Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trade details: Revisiting the Thunder-Clippers blockbuster that sent MVP candidate to OKC

Before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was one of the best players in the league, he was a headliner in a trade that shook the entire NBA landscape.

During the summer of 2019, the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George in an attempt to form a dynamic duo on a championship team. At the time, Leonard had just led the Raptors to their first NBA title and was one of the most sought-after players in the NBA, while George was Leonard's hand-chosen running mate.

In order to sign Leonard, Los Angeles agreed on a mega-trade with the Thunder to add George, which included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander heading to Oklahoma City. Gilgeous-Alexander was coming off his rookie season as the 11th-overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and produced a solid first year in the league.

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While the trade included way more than Gilgeous-Alexander, the point guard became the biggest piece that the Thunder received by breaking out to become an MVP-caliber player. Los Angeles, meanwhile, was unable to live up to the expectations they received when they acquired Leonard and George.

Here's a look back at the trade that sent Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder for George.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trade revisited

Clippers receive:

• Paul George

Thunder receive:

• Shai Geilgeous-Alexander
• Danilo Gallinari
• 2021 first-round pick (Tre Mann)
• 2022 first-round pick (Jalen Williams)
• 2023 protected first-round pick, via Heat (Jaime Jacquez Jr.)
• 2023 first-round pick swap
• 2024 first-round pick (Dillon Jones)
• 2025 first-round pick swap
• 2026 first-round pick

When the Thunder traded George to the Clippers in the summer of 2019, Oklahoma City got a haul in return, headlined by Gilgeous-Alexander and a slew of draft picks. At the time, Gilgeous-Alexander was coming off a solid rookie season but was not considered the type of star that George would provide as a complement to Kawhi Leonard.

Besides getting Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder received a slew of picks that are still paying off. In 2022, using the Clippers pick, Oklahoma City drafted Jalen Williams with pick No. 12 overall, and Williams is currently the team's second-best player next to Gilgeous-Alexander. In three NBA seasons, the young shooting guard has averaged 18.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, and is coming off a career-best season in 2024-25.

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Besides Williams, the Thunder took Tre Mann in 2021 but traded him midway through his third season. Then, the 2024 first-round pick was traded multiple times, but resulted in Oklahoma City getting the pick back and taking Dillon Jones, who played 54 games in his rookie season.

In 2023, the Thunder had two chances to get a first-round pick from this deal, but one was a protected-pick that reverted back to the Heat, with which Miami took Jaime Jacquez, and another was a pick swap that didn't convert since Los Angeles had a better record than Oklahoma City the year prior.

Moving forward, the Thunder have two more chances to get value from this deal, a 2025 pick swap that is sure to convert and a 2026 unprotected first-round pick.

Why did the Clippers trade Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?

Part of the reason for this trade was to appease Leonard, as the free agent had long wanted to play with George, dating back to their tenures with the Spurs and Pacers, respectively.

"The idea started probably me playing in San Antonio and him being on the Pacers. I was trying to get San Antonio to get him over with us," Leonard told ESPN at the time. "You know how things work with trades. He ended up to the Thunder, probably had a better package for him. That's probably when the initial idea started — when he wanted to get out of Indiana."

George had spent two seasons with the Thunder, first on an expiring deal in 2017-18 then on the first year of a four-year, $137 million deal in 2018-19. In those two years, George had averaged 25.0 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists and was named to back-to-back All-Star and All-NBA teams.

However, despite the Clippers' willingness to go all-in on Leonard and George, Los Angeles' decision to give up so much of their future for George was still met with criticism, largely due to the amount of draft capital the team traded. And, in the half-decade since that trade, the move has aged even worse, as it fueled the Thunder's rebuild while George couldn't lead the Clippers beyond one Western Conference finals appearance.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rookie year stats

Here's a look at Gilgeous-Alexander's stats the year before he was traded to the Thunder:

• Games: 82
• PPG: 10.8
• RPG: 2.8
• APG: 3.3
• SPG: 1.2
• BPG: 0.5
• FG%: 47.6%
• 3P%: 36.7%
• FT%: 80.0 %

Gilgeous-Alexander would finish sixth in rookie-of-the-year voting that season, setting a foundation for him to grow in years to come. Most recently, the point guard has averaged over 30 points per game in three-straight seasons, which includes a league-leading 32.7 points per game in 2024-25.