So many players are synonymous with one team. Even if a player plays for more than one team in his career, he can usually be defined by just one.
10 NBA Players You Forgot Were On These Teams
LeBron James with the Cleveland Cavaliers or Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the Los Angeles Lakers come to mind. However, what about players who were drafted by teams they never even played for?
Some names on this list are like LeBron or Kareem, easily identified with one team, however, the team that drafted them never got a taste of their true talent.
10 Luka Doncic/Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks/Dallas Mavericks)
Almost four years later, the Luka Doncic-Trae Young 2018 draft night trade can still be remembered as one of the best trades in NBA history, purely because it’s a rare example of a trade being an absolute win-win. Both the Mavericks and Hawks got their future franchise superstar with boundless talent, without giving up too much.
Yes, Dallas sent Atlanta a future first-round pick that turned out to be Cam Reddish as a part of the deal, but at this point, that part of the deal doesn’t make it any better or worse for either franchise. What matters is each young player has led their respective team to the Conference Finals in their respective conference and are both under 23 years old with four years of NBA experience.
Both Young and Doncic are primed to carry the Mavericks and Hawks to boundless success in the future, only they’ll do it for the opposite team they were drafted by.
9 Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert (Denver Nuggets)
The two best players on the Utah Jazz weren’t even drafted by them. That’s some deal for a small market team.
Of course, Mitchell was traded to the Jazz in a package that sent Trey Lyles and the 24th pick (Tyler Lydon), while Gobert was traded in a package that sent the 46th pick (Erick Green) and cash to Denver. It’s truly hard to debate which of these horrible trades are worse for Denver.
Yes, the Nuggets have had success, with Nikola Jokic winning back-to-back Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, however, they could have had even more success with two of the best players in the NBA at their respective positions suiting up for them.
8 LaMarcus Aldridge (Chicago Bulls)
From this point on, almost every entry on this list involves a Hall of Famer or a potential future Hall of Famer. Take, for example, LaMarcus Aldridge.
In 2006, the Chicago Bulls selected Aldridge with the second overall pick, only to trade him away to the Portland Trail Blazers on the night of the draft. In return, the Bulls got Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa.
This is one of the worst trades in NBA history, as Aldrige went on to be a seven-time All-Star, while the Chicago Bulls could have used him as a key big man on their team led by Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler and Joakim Noah.
7 Kevin Love (Memphis Grizzlies)
The Grizzlies may have drafted Kevin Love in 2008, but they had their eyes on O.J. Mayo, who was supposed to be one of the NBA’s future top stars. With that in mind, Memphis traded Kevin Love with Brian Cardinal, Mike Miller and Jason Collins to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Mayo, Antoine Walker, Marko Jarić and Greg Buckner.
Kevin Love may not have had any playoff success with the Wolves, but he was a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player with Minnesota. Like Chicago, Memphis maybe could have used him during their Grit and Grind era, however, had they kept Love, that era may not have been initiated, as the Grizzlies likely wouldn’t have made the move for Zach Randolph.
Of course, these are all what-ifs, as Kevin Love has never played for the Grizzlies, even after being drafted by them with the fifth overall pick in 2008.
6 Kevin McHale (Golden State Warriors)
Kevin McHale, Larry Bird and Robert Parish were a big three that dominated the 1980s NBA, winning three NBA Championships and competing in five NBA Finals. McHale and Parish almost never joined Bird to form this formidable tandem.
In fact, in the 1980 NBA Draft, the Golden State Warriors selected McHale with the third overall pick. Parish played the first four seasons of his career with the Warriors.
Each man was traded to the Celtics on draft night in 1980, when Boston sent No. 1 overall pick Joe Barry Carroll and 13th pick Rickey Brown to the Warriors for McHale and Parish, in a move that helped create two Hall of Fame careers and further the greatest rivalry in NBA History: Celtics V. Lakers. It’s safe to say the Warriors got the short end of the stick.
5 Kawhi Leonard (Indiana Pacers)
The Pacers didn’t necessarily need Kawhi Leonard in 2011 when they drafted him because they already had a young small forward in the form of Paul George, but in hindsight, Indiana may have had an NBA Championship team in the making had they kept him. Had they not traded Leonard, along with Erazem Lorbek and the 42nd pick (Davis Bertans), to the San Antonio Spurs for George Hill, they may have toppled LeBron James’ Miami Heat en route to making the NBA Finals.
None of that ever happened, of course, and Kawhi proved to be LeBron’s kryptonite with the Spurs in the 2014 NBA Finals, winning Finals MVP. Eleven years later, the Pacers must look back on this draft pick and subsequent trade thinking only one thing.
What if?
4 Scottie Pippen (Seattle SuperSonics)
Kawhi Leonard’s entry ended with what if, but this entry may be the biggest what if in NBA history. What if the Seattle SuperSonics didn’t make one of the worst trades in the history of basketball, sending newly drafted Scottie Pippen and a pick swap that turned out to be Jeff Sanders to the Chicago Bulls for newly drafted Olden Polynice, a second-round pick that turned out to be Sylvester Gray and a top-three protected pick that turned out to be B.J. Armstrong?
Chances are, Michael Jordan doesn’t win six NBA Championships (he never won a playoff series without Pippen) and neither does Scottie Pippen. Who knows, maybe Seattle would have never ended up with Gary Payton or Shawn Kemp, but maybe Pippen could have thrived as a No. 1 option for Seattle, after all, he finished third in MVP voting in 1994 when Michael Jordan left the NBA for baseball.
The real story is that Chicago fleeced Seattle, got their duo of Jordan and Pippen that resulted in six NBA Championships, and Seattle moved to Oklahoma City 21 years later.
3 Kobe Bryant (Charlotte Hornets)
The late, great Kobe Bryant is a Los Angeles Lakers legend and an icon of the sport. The Black Mamba suited up for the Purple and Gold for 20 seasons and is in the conversation for one of the best basketball players to ever step on a court.
He almost never played for the Lakers. Bryant was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets 13th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft, only to be subsequently traded to Los Angeles for Vlade Divac.
Like so many others on this list before and after, the Hornets surely regretted this trade in hindsight, as Bryant will always be remembered as a Laker.
2 Dirk Nowitzki (Milwaukee Bucks)
Dirk Nowitzki is perhaps the greatest European player of all time, as he is the only one to ever win an MVP award and was the face of a franchise for two decades. That franchise was the Dallas Mavericks, not the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks had a chance at making Dirk their franchise star when they drafted him ninth overall in the 1998 NBA Draft, however, they quickly traded him and Pat Garrity to the Mavericks for Robert Traylor. While Nowitzki went on to lead Dallas to an NBA Championship and stick with them for 21 seasons, Traylor only played for Milwaukee for two seasons.
In Dirk’s prime, the Mavericks chased greatness year after year while the Bucks only won two playoff series from 1998-2018.
1 Bill Russell (St. Louis Hawks)
Yes, the St. Louis Hawks weren’t even in Atlanta when they drafted one of the greatest NBA players of all time. They selected Bill Russell with the second overall pick in 1956 and had they truly known what Russell would bring the Celtics, they wouldn’t have even considered trading him.
Russell was traded to Boston for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan, two players that made no impact on the league, while Bill Russell went on to win 11 NBA Championships and five MVPs with Boston. Russell is a living legend and the greatest Celtic ever, which is no small task.
Whether it’s Leonard, Pippen, Bryant, Nowitzki, Russell or any of the players on this list, the teams that drafted each player probably should have stuck with their choice instead of trading them away.