“We only needed one more guy” – Patrick Beverley says the Clippers lost SGA because Kawhi thought he needed more help originally appeared on Basketball Network.
In July 2019, the L.A. Clippers infamously traded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George. At that time, it looked like a solid deal because George would give incoming star Kawhi Leonard the support he needed to take the Clippers to the top. But after watching Gilgeous-Alexander turn into the best player in the NBA right now, the Clippers probably wish they never made the trade.
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Former Clippers guard Patrick Beverley thinks that the Clippers had no intention of trading SGA. However, because Kawhi wanted to make sure he got help when he got to L.A. he made the Clippers go after PG before he signed with them.
“I think it was Kawhi, too. I think coming in, you get these star guys. I think that they think they need more help than what they really need. Outside looking in, Kawhi probably didn’t know the makeup of our team. And honestly, after that year we took Golden State six games, we starting two rookies, we only needed one more guy. We only needed ‘the guy,'” said Beverley.
They gave up too much to acquire George
The Clippers were trying to sign Kawhi Leonard that offseason. However, Kawhi did not want to commit to the Clippers if he did not have a superstar tandem there.
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And so Leonard asked the Clippers to go after SoCal native Paul George, which they did. But in doing so, the Clippers surrendered Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, and a pick swap.
According to Beverley, they were thrilled to have two superstars added to their team. However, if it were only up to him, they only needed one – the main guy, because they already had a solid core at hand.
“‘The Guy’ added with Gallinari, Shai, Sham, me, Lou, and Trez like we was happy as fu– like ‘Damn, we got Paul George, too.’ Like this is going to be even more crazy. We were just thinking like ‘Man, we get one main guy, it’s a wrap next year,'” added Pat Bev.
The Clippers overachieved in 2018-19
The 2018-19 Clippers team was led by Lou Will’s 20.0 points scoring average. He was adequately backed up by Gallinari who averaged 19.8 points and 6.1 rebounds and Montrezl Harrell’s 16.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. They also acquired SGA’s fellow rookie Landry Shamet midseason in the Tobias Harris deal.
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Their starting lineup of SGA, Shamet, Pat Bev, “Big Zu,” and Gallo posted an impressive 15-2 record in 17 games. They finished the season with a 44-38 record and were the 8th seed in the West. Although they were eliminated in the first round by the Golden State Warriors, Beverley said all they needed was that leader and superstar.
Kawhi was the perfect choice since he was coming off winning the 2019 NBA championship for Toronto and a Californian. However, he forced the Clippers to give up young assets so that he could take PG with him. Unfortunately for them, one of the players they gave up was rookie SGA and one of the first-round picks they surrendered became Jalen Williams.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams became OKC’s 1-2 punch and last Sunday, they led the Thunder to a Game 7 win for their first NBA title. Meanwhile, the Clippers let George walk away in free agency last summer. They are still looking for their first NBA title.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 24, 2025, where it first appeared.