Ty Lue Defended The Famous Paul George/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Trade And While It Might Sound Crazy, He's Absolutely Right

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Long before the Luka Doncic Trade happened, there was another swap that was largely considered the "worst trade" in modern NBA history. This bad boy from back in the summer of 2019

Ah yes, the Paul George for SGA (and a whole ton of picks) trade. This trade became a hot topic of discussion after this past season with SGA having one of the greatest individual guard seasons in NBA history while also carrying the Thunder to their first-ever title. While all that was going on, you couldn't escape that graphic and the narrative that the Clippers were complete morons for doing that trade.

Of course, such a take lacks the context of what actually went into that decision, which is of course, the Clippers also landing Kawhi Leonard. Let's not forget, at the time in 2019, Kawhi was coming off a Finals MVP of his own. 

and it was very clear and very public that if the Clippers were going to land Kawhi (preventing him from going to the Lakers), then they also had to trade for Paul George. Safe to say they weren't exactly operating from a position of leverage, and Sam Presti certainly knew that. 

All these years later, Ty Lue addressed that trade, and frankly, it's hard to disagree with him

Unfortunately, teams do not get the benefit of hindsight when it comes to these decisions nor can they predict the future. Following the 2018-19 season, Paul George was 3rd in MVP voting, 3rd in DPOY voting, and made 1st Team All NBA and 1st Team All Defense. I know that's not exactly the caliber of player we see in 2025, but back then? Think of what the Clippers were doing. They were pairing Kawhi who had just gone on that insane TOR run all the way to a title, with a two-way monster at a time in the NBA where it was clear that the 2 wing formula was the way to go. 

Considering that at that time SGA had just completed his rookie season and wasn't anywhere close to the SGA we see today, you're lying to yourself if you wouldn't have wanted your favorite team to make a similar trade if it was bringing back the George/Kawhi duo. You have to give something to get something, and a mostly unproven rookie and then picks which are generally crap shoots isn't that crazy of a trade. Even if you feel like the Clippers ended up overpaying in terms of picks because they didn't have the leverage, that doesn't make the thought process wrong.

Sadly as we would come to see, things didn't exactly work out for the Clippers. The health of both Kawhi and George ended up being the worst-case scenario for both guys, while SGA obviously ascended into one of the best players in the league. Not only that, but that 2022 1st round pick also turned into Jalen Williams, who ended up being pretty good! But again, that's more a credit to OKC's scouting and front office decision-making than it is the Clippers being stupid for giving up the pick. There was just as much of a chance those selections would flop, but the fact that it turned into JDub (and more) is what makes it look so lopsided after the fact. 

Where I think this differs from the Luka trade is the fact that there's not really any additional context needed. If we're being honest, the situations are nothing alike. The George/SGA trade looks like a disaster because of what happened following the trade with everyone involved, but the trade itself was at least defensible given the context surrounding it. They just got unlucky with how things played out.