Lots of great players were drafted, then immediately traded — and went on to be All-Stars

The weirdest thing about the NBA draft is the longstanding practice that once draft day comes, there’s no more trading draft picks. It makes some sense within the framework of the league rules and salary cap, but every year, it results in weird situations where a player is drafted by a team that he’s never going to play for, but has to put on that team’s cap for photos, and is officially that team’s draft pick until the trade is finalized. Sometimes the player knows he’s getting traded in advance, sometimes it comes as a surprise a few minutes later, but it’s always super awkward.

This could be easily solved by the NBA changing one very specific part of its own rules, but until that day comes, we’ll still get these quirky occurrences, as well as a chance to wonder… what might have happened had those trades never gone through?

In that spirit, here are all of the draft picks since 2000 who were immediately traded, then went on to become All-Stars, leaving those teams that drafted them to wonder what might have been.

Famously traded for each other, Dončić and Young, the No. 3 and 5 picks, respectively, are the reason that Deandre Ayton could be both a Hall of Famer and the third-best pick from the 2018 draft. It will always feel weird that this happened — why couldn’t they just have picked the players they wanted? — and even weirder to imagine either Dončič in Atlanta or Young in Dallas. While the two will always be compared to each other, Atlanta definitely got the better of the trade, because the Hawks also got the Mavericks’ 2019 first-round pick, which wound up being Cam Reddish at No. 10.

There’s always a danger in trading with your rival, and this is why: you just may hand them a player who proceeds to kick your butt for the next decade… and maybe you do that twice. Imagine Mitchell and Gobert in the Denver rotation with Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, and the Jazz being completely irrelevant. The Nuggets instead traded Mitchell for Trey Lyles and the No. 24 pick in 2017, Tyler Lydon, from Utah. The Gobert trade was even worse, as Denver gave up the future Defensive Player of the Year, the No. 27 pick in 2013, for that year’s No. 46 pick, Erick Green, and cash.

It’s been five years, and Sabonis has moved on from the Thunder to the Pacers, but that doesn’t excuse Orlando sending him, along with Victor Oladipo and Ersan Ilyasova, to Oklahoma City… for Serge Ibaka. No disrespect to Ibaka, who’s an excellent ballplayer, but he spent one year in Orlando and the Magic lost 53 games. You can kind of see why this franchise hasn’t won a playoff round since 2010.

George Hill wasn’t even a starter for the Spurs when the Pacers decided, they absolutely had to have him, at the price of not only the No. 15 pick in the 2011 draft, a sophomore out of San Diego State, but also second-round pick Davis Bertans, who wound up having a couple of productive seasons off the bench for San Antonio, which is really about the same effect Hill had in Indiana.

Love, the No. 5 pick in the 2008 draft, and O.J. Mayo, the No. 3 pick, were part of a huge trade in which Memphis also traded away Marko Jarić, Antoine Walker, and Greg Buckner, with Minnesota receiving Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins. It’s just kind of weird to think about, not to mention that Love went to UCLA and Mayo to USC… and Love’s Bruins teammate Russell Westbrook was picked at No. 4 by the Seattle SuperSonics.

Another 2008 draft trade that feels super weird to think about a decade-plus later — Hibbert, the No. 17 pick, went to Indiana along with Maceo Baston, T.J. Ford, and Rasho Nesterovič for Jermaine O’Neal and the No. 41 pick, Nathan Jawai. If you don’t remember O’Neal as a Raptor, well, he was there less than a season before getting traded with Jamario Moon for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. Hibbert went on to make two All-Star teams with the Pacers.

You can understand what Chicago was thinking if you saw Tyrus Thomas play at LSU en route to becoming the No. 4 pick in the 2006 draft. The Bulls figured they could not only get a player they really liked, but also Viktor Khryapa, from Portland for the No. 2 pick, Aldridge. Suffice to say, it did not work out as they hoped in the Windy City. In addition to snagging Aldridge, the Trail Blazers got Roy from Minnesota for Randy Foye in a straight swap of the No. 6 and 7 picks. Why this trade was necessary instead of the teams just selecting the players they wanted… uh… yeah.

This was more of a pure basketball trade than most, as Washington got the star it had been coveting, Antawn Jamison, from the Mavericks for Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, and Christian Laettner… who was traded later that summer to Golden State, then waived, then signed as a free agent with Miami before the 2004-05 season. And if you totally forgot Laettner was on the Heat at the end of his career, let alone still in the league in 2005… you’re probably not alone.

This doesn’t really count, because 2004 was in the era when the Suns were just selling off their draft picks. They sent Deng to Chicago for $3 million and the rights to the No. 31 pick, Lebanese center Jackson Vroman.

This probably could have worked out better for Denver. They picked Nelson at No. 20 in 2004, traded his rights to Orlando for a first-round pick in 2005, wound up getting the No. 20 pick again, and drafted Julius Hodge. At least they didn’t trade Nelson to Utah?

No shame in this one for the Nets, as Korver was a second-round pick, No. 51 overall, and New Jersey sent him to Philadelphia for cash. Happens all the time with second-rounders. A lot of them never even see an NBA game without a ticket, like the players drafted before and after Korver — French guard Paccelis Morlende and Dutch center Remon van de Hare.

The No. 2 pick in the 2001 draft behind Kwame Brown, Chandler going from Compton to the Clippers could have been an amazing story. Instead, Los Angeles traded him to the Bulls for Elton Brand and Brian Skinner. Perfectly defensible basketball move, as Brand had established himself nicely in his first two years with the Bulls. It’s just that, unlike Brown, Chandler wound up having a long and quite good NBA career.

Acquiring Gasol, the No. 3 pick in 2001, was one of the last transactions in Vancouver Grizzlies history, and what an acquisition it was, as on their way south of the border, they parted ways with Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jamaal Tinsley to get Gasol, Brevin Knight, and Lorenzen Wright. Gasol wound up being the heart of the Grizzlies during their early years in Memphis, and it’s hard to imagine what his career might have been like had he stayed with Atlanta instead.