8 HORRIBLE Trades In The NBA Since 2010

I get one, and you get one. You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. A trade in the NBA is supposed to benefit every party involved equally, but uh, as we'll soon see, sometimes that just isn't the case. Here are 8 horrible NBA trades since 2010. Alright guys, let's open up this list with the trade of Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas. After losing in the finals in 2017, Kyrie didn't want to play behind LeBron's shadow anymore, and so he requested a trade. They eventually found a suitable trading partner in Boston, and with that, the Celtics traded Isaiah Thomas along with a bunch of role players and a draft pick in exchange for Uncle Drew. Now at first, the trade seemed to overwhelmingly favor Boston. I mean, after losing the first two games of the season, they went on a 16-game winning streak, but uh, the good times didn't last too long because he got injured in the latter part of the season and was out for the playoffs. Then in the following season, tensions started to brew within the locker room where he started blaming his teammates, and soon after that, Celtics fans began to hate on him for his behavior. Meanwhile, Isaiah never recovered from his hip injury and just suited up for a total of 15 games for the Cavs. He was then traded to the Lakers midway through the season, and since then, IT has been bouncing off from one team to another. This was a lose-lose scenario for both teams. I mean, Kyrie actually made Boston worse in those two seasons, and on the other hand, the Cavs received an injured player who never performed up to his expected potential. Anyway guys, while that trade seems to be really bad, it's actually nothing compared to this next one. After a disappointing first round exit in 2021, the Lakers recruited Russell Westbrook in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, Montrez Harrell, KCP and a first round pick. The Lakers essentially gambled away their depth and future to acquire Russ because they believed that having a bunch of superstars was the key to winning another title. But uh, as we all know, that formula doesn't always work out, and uh, the Lakers, well, they had it coming. As the season went on, we began to see that Russ was clearly a bad fit alongside AD and Braun, and uh, most of the time, he just looked lost and confused out there. I mean, Westbrook was averaging career lows last season, and the Lakers as a whole also suffered a major setback on both ends of the floor as their offensive and defensive ratings dropped significantly compared to their championship season just two seasons prior. The Lakers failed to unload Russ this offseason, and now, they have no choice but to run it back with the pieces they currently have. It's gotta be a championship or bust for the Lakers yet again, otherwise, this trade will go down as one of the worst trades in Lakers history. Anyways, trading for superstars doesn't always result in success, but some teams like Minnesota are willing to pay the price just to get the job done. Check this out, the T-Wolves literally gave up multiple key pieces along with 5 future picks just to get Rudy Gobert. I mean, that's 10 players right there in exchange for one? Sure, Gobert is a three-time all-star and a three-time defensive player of the year, but to me, this is a bad trade for the T-Wolves in terms of fit and financial consideration. I mean, before that trade, the T-Wolves already locked in Katt for $224 million for the next 4 years, and now, Minnesota has to shoulder the remaining $170 million left in Gobert's $205 million contract, which for me, is a crazy amount of money given to someone who can't shoot beyond 10 feet from the rim. With Gobert added to the mix, the T-Wolves are definitely going to use their size in the frontcourt to win ball games. While this seems to be a good strategy, most teams currently are using small ball to counter this, and Gobert is one of those guys who's a matchup nightmare against small ball lineups since he's super slow to recover, and though he's a good protector inside the paint, he doesn't defend well against quicker guards in pick and roll situations on the perimeter. Call it highway robbery or whatnot, Danny Ainge is a master in pulling off trades like this, and back in 2013, he executed a trade that was very much similar to this one. In a salary dumping move, Danny Ainge let go of his aging vets Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets in an attempt to completely rebuild the Celtics from the ground up in exchange for some young players and a handful of first round picks. Before the trade, the Nets already had Joe Johnson and Darren Williams on their payroll, and the addition of Pierce and KG made them a legit contender on paper as well as the highest paid roster at the time. But once again, the superstar formula didn't pan out, and the trade turned out to be horrible for the Nets. I mean, over the next two seasons, the farthest the Nets have gone was just the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and after that, they went back to being irrelevant. Meanwhile, the Celtics felt like they just won the lottery with that trade because the first round picks they got from the Nets became Jalen Brown in 2016 and Jason Tatum in 2017. By far, this has to be the worst trade in Nets history, while for Boston, this is one of their best trades in franchise history. Now, among the blockbuster trades that happened in the last 10 years, this next one didn't create a lot of buzz, but it's definitely worthy to be included in this list. Back in 2014, the Mavs were looking for someone that had championship experience to complete their solid roster, which featured Monte Ellis, Chandler Parsons, and a 36-year-old Dirk Nowitzki. And so, they pulled a trade that sent key players like Jay Crowder, Jameer Nelson, Brendan Wright, and a couple of picks to Boston in exchange for Rayjean Rondeau. Before the Mavs acquired Rondeau, they were actually doing pretty good and were near the standings in the West with a 19-8 win-loss record. However, just a few weeks later, it turned out that acquiring Rondeau did more harm than good for the Mavs. I mean, Rondeau had a long history of having beef with his coaches, and his time with the Mavs wasn't no different. He frequently disobeyed Rick Carlisle by calling out his own plays and doing his own thing, and Carlisle would respond by benching him. In the end, Rondeau only played a total of 46 games for the Mavs, and during that time span, he actually made the Mavs worse, because after starting with a 19-8 record, the Mavs ended up with a 31-24 record after that trade took place. Anyway guys, for the next bad trade, let's look back at what happened in 2011 between the Spurs and the Pacers. In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Pacers originally selected Kawhi Leonard as the 15th overall pick, but a few moments later, they decided to give him away to the San Antonio Spurs. See, Indiana has always kept an eye on George Hill. They actually had a chance to get him in the 0-8 draft, but that didn't happen because the Spurs got him first at the 26th pick. Now that Indiana had the bargaining chip, they finally pulled the trade to get Hill in exchange for Kawhi, a sweet-shooting big name Arizm Lorbeck, and the No. 42 pick of the 2011 draft, which turned out to be Davis Bertans. Aside from the fact that they really wanted Hill, the Pacers had a loaded frontcourt at the time, with the likes of Danny Granger, Lance Stevenson, and a rising star named Paul George, which made the trade even more sensible for the Pacers. Though it seemed to be a good trade for Indiana initially, nobody thought that Kawhi would blossom into a legit superstar that would win multiple championships and finals MVP. Moving on here, for the next one on the list, we got the Lakers trading for Steve Nash back in 2012. Just two years removed from their championship season, the Lakers looked to revamp their roster by adding a 38-year-old former back-to-back MVP, Steve Nash. Now, after adding Nash, they also acquired Dwight Howard, and together with Kobe and Pau Gasol, this Lakers lineup was poised to win 82 games and destroy every team that stood in their way. However, despite how stacked they were on paper, this lineup was already deemed to fail before it even fully took off. I mean, Nash was just too old, Pau was hurt, and Kobe and Dwight had their issues too. Well, to sum up what really happened that season, here's Steve Nash explaining why this Lakers team didn't really work out. I didn't think it was a great fit. I think everyone thought this winning a championship will happen, but then when it started happening, a lot of factors. One, I broke my knee in the second game. I was never the same, and I'm still not the same. Pau was going through a stretch where he was exhausted from playing for Spain all throughout the summers. Dwight just came off the back surgery. You add it all up, and I don't think it would have ever worked. It was doomed. Alright guys, for the next one, we're going to take a look back at what happened to the trade that sent James Harden to Houston. Back in 2012, the Thunder pulled the unthinkable by trading James Harden to Houston in exchange for a bunch of picks and rising players like Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb. You see, after making the 2012 finals, OKC looked to run things back the following season by keeping their core intact. First, they signed Russ and KD to lucrative max contracts, and then they convinced Ibaka to stay by giving him a decent amount of money, which then left James Harden at the negotiation table. With KD, Russ, and Ibaka already committed to OKC, this now created a big problem on their payroll, because if they offered Harden the same amount of money as KD or Russ, then OKC would have been penalized, and they'd have been forced to pay a hefty luxury tax. With this in mind, OKC lowballed Harden and just offered him $54 million over four years, despite knowing his real worth, and to make it worse, they only gave him 24 hours to think about it. Harden, on the other hand, wasn't clearly happy, and as they say, the rest was history. In the end, OKC got the worst of this trade because Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb turned out to be below average players. Meanwhile, Harden became an MVP in a few years time, and he also transformed into one of the best elite scorers that the NBA has ever seen.