During an appearance on the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, former Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers disclosed that he had doubts about dealing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Paul George in 2019.

“My reaction was we’re getting Kawhi (Leonard) and Paul George,” Rivers stated. “I felt content. Having said that, I did mention it and remarked, “Man, is there anyone else we could give them?” We can’t let go of Shai. I even told Kawhi, “You know Kawhi, Shai is gonna be a star,” while he was saying things like, “I need another guy.” Kawhi will attest to this.

Kawhi Leonard, however, wondered how long that would take and Rivers did not have an answer to that question. Simmons suggested that the Clippers should have tried to convince Leonard to play alongside Shai and if it wasn’t working, then they could have just traded for George later.

Rivers acknowledges that would have been the best way forward, but the Clippers weren’t willing to take the risk of Leonard going to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“It would have been interesting if we had played the game with Kawhi,” Rivers stated. “Kawhi was basically saying if you don’t get A he’s gonna go to B… But we couldn’t lose to the Lakers. We could not let them get him.”

Rivers believes, though, that they should have done it, as he thinks Kawhi was never going to the Lakers. The 62-year-old revealed that the only house that Leonard visited during free agency back then was his.

“I was the only house that he came to,” Rivers added. “He didn’t go to anybody’s house in Toronto. He met the Lakers in a

hotel room, didn’t even go to their facility, yet he came to my house, right?

And I kept saying, ‘He’s telling us what he’s doing. He’s telling us we have him.’

But he had all the leverage and we had to bite, for sure.”

In the end, Leonard possessed the most power, and his ability to manipulate the Clippers into making the historic trade for George was aided by their concern that he would join the Lakers. We’ll never know for sure what would have happened if they had refused to back down at that time.

While Rivers admitted he didn’t think Gilgeous-Alexander would become the player he is today, it appears that wasn’t the case for everyone in the building. Lou Williams was on the team at that time and he stated the players knew he would turn out to be this good. Williams also revealed that Clippers players were heartbroken when Shai was traded for Paul George.

“We were heartbroken when he got traded. Absolutely, we were crushed,” Williams said on Run It Back. “Even

though it was for PG. We knew who PG was, but we had spent so much time and

energy just being instrumental in his career and his development. Just making

sure he’s getting extra shots. He was so open to information, so open to learning,

and wanted to be great. We knew he was going to be one of those players.”

Bravo to them if they were able to predict this. Gilgeous-Alexander has led the Thunder to a 15-7 start to the 2023–24 season. He is presently averaging 30.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 2.8 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game. He is among the NBA’s finest players, and OKC will benefit greatly from his presence in the future.

If the Clippers had won a championship with George, it would have lessened the

blow of his trade, but they haven’t. Time is running out for this team version as

well, and whether or not it’s a fair exchange, if they come up empty-

handed, this will be remembered as a fairly poor bargain.

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