Each NBA team’s best trade in franchise history

Indiana Pacers

Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis for Paul George to OKC (2017)

This one’s a bit more recent than the others, but it’s worth mentioning due to the expectations that many placed on this team after this trade went down.

Here’s how it started: after realizing that 1) he wouldn’t qualify for a supermax contract and 2) he wasn’t likely to win a title playing for the mid-market Indiana Pacers for the rest of his career, Paul George requested a trade away from the team that took him with the 10th overall pick in 2010.

The California native’s primary choice was to go to his hometown Los Angeles Lakers, but with the Lakers opting to wait until George hit the open market once the final year of his contract ended, the Pacers instead traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that was desperate for a co-star for the Russell Westbrook show.

In return, Indiana received then-budding Victor Oladipo and promising big man Domantas Sabonis. With those two joining an already meh roster, most thought that these Pacers would finish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference in 2017-18.

Well, that didn’t happen. Oladipo put in a ton of work that offseason and his career-best .155 WS/48 showed that it paid off. Sabonis also became a sturdy contributor off the bench and their efforts pushed the pacers to 48 wins — the same as the Thunder — and a surprise playoff spot. The team appeared to improve the following season and were on track to finish as a top seed before Oladipo suffered a season-ending quadriceps injury.

Still, the trade showed that tanking isn’t always the quickest path to competitiveness.