Ah, terrible trades. The lifeblood of true sicko NBA fandom. Where would I be if I couldn’t laugh with my friends about how stupid the Phoenix Suns were for trading for Bradley Beal? How could I enjoy the fruits of life if there weren’t five different terrible James Harden transactions to unpack?
There’s nothing quite like a true gobsmackingly idiotic trade, especially ones we clock in real time. Number one on this list, the Luka Dončić trade (I know, shocking), was so bad that the results were irrelevant to how bad the trade was. There was no dissenting opinion; no zag, just a universal understanding that this was the dumbest thing anyone had ever done.
Most trades, though, are terrible in hindsight, and NBA front offices are full of intelligent people who do not just make stupid decisions because they are stupid. They … are not stupid, and the way things play out is not their fault or your fault or my fault — it’s just how the cookie crumbles. Sometimes, it crumbles all over your $12,000 Versace shirt and permanently stains your Balenciaga slippers. Such is life.
Methodology note: this is a ranking, and I am legitimately trying to say these are the worst 25 in the order that I’ve ranked them, but I do have a bit of a modernist bias as you’ll see. Trades today are very sophisticated, and we treat first-round picks very differently than we used to. These are thus my worst 25 trades in NBA history, not anyone elses, and while I am playing most of the hits, I did leave a few off that you might be thinking “WOAAAAH where is the Dennis Rodman trade?” For that, and others, I’m sorry.
Also, a phrasing note: the tiles of these trades are intentional. What is “bad” about these trades is in the title, and so the team doing the bad thing is always the first team in the title. If the return matters to the point I’m making, it’ll be in the headline, but it doesn’t often matter. Often times, the centerpiece of the trade is the main issue.
25. Bucks trade for Damian Lillard (2023)
This could be higher and could be taken off the list completely. It was totally defensible in the moment, and nobody blamed them (that much) for trying to upgrade their Giannis window, but also it led to two of the most singularly damaging moments in franchise history: the Damian Lillard waive-and-stretch/Myles Turner contract, one of the worst franchise decisions ever in my opinion, and the ensuing Giannis Antetokounmpo trade saga, from which they essentially got a mediocre return for one of the 20 greatest players of all time. This trade also accidentally rerouted Jrue Holiday to the Boston Celtics, their main rivals, which effectively won Boston the following year’s NBA championship. Whoops.
24. Kings trade Tyrese Haliburton to Pacers for Domantas Sabonis (2022)
I’ll always remember the dueling reactions to this trade when it happened from the media and from Sacramento Kings Reddit, where the “about” section currently reads “Basketball Hell!”: a lot of us thought in the moment this was a decent trade for both sides. Sabonis was a good player and someone a lot of the analytics nerds liked. He’s a great rebounder, could shoot and run an offense as a real engine. The Kings still had De’Aaron Fox, and they didn’t really have much use for a younger ball-dominant guard. The trade made sense … but not to Kings Reddit, which felt the trade was the worst thing ever and that they had just sold a future Hall of Famer down the river for reasonably tasty bag of potato chips.
They were right. Sabonis is still a good player, but Haliburton proved to be the kind of franchise-elevator that the Kings sorely need right now. Would he have gotten there in “Basketball Hell”? Who knows, but it’s the kind of trade you just don’t get over, on Reddit or in real life.
23. Cavaliers trade Kyrie Irving to Celtics (2017)
This is one of the singular fleeces of our generation and isn’t talked about nearly enough just because the Celtics never won a title with Irving. Isaiah Thomas has basically two great years but was also 5’9” and constantly injured — the Cavaliers just said “sure” and shipped Irving, probably the best point guard in the Eastern Conference, to the Celtics for Thomas and one first-round pick. The Celtics effectively had a superteam one year later, and the Cavaliers had … nothing.
The Kyrie Era in Boston ended badly, and everyone in Boston remembers Isaiah Thomas fondly while thinking of Kyrie like a bit of a villain. But Irving was a wildly superior player to Thomas in every way, and Danny Ainge destroyed the Cavs in this trade.
22. Thunder trade Harden to Rockets (2012)
Ya’ll aren’t ready for the number of James Harden trades in the next four entries, and it’s not one, not two, not three … Starting us off with the OG Harden deal and the last time anyone made fun of anything Sam Presti did, the Thunder felt Harden was superfluous to their squad and turned him into Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin and some picks which would eventually become Steven Adams. It’s not great.
I will defend the Harden Rockets until the day I die as a misunderstood team that gets made fun of by the mainstream media who overrates championship rings and underrates the avant-garde hoops that team was trying to play. What, you want every team ever to just look like the Showtime Lakers or the 2016 Warriors or the Tim Duncan Spurs? I kinda liked how aggressive the Harden Rockets were, and this trade made that team.
21. Nets trade for James Harden (2021)
Second Harden trade time, and maybe the single worst one. The Nets decided to triple (quadruple?) down on their Kyrie/Kevin Durant core with a James Harden trade that made them on paper one of the best teams of the century before Harden played count ‘em 80 TOTAL GAMES for the Nets; that’s not even a full season! It cost them three first-round picks, Caris LeVert and (I heard Bill Simmons say this once) they threw in Jarrett Allen like a free set of tires. This trade is why the Cavaliers currently have Jarrett Allen. The trade that sent James Harden from the Houston Rockets to the Brooklyn Nets.
It also led to our next trade, which isn’t worse … in a vacuum, but the fact that it came AFTER this trade makes in downright franchise-destroying.
20. Nets trade Harden to 76ers for Ben Simmons (2022)
After a crisp 80 games played over not-even-two NBA seasons, Harden quit on the Nets and was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for two first-round picks and Ben Simmons. Not only did they no longer have James Harden, but they also acquired Simmons, who himself basically became the world’s longest-expiring contract in that it took several years to finally expire. This trade was the death knell for the Brooklyn Nets as a franchise, and ended their tenure as a team to be taken seriously … probably forever. With the Knicks, who share their city, finally winning a championship? It might be time to move.
19. Clippers trade for James Harden (2023)
Our final Harden trade sees him depart like the grim reaper from every team he touches, as once his Clippers tenure ended (I didn’t put the Cavaliers trade on here because it’s not bad … yet) it became clear the Clippers were a fraudulent enterprise and had their entire draft future seized. This trade sent a bunch of nothing to the 76ers, but it crucially rerouted two Clippers picks that I bet they’d love to have right about now: one to Philly, and one, 2027, to the Oklahoma City Thunder. That could be quite the pick.
18. Pelicans trade unprotected first-round pick for Derik Queen pick (2025)
This is probably a reach, but this is one of the most inexplicable trades in NBA history. For the uninitiated: during the 2025 NBA draft, the New Orleans Pelicans traded up 10 spots with the Hawks from the 23rd to the 13th pick to select Derik Queen, who’s a solid player. To facilitate this trade, they attached their Pick 23 and their UNPROTECTED 2026 FIRST-ROUND PICK which is not something they should have done. The Hawks apparently were so shocked they repeatedly had to clarify with the Pelicans that the pick was unprotected, literally asking multiple times over the phone to make sure they were serious. That pick turned into the eighth overall pick in the 2026 draft, which became Kingston Flemings.
17. 76ers trade Andre Iguodala for Andrew Bynum (2012)
This trade is also known as the Dwight Howard trade, which sent D12 from Orlando to Los Angeles, but the 76ers subplot contained within it was the real disaster. Philadelphia traded Iguodala, a legitimately premium player at the time and one of the better defenders in the league, for Bynum, which seemed like a good idea … until knee injuries kept him out of the one season he was under contract for and then he left for the Cavaliers in free agency. Remember kids: never trade for a center with knee problems when they only have one year left on their contract.
16. 76ers trade Jayson Tatum pick for Markelle Fultz pick (2017)
I feel bad about this one because I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault. I do legitimately believe Markelle Fultz would have been good in the NBA had he not suffered a freak shoulder injury or if it hadn’t been handled so poorly, but here we are. The Celtics, who had the number one pick in the draft from our number two trade on this list (Tradeception), dealt the rights to Fultz and selected Jayson Tatum instead, the All-NBA leader of a championship team, future Hall of Famer and the last man ever to wear number 0 in Boston. Fultz, meanwhile, basically never played for Philadelphia and had a tragic career. There’s really not much else to say.
15. Suns trade for Bradley Beal (2023)
This is one of the few trades that are in the Luka Doncic-tier of “we knew this was bad while it was happening.” Beal is not Luka, so it’s not higher, but when the Suns said “screw it” and traded four first-round swaps to the Wizards for Bradley Beal I’m pretty sure I said “oh no!” out loud in my college dorm.
The Suns currently have one of the (if not the single) bleakest futures of any franchise, and it’s all totally self-inflicted. Beal’s contract that they traded for contained a full no-trade clause, and it became clear two years in that he was completely, 100 percent worthless. They couldn’t trade him, so they just bought him out and admitted they had traded their entire draft future for nothing. At least Kevin Durant was good when he played for them.
14. 76ers trade Charles Barkley to Suns (1992)
Finally some older trades! Barkley made his way to Phoenix after demanding a move from Philly, and the 76ers got Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry in return. Not exactly a palace heist, but this was before the era where you could demand a team’s entire draft future as a realistic return, and GMs still valued players above all else. Barkley immediately won MVP his first season in Phoenix, and the 76ers walked away with … uh, trading Jeff Hornacek to the Jazz, eventually. You could do wor — actually, I’m not sure you could do worse.
13. Jazz “trade” Magic Johnson pick to Lakers (1976)
I’ve seen this “trade” misreported everywhere on the internet, because it wasn’t a trade, per se, though by our modern definitions it would be considered as such. The Utah Jazz signed Gail Goodrich away from the Lakers in 1976, but because free agency wasn’t yet the kind of unrestricted thing it is today, the NBA forced the Jazz to give up compensatory draft picks, including their 1979 first-round pick … which turned out to be number one overall … which turned out to be Magic Johnson.
Arguments can be made that Magic is the most important draft pick in the history of the league and perhaps in the history of professional sports. He revolutionalized the league skillfully, artistically and professionally, and reinvented what superstars could demand financially to craft what the modern celebrity athlete has become. And it all could have been for Utah had they not signed Gail Goodrich in 1976.
12. Jazz trade Dominique Wilkens to Hawks for cash (1982)
Oh no, the Jazz are back just one spot later! This is a truly appalling trade, and one of those “it was a different time” situations where we have to acknowledge that cash flow issues were real in the early-1980s NBA. Wilkens was drafted by Utah third overall but didn’t want to play for the Jazz, didn’t want to live in Utah and didn’t want to play power forward, apparently, so the financially troubled Jazz traded him for essentially $1 million. It’s sort of like a miniature Babe Ruth situation, as the Red Sox owner famously sold Baseball’s GOAT for cash. It’s also one of those stories that would make a Jazz fan who has to endure that Magic Johnson story from above and all the Michael Jordan sadness from the late 1990s sink ever-deeper into the despair of the current era.
11. SuperSonics trade Scottie Pippen to Bulls (1987)
Another draft-night trade (we’re going to see some more of those), the Bulls traded eighth-pick Olden Polynice and a future pick that became Jeff Sanders for Pippen in a masterstroke that feels more like a called-shot than anything else. “Hey, we wanted the guy you took fifth, how about our guy plus a future first for your guy?” Sometimes that’s a bad idea. Other times, it’s Scottie Pippen.
I debated how many of these draft night heists I should include, because obviously there have been infinitely many of these that haven’t worked out and these are the ultimate hindsighters. But hindsight is where the past happens to live, and there’s only so much I can do about that.
10. Warriors Trade Wilt Chamberlain to 76ers (1965)
It’s always tough when you trade the guy who at one point averaged 50 points per game for you and then he immediately wins three straight MVPs for another team. Talking about anything Wilt-related in concert with other players and eras is basically impossible since his stats are so outlandish relative to everything else, but he won two championships after the trade (one after a second trade) and none before. If only we had podcasts back then.
9. Warriors trade Robert Parish and Kevin McHale pick to Celtics (1980)
This one is an all-time “watch this” move from a GM. With the number one pick in the draft, Celtics GM Red Auerbach chose to deal it to the Warriors for Robert Parish and the third pick, which turned out to be Kevin McHale — basically, it’s the Tatum-Fultz trade except the Celtics got Jaylen Brown in that trade too. Truly all-time stuff.
With the number one pick, the Warriors picked Joe Barry Carroll, who didn’t have the greatest NBA career evidenced mainly by the fact that his nickname tab on Basketball-Reference includes the moniker “Joe Barely Cares” and he spent a year of his prime in Italy. He actually was an All-Star on the Warriors, but he wasn’t Robert Parish or Kevin McHale. Not even a little bit.
8. Hawks trade Bill Russell to Celtics (1956)
How often does a team trade for two Hall of Famers and it gets called “one of the worst trades of all time?” Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan, the return the Hawks got for Bill Russell, were great players in the grand scheme of things. Both Hall of Famers, multi-time All-NBA, were actually on the St. Louis Hawks team that beat the Celtics in the 1958 Finals. But Russell was … uh, Bill Russell, winner of 11 NBA championships and bringer of doom to an entire generation of NBA players who he did not allow to win. The most singularly successful NBA player ever. I don’t care how many Hall of Famers you got.
7. Hornets trade Kobe Bryant to Lakers on draft night (1996)
Apparently, the Hornets never themselves considered drafting Kobe Bryant, given how rare prep-to-pro was in 1996, and the Lakers instructed the Hornets to take him as the trade was already done. It’s also surprising that we’ve all heard of the guy the Hornets got back for Kobe given how bad some of the returns have been on this list: Vlade Divac, and he even had an All-Star season on Sacramento a bit later in his career. But Kobe is Kobe, and the Hornets could have just told the Lakers to shove it and taken Bryant themselves. Despite what may have happened, there is no indication that Kobe would not have played for the Hornets if taken. I wouldn’t really feel all that bad about this as a Hornets fan, but I would still be annoyed at former management. Just because.
6. Bucks trade Dirk Nowitzki to Mavericks on draft night (1998)
This one is rough for the Bucks. Sometimes these draft day trades are preordained like Kobe above, but they drafted Dirk Nowitzki with the ninth pick and then immediately traded him for someone who had already been drafted, a guy named Robert Traylor drafted sixth who was a colossal bust. Nowitzki is, of course, one of the greatest players of all time and an iconic figure of international basketball — he arguably began a movement of European players that has begun to dominate the game. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic all owe something to Dirk.
5. Nets trade Julius Erving to 76ers for cash (1976)
Ah, the good old cash trade. Nothing is missed less in the sports ecosystem than just selling an all-time great player because your team needs money for some reason, like the Nets did pre-merger because they needed to pay TERRITORIAL FEES to be in New York with the Knicks. Dr. J was arguably the single best player in the NBA in 1976, and the Nets traded him for $3 million. If teams ever start doing that again, that will be the death of American sports as we know it it. There will be no coming back.
4. Clippers trade Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, entire draft future for Paul George (2019)
Okay, time to lock in for the final four. In the moment, I don’t just think this trade was defensible; I think it was actually good — not only was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander mostly an unknown quantity, this trade also enabled the Clippers to sign Kawhi Leonard and basically become the favorites in the West overnight. It was one of the craziest days of my NBA life, and Paul George was one of the best players in the world at that point, we all thought so.
But holy hell has this trade aged like a milk in a nuclear reactor. The Clippers obviously achieved nothing, cheated to re-sign Leonard and now have no draft picks until the heat death of the universe, Paul George is on the Celtics two teams later and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a two-time MVP and an NBA champion after becoming one of the better scoring guards we’ve ever seen. No one saw this coming. But come it did.
3. Bucks trade Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Lakers (1975)
Probably the single most important trade in the history of basketball. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar getting to Los Angeles along with Magic Johnson would eventually define the 1980s and set the axis of the NBA alongside Boston. There was no one like Kareem anywhere in the world, and the Bucks wouldn’t have another player like him until Giannis Antetokounmpo 50 years later. It doesn’t even feel right to evaluate the trade from a basketball perspective, since it was basically a cultural event.
Sappiness aside, the trade was terrible for the Bucks. Not that the 1975 Lakers had a lot to give, but wouldn’t it have been nice if the Bucks somehow got the Magic Johnson pick from that? They of course got it from Utah, but like … basketball gods? Hello?
2. Nets trade entire draft future, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown picks to Celtics for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce (2013)
You could argue this is almost 15 spots too high, but hear me out: I think this trade set the market on what NBA trading has become, and teams have been chasing this exact trade ever since it happened to essentially no avail. Because there will never be another Pierce/KG trade. There can only ever be one.
The Nets trading their future to Boston for two past-their-prime superstars was a risk, but they didn’t pay for it like a risk. They paid like it was a slam dunk, and the result was a historical earthquake in the other direction: Boston had their unprotected first-round picks in 2016 and 2017, two top-three selections that became Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, two probable Hall of Famers that led Boston to the 2024 championship.
Teams have been trading aging stars for speculative picks ever since trying to capture this high, but no team will ever be this stupid again. All picks are cleverly protected now, and teams just don’t expose themselves to the type of unmitigated calamity that the Nets became because of this trade. It’s also just so unlikely because of the lottery that one team gets such high selections, but it happened. It is almost impossible to do worse than that.
1. Mavericks trade Luka Dončić to Lakers (2025)
The GBTOAT (Greatest Bad Trade of All Time) and it’s not even close, regardless of sport, regardless of era, regardless of philosophical framework, regardless of anything and everything that we hold dear. Nothing can top this.
I did not believe the Luka Trade was real for 11 minutes. It wasn’t until ESPN came back from their protracted commercial break from setting up whatever emergency Sportcenter I guess they were preparing at 11 p.m. that I accepted it was real. The Mavericks traded Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis and a single first-round pick — a flabbergasting underpay for one of the best young players the league had ever seen. Just over one year later, everyone and everything involved with the trade had been fired or rerouted and the team had completely reset around Cooper Flagg. It was like Luka had never existed, that whole era expunged from time by the Men in Black.
Rather than give you one of the many reasons this is the stupidest thing anyone has ever done in the history of sports and arguably all of human existence, I’m going to give you the best take I heard in the 1.5 years since the day of reckoning, from Chuck Klosterman on a Bill Simmons podcast: basically, he understands Nico Harrison’s decision to trade Luka, because if you think you are going to win the Finals this year if you have Anthony Davis, then you make the trade. You can disagree with the belief that you win the Finals with that team, but if Nico Harrison believed that, you can’t fault him for making the trade. One of the greatest zags in the history of sports takesmanship, and with that, I leave you.
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