Feb. 5, 2026, 2:30 p.m. CT
Reviewing all of the moves made at the 2026 NBA trade deadline, the Oklahoma City Thunder won the biggest blockbuster of this year’s extravaganza — and Sam Presti didn’t even need to pick up the phone.
Blindsiding the NBA world, the LA Clippers pulled the plug. The hottest team in the league for the last month zagged as they had a garage sale for their two biggest trade assets.
They shocked the basketball universe when they quickly shipped James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Darius Garland and a second-round pick. Yep, that’s it. The reasoning is still not fully crystal clear, but some sense of not wanting to hand him another bag is why. LA doesn’t want any long-term financial commitments as it eyes 2027 as a fresh start.
With Garland, they get a chance to see if he can discover his All-Star level in a new environment. A nagging toe injury has sidelined him for most of the season. The Cavaliers slowly realized they couldn’t depend on him for a hopeful playoff run. While Harden is a decade older with thousands more miles, he’s reliable to be on the floor.
It’s a decent gamble if you’re LA — at least for the long-term season. This season, not so much. Garland continues to be hampered by his toe. To the point that he was talking to the Cavaliers about wearing shoe plates when he eventually returned. Yikes. Not something you want to hear.
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And if you were confused about LA’s motivation, they made it obvious on Thursday — they dealt Ivica Zubac to the Indiana Pacers for Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson and a couple of first-round picks.
That’s gotta hurt if you’re LA. Zubac is one of your most successful developmental stories. Coming in as an afterthought from the Los Angeles Lakers, he played his way to being an advanced analytics darling who received some All-NBA whispers this year.
So, what does this all mean for the Thunder? Well, I think most folks know.
The 2026 first-round pick. The Thunder have swap rights with the Clippers. They acquired it in the 2019 Paul George blockbuster deal that has aged into the NBA’s parallel of the Herschel Walker trade that most NFL historians view as the jumping-off point of the Dallas Cowboys’ dynasty.
The Clippers gifted the Thunder Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. The Gen Z Jordan-Pippen duo brought home one NBA championship to OKC in 2025. And it could add more — especially if the 2026 first-round pick ends up high in the lottery.
That was one of the more prevalent storylines through the first one-third of the 2025-26 regular season. Sitting at 6-21, the Clippers were on their way to giving OKC AJ Dybantsa. A historic 16-3 run had them at a respectable 22-24 record a month later. Unreal.
Kawhi Leonard looked like his vintage self. He morphed into an efficient 27-point machine. Harden played some of his best basketball of the twilight stage of his career. He was a steady floor that kept LA at least competent on offense. And then Zubac eventually shook off a slow start to his season.
We can now safely say none of that mattered. The Clippers stuck to their guns. They pivoted from a possible fun play-in tournament and Round 1 exit to a full-on teardown. For what reasons? Who knows. And what was the point of keeping them for two-thirds of the year instead of moving them earlier this past offseason? Your guess is as good as mine.
But OKC doesn’t care. A lottery pick is now back on the menu. The Clippers sit at a modest 12th place in the reverse standings, but are only four games back from the seventh-best lottery odds. And considering how much the league has flattened the lottery odds in recent years, that should be good enough to at least give LA a fair shot at jumping up on lottery night.
When Presti made the franchise-altering decision to deal George, he had the long-term vision and job security to wait things out. That’s a luxury you never see in a win-now business like the NBA. Seven years later, you’re seeing why OKC’s patient and disciplined approach has laid the groundwork for a potential basketball dynasty. The rich get richer.