In the George transaction case, the Clippers actually did not lose money!

With the Thunder winning the championship, the team's core Alexander won the MVP+FMVP in one fell swoop. With all these honors, it is inevitable that Clippers fans will regret it. I think Alexander was also one of the Clippers players back then, but now there are two completely different situations.

Looking back at the subsequent results of this shocking league-to-leading big deal in 2019, the Clippers formed a two-star lineup of George + Leonard, and their best results were only stopped in the Western Conference Finals. In recent years, they have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs many times. At present, there is basically no hope of winning the championship, and the reconstruction of the next era is also far away.

On the other hand, the Thunder not only won the championship smoothly this season, but also had a complete rotation lineup and a large number of draft picks in their hands. From some perspectives, the Thunder are basically ready to win consecutive championships.

For this rise trajectory, the biggest pusher behind the Thunder is undoubtedly the Los Angeles Clippers. They won Alexander through trade with George and indirectly won core players such as Jewish in the draft. Judging from the current results, the Clippers seem to be the party that has suffered heavy losses, but if we look at it in reality, is this deal really worthless?

Next, we will review the causes and consequences of the George's transaction from the perspective of the Clippers. Let's first give a simple conclusion:

"Even if I go back in the past, I believe the Clippers will still choose to execute this transaction. They did not make any mistakes, but they were too unsatisfied."

Although the book transactions show that the Clippers exchanged George through multiple draft picks and Alexander, as well as Garlinari who had expired contracts, the key reason for the actual transaction was mainly to win Leonard's joining.

According to reports at the time, Leonard, who became a free agent in the summer of 2019, actively contacted several stars after entering the market and asked if he was willing to join forces with the Clippers. Durant, Irving and others had received recruitment calls from Leonard, and George, who was in his career year, was naturally one of the targets. Leonard also made a clear statement to the Clippers that he was willing to join the Clippers, but the prerequisite was to trade George first. The focus of this deal is more like the priority of obtaining Leonard's signing commitment, and the Clippers basically have no chance to leave Alexander and sign Leonard at the same time.

In fact, George signed a four-year long-term contract with the Thunder in the summer of 2018, gave up the opportunity to transfer team by himself, and expressed his willingness to stay with the Thunder for a long time. The Thunder had no intention of trading at first, but Leonard's recruitment phone number changed the situation. George took the initiative to apply for leaving the team, and the Clippers' phone number also came, which gave the Thunder a chance to slaughter the Clippers.

But looking back, did the Clippers really lose money at that time?

George averaged 28 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.2 steals in his last season. He not only made it into the Double First Team, but also ranked among the top three in the league in MVP and Best Defensive Player votes, which is the best season performance in his career. Judging from such star standards, isn't it worthy of the Clippers' chip package?

What's more, for the Clippers, the essence of this deal is not just George, but also the signing promise of FMVP Leonard in 2019.

If we look at this year's standards, it would be like giving away a lottery rookie + any salary package, with 5 first-round picks and 2 first-round swaps in exchange for Antetokounmpo (third in MVP this season) + Jaylen Brown (2024 season FMVP). Isn't this worth it? If there is such a trading opportunity, I believe that no general manager of the league will easily miss this opportunity.

From the perspective of the Clippers, if the Clippers choose to leave Alexander, can history be reversed?

The answer is probably the same no. After experiencing the era of the Aerial City, although the Clippers have gotten rid of the bottom of a thousand years and the playoffs are basically not difficult for them, they are always a distance from the championship. The passionate new boss Ballmer is committed to the team's transformation and winning the championship. At the same time, as a team in the big city, their target is the Lakers in the same city. In the dark, the Clippers have a state of superstars standing in charge.

Since trading Griffin, the Clippers have begun to reorganize their salary space and cleared out huge space enough to sign maximum-paid players in the summer of 2019. The entire team revealed an atmosphere of preparing to do big things in the offseason.

Reviewing Thunder's cultivation of Alexander, we can also see the difference. Alexander's ball rights are guaranteed to be preferred for a long time, and Paul is arranged to help him grow as a mentor, and he is not in a hurry even if he misses the playoffs in four years. Such patient planning is absolutely impossible for the Clippers, who held a lot of draft picks and salary space at that time and were extremely eager to win the championship.

Even if Leonard was not finally signed in 2019, Alexander, who stayed in the Clippers, could not train him as the first ball holding point. The team will inevitably find another star to share the ball rights, resulting in Alexander losing sufficient early opportunities for success.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Alexander stayed in the Clippers back then, he would definitely not have become the double MVP today. He turned to the misplaced defense potential that the Clippers valued at the time. Compared with the leading MVP, it is more likely that he was positioned as a star deputy, with multifunctional and defense as the development direction to assist another Clippers recruited in their playing years to build a new team.

And now when we look back on this deal, in addition to Alexander, another often mentioned price is the draft pick section. The Clippers paid up to five first rounds and three swap rights in the deal. However, as mentioned above, the Clippers did sacrifice their future for the present, not to mention that in the championship team, what is more important than the rookie is to fight. At the same time, the Clippers did not lose their subsequent reinforcement chips because of such a price..

In the first season of the double star formation, the Clippers were still able to trade Morris for the first round draft pick to fill the striker's gap and form a prototype of the forward group. The second year, they relied on the special case of the middle class to supplement Leonard's champion teammate Ibaka, allowing the team to obtain 5-out of the inside resources, and at the same time they would not lose the protection of the frame and rebounds.

Then, through mid-season trading, the Clippers added multiple second-round picks with the best sixth man, Lou Wei, to get the commander role Rajon Rondo, the team lacked. Even the God of Lucky stood on the side of the Clippers. The Reggie Jackson and Batum they picked up one after another in the buyout market also showed the value of the core main force.

If you carefully spread out these batches of sent-off picks, it is only Jaylen Williams, who was selected in the 12th pick in 2022. After all, the Clippers' record has been stable at the playoff level in recent years, and most draft picks are already in the middle and back sections, and their final value is limited.

What's more, the Clippers themselves have no intention of cultivating new players, or attach importance to draft pick operations. They once selected high-potential Keane Johnson at the 21st pick in the first round of 2021, but only tried a few games symbolically, and were used as trading chips for Powell and Covington. After a while, it is obvious that the Clippers have no time to take care of rookies in recent years. They are always maximizing the value of combat power and striving for greater opportunities to compete for the championship.

Even if we look at the hindsight, we still have to admit that the healthy Clippers do have the ability to compete for the championship and are always regarded as powerful by the outside world. In the relatively complete 2020-21 season, the Clippers made their way to the first Western Conference Final in the team history. As the core of the previous trading, Paul George took on the heavy responsibility after Leonard fell, and averaged 28.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Not only scored, but also took all-in-one balls and defensive rebounds. He led the team tenaciously to the sixth game before he was eliminated.

Although he was ultimately missing the championship, the Clippers at that time did show the ceiling hope of this group of lineups.

Overall, the Clippers have been maintaining stable combat power with their excellent trading and Ballmer's banknote capabilities all year round, but what really drags down the Clippers is not the transaction itself, but the health of the stars. Since the 2020 playoffs, the Clippers have been troubled by injuries almost every year, and there are always people who cannot play at critical moments.

Even putting aside the injury accidents, the Clippers also have a series of mistakes that need to be reviewed, such as the team's failure to understand the needs of the ball-handling organization point in advance, the neglect of young players' development, etc., are the reasons for the Clippers' final failure.

From the final result, the Clippers actually had the opportunity to exchange Paul George for some chips, but they still chose to give up and finally let George join the 76ers as a free agent. The Clippers directly made George's trading value turn into air in vain, which is also where many people mocked the Clippers' management.

Looking back now, I personally think that the Clippers actually have two opportunities to reverse George's departure.

The first chance was in the 2023-24 season. At that time, the Clippers had gradually gained some draft pick chips, but they chose to trade Harden. Not only did they give all the remaining chips, but they also forced their life to win the championship for the Clippers.

If the Clippers could realize early that the championship period of the core lineup had been closed, they might have reason to retain the draft chips for trading Harden, and then send George to a team that needs combat power in the middle of the season, and exchange some future chips to rebuild, naturally, it would not make the current situation look so bad. The second chance was in the summer of 2024, when the Clippers rejected the proposal of George to sign first and then exchange proposed by other teams on the grounds of maintaining salary flexibility. Although this move saved the team from falling into salary restrictions and successfully made up for high-quality rotations such as Jones Jr. and Chris Dunn, the potential rookies or draft assets they missed may be more valuable than the above two people.

But now we can no longer know the specific quotation plan for George to sign first and then exchange, so naturally we won’t discuss it much.