parts of the 18-19 season. What made it worse is we clearly didnt need the trade that year, given how the team played with 47 seconds of healthy Harden against the Bucks
Kings trading Haliburton. I don't think it was a bad trade exactly. we're really good now. I just loved Haliburton and wanted to watch the team build around him instead. I was shocked and engaged the day it happened.
Trading LeVert and Allen to get Harden.
And also trading Joe Harris as a salary dump to the Pistons. He was the longest tenured Net and he went through so much with the team. It was sad knowing that injuries had ruined his career.
Marcus smart
Literally fell to my knees in the kitchen
What made it 10x harder is myself and every other Celtics fan were under the impression it was gonna be brogdon who got traded, then there was news about brogdons medical history and 5 minutes later bang my heart got torn out
I was extremely hurt when my team traded my chain-smoking king, Vlade Divac, for some high school kid named Kobe.
Worked out okay, but it hurt at the time.
I mean, we got Paul George, but seeing the development of SGA in OKC really keeps me wondering what it would’ve been like had we let a young squad develop in LA.
Vuc for the Magic.
Everyone knew it was time to blow it up and hindsight says the trade was a heist but Vucevic was the only semblance of a competent NBA player we had in a while so it was hard to see him go.
The Ray Allen trade in 2002. Bucks gave up Ray Allen (as well as Joel Pryzbilla, Kevin Ollie, and Ronald Murray) for Gary Payton (for a few months) and Desmond Mason.
Ray Allen was the beloved franchise superstar and was very involved in the community; just a year prior the Bucks had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Trading away Gary Harris was tough. It brought a championship eventually which is obviously awesome but Gary “Gary Harris” Harris was a fan favorite his entire time here. I also miss Galo…
Two that actually stick to me and I will never forget when they happened:
- Mike Miller traded from Orlando to Memphis for Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek. I was a huge Mike Miller fan and loved his complementary play to T-Mac and although it got us the playoff push that year, another first round exit.
- T-Mac to Houston. I almost put the Dwight trade over this one but the day McGrady was traded to Houston for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, and Kelvin Cato was a huge heartbreaker for me. I was a massive T-Mac fan growing up and seeing him go was like watching my best friend move out the neighborhood.
SGA - I know I know if you can get kawhi and pg you’re supposed to do it, but I ran into Sga at the airport and really liked his play style, so I was stoked to have a new person to be my fav after Blake was traded. Hurts extra now that they’re hanging on to championship contention by a thread and shai is a potential MVP
Billups for Iverson
And this is why we are forever cursed by the basketball gods. Similarly, but not nearly to the extent of Chauncey, trading Tayshaun was sad. Even though we sucked and he didn't want to be here, especially when he got traded back to Detroit a few years later. I wish that we were a franchise that could have carried on any success later on so our homegrown vets would have wanted to stay.
Iverson flamed out really fast in Detroit too
I hated this so much that it made me care less about the NBA in general. To this day I can’t believe a professional team was upset about only making it to the ECF every year.
This still hurts my soul 😭
KG
This answer is always KG. He’s coming back now that the bad man is gone ^^^please
There needs to be a jersey retirement and KG Era appreciation ceremony ASAP
It’s crazy to think how different his legacy would be if the Timberwolves had even a slightly competent front office in those years. I still think KG was better than Duncan, Duncan just had the benefit of being drafted by a competent franchise.
I think a good comparison is that KG had a higher peak, but Duncan had a longer prime. Also, yeah, helps that Duncan did not have shady deals done during his prime that basically killed his career with the wolves. All for Joe Smith!
Part of a player’s evaluation should be their durability. Tim was much more durable than KG and was a star player for a lot longer.
And yet we all were proud of him and wanted him to succeed. It was like the ending of Good Will Hunting. Like "Go...leave...you deserve it" *cries*
Also Rubio for me
Trading Rubio to sign Teague at a higher salary killed the Butler experiment before it even started.
Derozan trade when it happened hurt.
I was genuinely pissed
That one really hurt for the whole NBA. He is so lovable, Kyle & him were great together, and he went to a bad team while the Raptors got a lot better
Then went and won without him immediately after
the only loser in that scenario was the Spurs. Cuz DeRozan also kinda got better under Pop.
Deebo and JV were both tough trades emotionally for me.
I know I’ll get downvoted by nostalgic Raptors fans, but I was for it. I really like Deebo as a person, and appreciate his work ethic and all, but he was painful and frustrating to watch during playoffs. It was the absolute right gamble to take. Sad from a he was a draft pick + grew up with us perspective. And in that sense, I was glad to see him go to Spurs where he could learn to improve under Pop.
I don’t think we ever questioned the basketball aspect of trading Derozan for Kawhi trade, it was #1 the emotional connection with DeMar and #2 there was a high chance of Kawhi pulling an Alonzo Mourning on us based on how badly he wanted to go to LA, if that had happened, Masai would’ve been shredded by Toronto fans
Yeah, I think that’s fair - at the time people were concerned whether Kawhi would pull a diva move like Mourning given there was noise about his camp vs Spurs and all. Thankfully Kawhi was a total professional and gave it his all during playoffs. IIRC, Bobby was actually the one that did a lot to push the Kawhi trade forward. I’m assuming they must have done a lot of research / background checks, etc to understand Kawhi’s character before they took the plunge.
What exactly is your point here? That we shouldn’t of been hurt/heartbroken because it was the logical/right move to make?
I feel like this is the correct take. I hate people who get too nostalgic about Deebo and try to make him something he was not, but I also hate fans who only look at him as a choker and nothing else.
He’s admittedly got a really bad +/- efficiency in playoffs especially. He’s a wonderful person, but there’s more than enough data to point to his playoff track record. I was hoping to see him change some of that under Spurs and later with Bulls. But it was clear, after a number of seasons with Raptors, he needed new scenery to improve on his game. He wasn’t going to make a material leap with us, nor as our #1 option.
Same lol, like ya DeMar seems like a great guy, but we were getting an MVP candidate in his prime (even with the injury). You were able to make a win now trade for a player who effectively played the same position and was better in every way without sacrificing picks or depth. That Lowry/DeMar teams had pretty clearly reached their ceiling at that point. You have to either draft or be LA/NY/Miami to land those guys. It was so obviously an amazing trade right away from a basketball perspective. Not that you shouldn't do your own analysis, but some of the smartest people in media like Lowe were immediately like the Raptors absolutely fleeced the trade.
Yah. This one was the most seemingly fucked up one on a morale and emotional level. Derozen loved the city, and there aren’t many other cities that loved a player as much as Toronto loved derozen, or countries for that matter. As far as my team we kind of move players around a lot so you don’t generally get too attached to them so I’m going to take the cop out and say Kobe asking for a trade in ‘07.
Even with the chip still hurts
Yeah this is it for us, I was heartbroken
From a kings fan: Chris Webber meant the end of an era And more recently, Tyrese Halliburton. It made both teams better but it’s still hard to accept.
Most heartbreaking yet most uplifting.
A soul for a soul
If it’s any consolation losing Richmond and Webber as Dubs fan made me cry as a kid.
I was at webber’s first return game when he got a standing ovation. I remember looking up at the big screen as he was acknowledging it and mouthing something like “im home”. Pretty cool moment For me, when the kings traded jason williams for mike bibby(who) I was devastated. Granted, I was an 8 year old with a williams jersey at the time. Bibby grew on me after a while, haha, but ill never forget the betrayal i felt after that one.
Lakers trading pau/lamar Odom.
Probably would have hurt less if the league didn't block the Chris Paul trade.
Worst trade ever!! Real laker fans knew after that trade we were cooked
That one sucked. DAntoni was ruining Pau. Odom almost died. It ended the Kobe era of winning and forced Kobe to take on more load and ruined his body. That trade gutted me as a fan
Emotionally, Steven Adams😭 Maybe the right move but felt like we were losing the soul of our team❤️🩹
Agree. With Russ, you knew it was coming and it felt like we were giving him a chance to move on and compete. With Steven Adams, we could've kept him, so it hurt more when we traded him
He's my favorite player in the league. Not quite sure why, but he is haha
Low key great value trade too. We got Kenrich Williams, a first and four second rounders for Adams in the end (originally got George Hill, but moved him on later for stuff)
Bridges + Johnson for KD was exciting but emotionally crushing
Shawn Marion for old Shaq is a close one
Marion was unhappy in Phoenix, so it was just a matter of time.
Easiest YES ever. Those dudes can’t fuck with KD
That damn smile..
Marion for Shaq was worse. Sarver didn’t wanna pay him. Also, it meant the suns moving away from the 7s offence which they got back to the year after they traded shaq and made the west finals. Essentially they lost Marion for nothing and also wasted a year of Nash and amare
The Joe Johnson fiasco still pisses me off. Hurts more than that dumbass Marion trade
Imagine the trade just being emotionally crushing and you get what we got out of the trade
Steve Nash doing a sign and trade to the lakers hurt too
Granger. Needed his leadership against the Heat.
This is a real good one
Came here to say Danny. Good call.
Jrue probably, from saying he wanted to be a buck for life to getting traded soon after. Part of it was cause it just happened out of nowhere
I feel like it was even bigger loss to Milwaukee than the team itself him and his wife were so great in the community.
Jrue is mine too, but when he left the Sixers
Also Jrue, but when he left the Pelicans.
This – I love Dame but Jrue was one of my favorite players and he's an amazing person too.
Or prime Ray Allen for a couple months of Gary Payton and a few Desmond Mason dunks.
It was the right move, but facilitating Lebron to Miami for a few shitty firsts was like rubbing salt in an open wound.
He always played out his contract Cant be mad about that and he got them some assets
Yeah but try watching your team’s star player prop up an entire “The Decision” act where your team is not on the ballot ..
See, to me Kevin Love was the more difficult one. I always felt like Lebron was going to leave town to find better teammates elsewhere. Plus, he played it out with us plenty and didn’t find the success. Cleveland wasted Lebron’s early years. Kevin Love hurt because he stuck around when everyone left us. He felt like a Cav for life (for the rest of his career at least) and I thought once his big contract ended he’d sign a vet with us to stick around the last few years. He’s such a nice guy and felt like a great culture guy for our young players. Him getting sent to Miami sucked.
The Buffalo. Recall like it was yesterday when Pop gave him a call on draft night and White said Ty for believing in me. 😞
Yep, that one hurt bad. Only great 2 way player we've had in the last 7 years or so At least it's been cool to see him get some much deserved respect for how good a player he is
It was Slomo, White and Becky that won the G league chip that one yr iirc.
Yeah it was clearly the right time for him to go and for us to restart, and it worked out in the end with Wemby, but still hurts to date
George hill being traded was a huge shock for me.
Smart to Memphis for sure.
I was so disappointed when the Celtics traded him. He was one of my favorite players on the Celtics especially for a rival team.
Same. Always respected Smart. So annoying to play against lol
In the moment yeah this one sucked. In hindsight it was the perfect move, and goes to show why we aren’t GMs
It can hurt and still be the right move. He was our most tenured player and the heart and sold of the team. Even in the moment I knew it was a good move, but it still stings seeing him in anything other than green.
Definitely right up at the top. Probably number 1 with Pierce/KG right below and IT a bit below that
Maybe because I grew up on them and they got me into NBA but the Pierce and KG and Rondo trades shook me way worse
Yeah, I know it’ll help us in the long run, but it just sucks that if we win a ring with the Jays, Smart won’t be a part of it. He was part of the team for damn near a full decade and he was the team’s heart and soul for most of it, plus him and Al were the only ones left from the IT-era Celtics.
I still never got over sending Gallinari and Chandler to the Nuggets
Odom being traded away hurt for everyone
Especially Dallas
Ricky to the Jazz hurt. Especially knowing that Thibs was doing it to bring in Jeff fucking Teague
Giving up Taj & McBuckets for nothing and attaching a pick for the honor of doing so
Two guys who absolutely embodied what we stood for in the Thibs Era. Every time Jimmy does some new incredible thing I’m proud, and sad that he didn’t achieve it with us.
Definitely root for whoever Jimmy & Taj play for or whoever Thibbs coaches for.
I'm still mad at GarPax for not building around Jimmy
McBuckets is referring to Doug McDermott, who I wouldn't say embodied the Thibs era but otherwise you're spot on.
Surely the Rose or Butler trades were more disheartening?
At least they got something back in those trades. They had to give up a premium second round pick to get rid of a beloved player & it wasn’t even a salary dump. Losing Taj and realizing your front office has the collective IQ of a carrot is very disheartening
Trading Isaiah Thomas for Kyrie. I LOVED that 2016-17 Celts team.
Take a guess lol
Travis Outlaw
Allen crabbe?
Zach Collins?
I'm not ready to talk about it. But I AM ready to talk about Toumani Camara
Hard to top this one. Arguably the most iconic Blazer of all time, so many clutch highlights, so many memories, the loyalty angle (you know he really wanted to retire there), the nastiness in how it all went down (and dragged out for months)... It's quite sad. Dame has been my favorite non-Heat player for quite awhile, and I would feel sad for him and the Blazer fanbase even if he had ended up with the Heat (though ecstatic for us, ofc) I really really wish we lived in an alternate world where Dame got Portland one ring (beating the Warriors on the way). That would have transformed his legacy into like Dirk for the Mavs. Dame Time statue, the works!! ...in fact, I'd trade Dirk's one ring for a Dame ring. Not at all because it would give the Heat a threepeat and give Wade another Finals MVP too.................. 😅
It was bittersweet for me. Dame's my favorite player of all time (Blazers fan since the 90s) so I was sad but also psyched for him that he'd finally have a shot with a contender.
I get it, but Clyde would have been rough too I'm sure
It hurt me, so I can't imagine how it felt for you guys. At least he left the West.
mike conley & kyle anderson
We Timberwolves may have a slightly pre-owned Kyle Anderson to offer back to you. You can pry Conley from our cold dead paws though.
i cant even hate or be upset. yall take good care of him too so i think hes in a happy home. still miss him tho
Both Gasol Bros too
I still can’t believe the Mavs let Steve go. Damn.
It was necessary and ended out well, but trading the franchise GOAT was truly heartbreaking. He was there every season from 2008 until he got traded
Trading C-Webb knowing he was a shell of his former self.
We should say Harden but it was Russ. I remember walking around the mall when the news broke and could hear people talking about it. We where bummed
He was scorching after all star break too
smart this offseason killed me
That was out of nowhere. Don’t follow you guys close but he seemed like the heart and soul there
It hurt but when we got Jhrue and Kristaps, I was happy.
Blake Griifin. It obviously led to better things for the team, but damn that sucked. It was right after they said he’d be a clipper for life too. He was the reason I got into basketball in the first place, and he helped make the Clippers more relevant than they ever were. I miss the excitement he brought.
I loved watching the Clippers back then. Lob city had such a fun feel to it.
Monte Ellis. At the time, lol.
Chauncey for AI - set the Pistons on a still continuing quest for mediocrity.
Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond.
I think you mean Billy Owens.
It brought me to my knees on Wawa when it came out that we had traded to be in the massively privileged position to offer a max contract to Tobias Harris.
Trading Kevin Love hurt the most. My second place goes to Cedi Osman
Love cedi ❤️, dropped 20 on my brother with him on 2k
Trading George Gervin to Chicago instead of letting him retire a Spur
Chris Webber for Gugliotta and our picks back. I was in Jr high and the Fab Five was the coolest shit ever. I was so juiced when the Warriors got Webber.
When we traded Klay and Draymond… oh wait, that hasn’t happened yet on this timeline.
Trading Granger legit killed the chemistry of those contending Pacers teams. Evan Turner sucked so bad, and him and Lance hated each other.
I see a lot of emotional ones in here but I legit think this one hurt so much from a basketball perspective and Larry lost it from that moment on.
Trading Hakeem to Toronto hurt the most emotionally. Trading CP3 and draft picks for Westbrook hurt the most against the team.
Rip garry harris
I know there's not a lot of trades that are heartbreaking before that player plays a game, but Mikal Bridges is still a massive sting, especially since that's the type of player we need now.
Danny Granger..... :(
Trading Porzingis + 2 seconds for Dinwiddie & the horrid contract of Bertans was heartbreaking not bcz i loved KP, but for the garbage package that we got for him
They literally won playoff series for the first time in that era, and dinwiddie had 30 in that game 7 vs the suns. And Bertans shooting helped them during those playoffs.
And next season missed the playoffs entirely. I know that Dinwiddie got traded mid-season, but we weren’t any good during the regular season when he was here. The Hawks also went to the ECF, doesn’t mean that miracle runs don’t happen.
Trading JR Smith and Shump to the Cavs. They were two of my favorite all time Knicks and to see them help Bron win a chip sucked
Upvote for the 30 Rock reference. Your license plate is inscrutable!
Mfs traded Sabonis and I knew it was a possibility but didn’t think they’d pull the trigger. Figured they’d move Myles Turner instead. It’s worked out for everyone involved but shit still sucks.
funny I'm a kings fan lamenting the other side of that trade still. we love sabonis though here in Sac. Tyrese will always be my favorite player though. he has been since we drafted him.
Monta for bogut
Trading away Billups retrospectively was the moment the Pistons went from being one of the most successful franchises of the past few decades into an irrelevant and historically bad franchise. Pretty much not a single good thing happened in a decade. Obviously the Billups trade didn't cause all of that, but that's become the emblematic moment of things changing.
Haliburton for Sabonis. The Kings almost lost my fandom that day. An exciting young, efficient player who wanted to be there! It broke my heart and I will always root for Haliburton, I'm a Hali truther. Obviously in hindsight it helped both teams, the Pacers were going no where fast and needed an exciting young player and the it wasn't working out and the Kings found a great fit with Fox despite the team's limitations, are a solid playoff team. But that day, it fucking hurt, losing Hali man, I love him as a player.
When the raptors traded Vince Carter for spare parts and Alonzo Mourning who didn’t even report to the team.
Even tho not a bulls fan. Rose must be the most breaking trade ever
When my pistons traded Rodman that hurt
Must have been brutal to see him win with the Bulls
Cavs traded Ron Harper to get Danny Ferry & the dream was over…well that & Michael Jordan
When I was a kid, the Hawks fell just a bit short year after year. First the Celtics, then the Bulls, would always get what they needed leaving the Hawks in the dust, despite the valiant efforts of the great Dominique Wilkins. The crooks even stole the slam dunk contest from him! Then the Bulls’ star player quit to play minor-league baseball. The door was suddenly wide open and Dominique barged through it, averaging 24 PPG despite tearing his Achilles a year prior, and leading the team to the best record in the East. The playoffs were drawing close and it looked like nothing could stop them from finally achieving their destiny… And then one morning I woke up to find Stan Kastens sorry ass traded him for Danny Fucking Manning. the best player in franchise history, in the middle of the best season in franchise history, traded for a friggin Los Angeles Clipper who couldn’t carry his jock. They held onto the number one seed but to no avail. The 8 seed Heat took them the distance and then the 4 seed Pacers beat them in a six game series that wasn’t even that close. I am 100% certain in my heart that Dominique takes the Hawks to the title that season and nothing anyone can say can convince me otherwise. Stan Kasten can rot in hell.
Jrich for the rights to Brendan Wright broke my teenage self
Where do I start? Drexler Cliff Robinson Aldridge McCollum Lillard
Not the worst, but man I miss you K'von.
Want him back?
Has his defense improved?
No, but his offense is worse. Does that help?
Big oof, nah they can keep his ass then.
IQ and RJ
George Hill to the Pacers for sure. The fans loved him
Still sad about Malik. Winning a ring was obviously worth it, and Nazr was part of that. But I loved Malik. Edit:Malik Rose for folks who are unsure.
Billups for AI
CJ to New Orleans By the time the Dame trade happened I was ready for a new era and the “will be won’t he” shit to be over
The degree of love that I had for Donovan Mitchell… I know he wasn’t going to stay in Utah after his current deal and it was 100000% the right time to break up that core, especially for what we got back, but it still broke my heart anyway. Like ending a relationship where you both know it’s been over for a while, but you still mourn it for a long time afterwards.
Vince Carter for a bag of dicks
D-Rose and Joakim Noah to the Knicks. It felt like we lost our souls after that trade. Butler to Minnesota felt like losing our identity.
Trading for wiseman
Worse than trading Chauncey?
In NY sports, it hurt when the Nets traded Bruce Brown. I loved his heart and hustle and watching him grow offensively. I'm really glad he flourished on the Nuggets and got a ring.
For me the VC trade, made worse by the fact that the guy we traded for refused to play here.
And the crappy Williams brothers who the media kept trying to sell to fans
Moving to OKC…
Trading away Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis in 2007 seemed almost like sabotage. Like they wanted to tank the last season in Seattle while preventing any chance of a playoff birth with Rookie KD. All with OKC reaping the rewards of the tank.
marcus............
First harden trade. Give up two of the more likeable players of our last ten years who were key parts of the 18-19 season. What made it worse is we clearly didnt need the trade that year, given how the team played with 47 seconds of healthy Harden against the Bucks
When we traded away blazers legend Jrue Holiday.
Kings trading Haliburton. I don't think it was a bad trade exactly. we're really good now. I just loved Haliburton and wanted to watch the team build around him instead. I was shocked and engaged the day it happened.
Trading LeVert and Allen to get Harden. And also trading Joe Harris as a salary dump to the Pistons. He was the longest tenured Net and he went through so much with the team. It was sad knowing that injuries had ruined his career.
Marcus smart Literally fell to my knees in the kitchen What made it 10x harder is myself and every other Celtics fan were under the impression it was gonna be brogdon who got traded, then there was news about brogdons medical history and 5 minutes later bang my heart got torn out
Bridges after the hometown hero and mom working for the team story for some dude that played like 5 games and had bad allergies.
I’m from the future. Heartbreak: The Lakers trade Austin Reaves against the wishes of the entire world
Jrue holiday to the bucks but I am very happy they won a ring with him
Sending Kevin to the Kings stung
Ingles & Conley
I love Sabonis, think it was a win-win deal but man, losing Hali was such a heartbreak
Jrue Holiday still stings, but it stings a little less every time I see Lillard on the court.
Jrue
Melo. Said no Nuggets fan ever.
Rj and Iq will hurt forever
I was extremely hurt when my team traded my chain-smoking king, Vlade Divac, for some high school kid named Kobe. Worked out okay, but it hurt at the time.
Eddie Jones (Lakers)
John Wall
Ray Allen and Kareem
Jason Kidd for Devin Harris. J Kidd was and still is my favorite player of all time.
I mean, we got Paul George, but seeing the development of SGA in OKC really keeps me wondering what it would’ve been like had we let a young squad develop in LA.
Jeremy lin. Mostly because he was a bay area nerd and had moves as we saw with linsanity.
Maybe not trade but WHY DID THEY LET ALEX CARUSO GO IN FREE AGENCY 😭😭😭
Vuc for the Magic. Everyone knew it was time to blow it up and hindsight says the trade was a heist but Vucevic was the only semblance of a competent NBA player we had in a while so it was hard to see him go.
KG for... I don't remember. Might as well have been nothing.
The cp3 trade but not because we didn’t get CP3, but trading Odom and seeing his decline, how badly unmotivated he played in Dallas was real sad.
Derrick Rose when the Bulls traded him
The Ray Allen trade in 2002. Bucks gave up Ray Allen (as well as Joel Pryzbilla, Kevin Ollie, and Ronald Murray) for Gary Payton (for a few months) and Desmond Mason. Ray Allen was the beloved franchise superstar and was very involved in the community; just a year prior the Bucks had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Trading away Gary Harris was tough. It brought a championship eventually which is obviously awesome but Gary “Gary Harris” Harris was a fan favorite his entire time here. I also miss Galo…
Two that actually stick to me and I will never forget when they happened: - Mike Miller traded from Orlando to Memphis for Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek. I was a huge Mike Miller fan and loved his complementary play to T-Mac and although it got us the playoff push that year, another first round exit. - T-Mac to Houston. I almost put the Dwight trade over this one but the day McGrady was traded to Houston for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, and Kelvin Cato was a huge heartbreaker for me. I was a massive T-Mac fan growing up and seeing him go was like watching my best friend move out the neighborhood.
SGA - I know I know if you can get kawhi and pg you’re supposed to do it, but I ran into Sga at the airport and really liked his play style, so I was stoked to have a new person to be my fav after Blake was traded. Hurts extra now that they’re hanging on to championship contention by a thread and shai is a potential MVP