{"id":781822,"date":"2026-05-08T11:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/781822\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:16:19","slug":"blame-the-clippers-for-creating-this-thunder-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/781822\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame the Clippers for creating this Thunder monster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OKLAHOMA CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Don\u2019t blame the refs, blame the Clippers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They created this monster. They sent it out into the world.<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder, top-seeded in the NBA playoffs for the third consecutive season, are running roughshod over opponents. Kicking everybody\u2019s butts and driving everyone up the wall.<\/p>\n

And, oh, Clippers what did you do?<\/p>\n

This Oklahoma City juggernaut, built to last in an era that would otherwise be remembered for its parity?<\/p>\n

It was spawned on July 6, 2019, when the Clippers traded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and a boatload of draft picks to the Thunder in exchange for Paul George, who they paired with free agent Kawhi Leonard, mortgaging their future on the failed bet that two Southern Californians would lead the franchise to its first NBA title.<\/p>\n

And by a boatload, I mean a battleship-sized boat \u2014 sent to sink the rest of the NBA.<\/p>\n

The defending NBA champions who were built largely through that trade \u2014 in which the Clippers relinquished their first-round pick in 2022, 2024, 2026 plus pick swap rights in 2023 and 2025 \u2014 have the Lakers<\/a> in the blender at present.<\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s 125-107 victory<\/a> Thursday at Paycom Center gave them a 2-0 in the best-of-seven second-round series.<\/p>\n

Undefeated so far this postseason, Oklahoma City soon will dispatch the shorthanded Lakers and then go marching on toward a defense of last year\u2019s NBA championship.<\/p>\n

In 2025, they became the second-youngest team in league history to win it, capping their franchise-record 68-win season. This year, Gilgeous-Alexander likely will repeat as MVP after leading the Thunder to a 64-18 regular-season record.<\/p>\n

SGA, the stylish, maddening, smooth-operating Canadian point guard, is the head of the boa constrictor. And the young, selfless team around him is putting the squeeze on opponents with ridiculous depth, much of it stockpiled via that trade.<\/p>\n

That includes the 2022 first-round pick, which became Oklahoma City\u2019s second-best player, Jalen Williams (who is injured and hasn\u2019t even played in this series). Also, 2023 first-round pick Cason Wallace, an elite defender and efficient offensive contributor, delivered the dagger Thursday with eight fourth-quarter points.<\/p>\n

\"Thunder <\/p>\n

Thunder guard Cason Wallace, right, defends Lakers forward LeBron James, left, during the second half of Game 2.<\/p>\n

(Nate Billings \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

George is now playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, having left the Clippers in free agency in 2024. But they\u2019re still paying the Thunder for his services, which got them only as far as the Western Conference finals in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Thunder definitely don\u2019t need reinforcements, but because the Clippers failed to make the playoffs this season, Oklahoma City will be in play in the draft lottery Sunday \u2014 between Games 3 and 4 \u2014 with a 1.5% chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick, and a 7.1% chance of moving into the top four.<\/p>\n

With that possibility in mind, the Thunder didn\u2019t hesitate to trade another of their 2026 first-round picks (and three future second-rounders) for sharpshooting guard Jared McCain, the Corona kid whose 13 second-half points Thursday were absolute backbreakers.<\/p>\n

So while Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> has talked about limiting the Thunder in those minutes when Gilgeous-Alexander isn\u2019t on the court, forward Rui Hachimura<\/a>has the correct assessment: \u201cWe\u2019ve focused on Shai a lot, but we gotta give these other guys more respect. They\u2019re great players.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is, after all, more than one component to a buzzsaw.<\/p>\n

The Clippers should have imagined it could go like this.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

They were locked in on Leonard, I remember. And the mega trade, as the Clippers saw it, was to get Leonard and George.<\/p>\n

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer \u2014 one of the richest people in the world, valued at $133 billion, according to Forbes \u2014 wanted what he wanted.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no financial expert, but if someone tries to sell you a piece of pie for $28 million \u2014 humbly, I think you should pass.<\/p>\n

Leonard wasn\u2019t going to stay in Toronto, where he\u2019d just led the Raptors to a title. And he wouldn\u2019t have wanted to play second fiddle [or third] to LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Lakers. And he would have been much better off as a Clipper if his team had draft picks to fortify it for the coming seasons and a burgeoning star at point guard.<\/p>\n

Who could\u2019ve known SGA would become a perennial MVP candidate?<\/p>\n

Well, SGA did.<\/p>\n

\u201cMentally, I tell myself every night that I\u2019m the best player on the floor and I want everybody in the arena to know that and feel that,\u201d he said on the NBA\u2019s \u201cPass the Rock\u201d series, not long after he was traded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanna be known as one of the best players to play the game. Watching guys like Kobe growing up, I go to school and the debate is, who\u2019s better, Kobe or LeBron? Who\u2019s better, Kobe or Michael? I want those conversations to be about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine that, this driven personality in a Clippers uniform, a less-reticent star beside Leonard \u2014 and a Thunder team that wasn\u2019t built to absolutely terrorize the league for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Don\u2019t blame the refs, blame the Clippers. They created this monster. They sent it out into the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":781823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[319907,1582,276,193821,7197,103147,46614,2961,8604,13940,88992,224,5337,1268,3525,5950,171758,3371,6001,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-781822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-boatload","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-clipper","12":"tag-clippers","13":"tag-first-round-pick","14":"tag-kobe","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-lakers","17":"tag-last-year","18":"tag-leonard","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","22":"tag-paul-george","23":"tag-season","24":"tag-sga","25":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","26":"tag-thunder","27":"tag-trade"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116538677459921054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}