The Los Angeles Lakers should have had a prime Chris Paul.
On December 8th, 2011, a deal was agreed upon that would send Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets and Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic, and Kevin Martin to the New Orleans Hornets. The deal was never completed. Nearly 9 years on, what has this trade robbed the basketball world of?
A trade that would have changed the face of the NBA, was vetoed by the former NBA Commissioner and the late David Stern for “Basketball reasons”.
The New Orleans Pelicans then made a deal with the Lakers’ cross-city rivals the Los Angeles Clippers.
Hornets receive: C Chris Kaman, G Eric Gordon, F Al-Farouq Aminu, Timberwolves unprotected 2012 draft pick (Austin Rivers)
Clippers receive: PG Chris Paul
In hindsight, the Los Angeles Clippers picked the Hornets pockets and turned the franchise from a team on the come up to a Western Conference contender.
You can argue that if not for the Clippers trade they would have never landed Anthony Davis, who for many years was their franchise player.
It is possible that the 3 team trade involving the Rockets and Lakers would have made the Hornets a better team that season and in turn would have lowered their chances at Davis.
At this point, we will never know the outcome of what the 3 team trade would have done to the NBA, but certain things could have happened had the trade gone ahead.
With that being said, here are 3 things the vetoed Chris Paul trade robbed the basketball world of.