Why did the Boston Celtics get backlash for acquiring Paul George? Well, besides the fact that they traded Jaylen Brown to get him, George is not the player he used to be. From a talent perspective, the Celtics downgraded. Even so, they didn't make the worst deal a team ever has for George.
That would be the Los Angeles Clippers. They have gotten even more flak than Boston ever has because trading for George not only stripped them of their draft picks from 2022 to 2026, but because Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was sent to OKC in the deal, who have since won a title and are not slowing down any time soon.
That was already bad enough, but in that context alone, it's only a bad trade in hindsight because George was at his peak (finished top-3 in MVP voting the year before) and there was no way of knowing how good SGA was going to be.
But today, it just got even worse.
Kawhi punishment makes George trade even worse
For anyone who doesn't know by now, the NBA FINALLY handed down the Clippers their punishment for the Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration scandal. ESPN's Shams Charania revealed everything they lost from the whole ordeal.
BREAKING: The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in for salary cap circumvention investigations on Kawhi Leonard after yearlong probe -- stripping the franchise of 5 first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer and suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence… pic.twitter.com/JCV5bI88BE
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 2, 2026
This is great news for the Celtics because of the draft swap the Clippers owe them as a result of the George trade they made two months ago. However, when you look at everything that happened, they just lost even more picks thanks to their George trade in the long run.
They don't get Kawhi in the first place if they don't get George, as he was part of the deluxe package. Plain and simple. Now, they are officially the most helpless team in the NBA because of their actions from over seven years ago.
There's no telling what's to come of the Brown trade, but times like these shows why it could be so much worse for the Celtics. It's one thing for the George trade to effectively blow up in the Clippers' face, but then they made their bed when they decided to break the rules, and now they're paying the piper.
They have created one of the worst situations an NBA team has ever done to itself when, at the time, everyone thought they won big when they brought in Leonard and George. Some Celtics fans may never get over that they traded Brown for George, but they should at least take solace in the fact that their future is still very much bright, compared to the Clippers, which is pretty bleak for the foreseeable future.
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