Tim MacMahon on the OKC Thunder having control of the Clippers' first-round picks: "The league is in a panic"

The Oklahoma City Thunder are 21-1 to start the 2025-26 NBA season. At that pace, the Thunder would finish the regular season with a record-breaking 78 wins. 2025 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is picking up where he left off last year and is having another superb campaign. The team leads the league in Defensive Rating and Net Rating and Jalen Williams has played only three games after missing time out with an injury.

All things considered, the Thunder are favored to repeat as champions this season. But that’s not what makes them a scary team.

We know they are built for the future with the draft picks that Sam Presti has accumulated all these years. However, the Paul George trade has come to light at the start of the 2025-26 season, with how the L.A. Clippers have spiraled downwards. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon says that’s what’s gotten the league in hysteria.

“Sam Presti absolutely thinks that the Clippers should blow it up, because they are going to deliver a lottery pick this year and he wants it as high as possible. They’re going to potentially deliver another lottery pick next year. He’d like that to be as high as possible. The league is in a panic about the Thunder owning the Clippers’ picks these next couple of years – this year outright, next year via swap,” said MacMahon.

Worst trade of all-time?

Many talk about the Dallas Mavericks sending Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers as probably the worst trade of all time. But looking back, another trade by the other Los Angeles team looks worse.

Back when they were courting Kawhi Leonard in 2019, the Clippers needed to get Paul George so that Leonard would sign with them. And so they gave up a young Shai Gilgeous-Alexander plus draft picks to get PG to L.A. Aside from SGA, the Thunder have already gotten Jalen Williams from one of those picks. They still own the Clippers’ 2026 first-round pick, unprotected.

With the Clippers at 5-16 right now, that pick has a Top 6 lottery odds and if L.A. continues to spiral, it could very well move up and get a bigger chance to win the lottery in what is considered a deep Draft Class.

But then that’s not it.

OKC also has a 2027 unprotected pick swap with the Clippers

In 2023, Presti managed to get involved in the Sixers-Clippers trade involving James Harden. Because Philly wanted an extra first-round pick in the deal, L.A. gave the Thunder an unprotected pick swap in 2027 for the least favorable of OKC’s three first-round picks in 2026, which they conveyed to the Sixers to complete the deal.

That means that Presti will have the full power to swap first-round picks with the Clippers in the 2027 NBA Draft. And so if the Clippers’ struggles go past this season, which is likely if they blow things up, it would be OKC who would benefit from that again, via pick swap. So imagine the Thunder adding two high lottery picks in the next two years.

And that’s just from their Clippers transactions only.

On Tuesday, the Clippers announced that they have cut Chris Paul. Although Paul wasn’t a significant contributor to the team, the move clearly showed that the team is in disarray. In the normal course of business, rival teams would want the Clippers to remain in shambles to eliminate them from contending, but this time around, all the other teams want them to fix their issues ASAP because if they don’t, they will only make the Thunder better and more dangerous in the coming years.

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 3, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Tim MacMahon on the OKC Thunder having control of the Clippers’ first-round picks: “The league is in a panic”

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