LA Clippers received: Paul George

Oklahoma City Thunder received: (deep breath) Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 2021 and 2023 1st round picks (via Miami), 2022, 2024 and 2026 1st round picks (via Clippers), 1st round pick swaps in 2023 and 2025 (via Clippers)....and exhale.

It's like the Clippers were Oprah Winfrey for a day: 'YOU HAVE A DRAFT PICK! AND YOU HAVE A DRAFT PICK! AND YOU HAVE A DRAFT PICK!'......and the audience was made up entirely of Sam Presti's.

That's the price of doing business when Kawhi Leonard is at stake. As you likely know, Kawhi's condition to signing with LA was that they get him another star and his nomination was fellow SoCal native Paul George. Presti knew that, and played his hand perfectly.

Gallo was supposed to be a rental; brought in to be traded to a playoff contender come February. The plan was to build around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and all of the the 6'7” uber athlete's with shaky jumps shots that Presti would inevitably draft. What wasn't expected, was for the team to be competitive right away. To be fair, a large part of that is due to a man we'll mention in the next section, but Gallo and SGA have become integral to Thunder's run to a potential top 4 seed.

From the Clippers point of view, they'll say public ally that nothing matters until the post season and that's where Playoff P will have the greatest influence (unless he's matched up with Joe Ingles). And the Clippers would be absolutely correct. Privately however, they can't be totally pleased with what they've gotten out of George thus far.

Exuding his broken leg season of 2015, Paul is scoring less than he has since his age 22 season, his rebounding, assists and steals numbers are hovering around their lowest levels since his rookie campaign. Injuries (23 games missed so far) haven't helped. PG's campaign has been stop/start and that hasn't aided his acclimatisation into a Clippers ecosystem that hasn't quite found it's balance.

Still, whatever concerns exist right now, a strong playoff run on both a personal and team level will cure all ills.

After that trade, I can imagine Sam Presti standing on a mountain of 1st round draft picks, muttering to himself: 'Y'know.....it's still not enough'. Which leads us to....

 

Houston received: Russell Westbrook

Oklahoma City received: Chris Paul, 2024 and 2026 1st round picks, 2021 and 2025 1st round pick swaps.

Doing the right thing at the wrong moment, is doing the wrong thing.

In trading Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook, Rockets GM Daryl Morey did the right thing. His team needed an edge; a point of difference for those moments when James Harden was stifled and his teammates went cold. Westbrook is nothing if not an edge. Even though Harden and Westbrook are tight (Harden and CP3, not so much), Morey didn't have the team to best accommodate Westbrook's particular gifts. In trading Clint Capela and going all in on a 5-out offense, Morey belatedly improved his team. That doesn't hide the fact that the Westbrook for Paul trade was doing the right thing at the wrong time.

For Sam Presti, he had a franchise icon that had read the rebuilding tea leaves and quietly asked the team to explore trade options. In getting Chris Paul, Presti acquired a superior player to the man he was letting go (Paul's age and contract can't be ignored. What makes up for those tertiary factors, is the hatful of picks Morey threw in). CP3 has undoubted been the catalyst in making the Thunder a fringe contender. His presence has allowed Oklahoma City to win the present of this trade, as well as the future.

Sam Presti did the right thing, at exactly the right time.