ESPN takes stock of the most unwise deals in team history

ESPN takes stock of the stupidest deals of each team in team history, including Doncic and Durant Harden being traded on the list!

5. Sacramento Kings The biggest mistake: owning Tyreth Halliburton and De Aaron Fox and then losing them in three years (2022 and 2025)

The Kings face an enviable dilemma in 2022: With Fox, 24 and Halliburton, 21, on their roster, they need to decide whether to build around one or two. They chose one, but they chose the wrong one, and shockingly, Halliburton was replaced by Domantas Sabonis.

For a while, the deal seemed to be a win-win as Halliburton shines in the backcourt of the Pacers, while the Fox Sabonis duo led the Kings to the NBA Best Offensive and No. 3 seed in the Western Conference in the 2022-23 season. This is the team's first playoff game in 17 years.

But Sacramento can only light up for so long, after losing to the Pelicans for 7 points, the Kings missed the 2023-24 playoffs, and then traded the disgruntled Fox in the 2024-25 season to miss the playoffs again.

Just a few years after their best performance in decades, the Kings once again had an inappropriate roster with no clear direction and they had gone from two point guards to zero. Meanwhile, Halliburton led the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals Game 7 for several consecutive years, becoming one of the league’s best passers and key scorers in the process.

4. Brooklyn Nets' biggest mistake: Trade James Harden (2021)

There are too many assumptions that may make Harden's trade go from failure to victory. What if Harden and Kyrie Irving didn’t get injured in the 2021 playoffs? What if Kevin Durant didn’t hit the 3-point line when he tied his opponent with a turn jump shot in Game 7 against the Milwaukee Bucks? What if Irving didn’t reject the COVID-19 vaccine, let the Nets’ three-star experiment come to an abrupt end?

But all of these assumptions went the wrong way, and so did Harden's deal. In exchange for 11/2 dramatic seasons, where the supposed wins are more than the actual wins, the Nets traded Jarrett Allen, Carris Leville, three first-round picks and four swap rights (two of them ended up not exercising).

Houston has used its generous return to draft Tari Ethan and Reed Shepard and helped trade from the Suns to Durant. And more; in later trades, the Nets had to give Houston more draft picks to recoup some of their picks, and once they realized that the Durant Harden-Irving era was over, they needed tanks.

To make matters worse, when Harden asked for a trade in 2022 and the Nets submitted by trading him to Philadelphia, their return was Ben Simmons, who never regained the two-way value that made him the NBA best player in 2020. Simmons averaged 16 points per game while playing for the Sixers, and in the Nets’ fragmented time, he averaged just 6.5 points per game.

3. Milwaukee Bucks Biggest Error: Trade Damian Lillard (2023)

Perhaps more important than any other trade on this list, the Bucks' trade against Lillard seemed smarter at the time. After a shocking 8-1 upset loss to the Heat in the 2023 playoffs, they need to reorganize, their offense needs to be upgraded, and Lillard appears to be the perfect man for Giannis Antetokounmpo – who signed a contract extension shortly after the Bucks traded Jereau Holiday (who was diverted to Boston, where he won the championship), Grayson Allen, a future first-round pick and two exchange rights in exchange for Lillard.

But two main issues mean that not only did the Bucks fail to compete for another title under Lillard, but they didn't win a playoff series. The first problem is that even though both players are healthy, Lillard and Antetokounmpo did not cooperate as theoretically in training. According to GeniusIQ, the two future Hall of Famers have only 20.2 draft picks per 100 possessions, ranking 46th out of 83 pick-and-roll combinations in the past two seasons (at least a total of 500 draft picks).

The second problem is that both players have never been healthy at the most important time (apologize for the Bucks' NBA Cup victory). Antetokounmpo missed all the playoffs in the 2023-24 season, while Lillard missed part of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, which ended his tenure with the Bucks early due to a torn Achilles tendon.

Months after his injury, the Bucks made a surprising decision to give up and extend the remainder of Lillard's contract so they get the necessary ceiling space to sign free agency center Miles Turner. But now the Bucks pay Lillard $22.5 million a year before the 2029-30 season, and they can’t control their first-round picks until 2031.

2. Phoenix Suns Biggest Error: Trade Kevin Durant and Bradley Bill (2023)

Mat Ishbia officially became the new owner of Phoenix on February 7, 2023. Just 24 hours later, the Suns traded Durant for Durant. The so-called new boss syndrome has never been so quickly before: Ishbiya forced his team to give up a lot of deals against Durant — Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jay Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks and a swap — triggered a string of events that nearly destroyed a team that entered the NBA Finals in 2020-21 and won the league’s best 64 games in the 2021-22 season. The problem is not just Durant trade; it is the Suns doubling their bets time and time again, with the odds of winning now with every aspect of the future. That summer, Phoenix traded Chris Paul for Bradley Bill, who had no deal terms and had more than $200 million left in the contract.

In their final season with the Phoenix Suns, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal averaged 26.6 points and 17.0 points per game, respectively. The total cost of Durant and Bill, including the additional draft picks Brooklyn and Washington received when replacing Bridge, Johnson and Paul, is 12 first-round picks and six swaps, plus the unusual punishment caused by the NBA's most expensive roster to date and the second apron.

So what about the rewards of all these radical spending? Durant lost the second round of the playoffs in his first season, and swept the first round of the second season (Bill’s first), ranking 11th in the Western Conference last season.

Now Durant is traded away at a price that is much lower than what brings him to Phoenix; Bill has been bought out and extended, and will be included in the Suns' cap of $19.4 million in the next five years; the Suns won't control their first-round pick until 2032. In the NBA, no team is in a worse situation than Phoenix.

1. Dallas The biggest mistake: Trading Luca Doncic (2025)

Will any other trade be number one? The latest entry on this list is also the worst and perhaps the most shocking deal in NBA history.

The other trades at the top of this list are mostly about teams trading too many assets to introduce stars. Instead, the Doncic trade happened when a team traded a beloved current star who led the group to the Finals the previous summer and was named to the NBA All-Squad for a record five times before the age of 24.

Because the Mavericks' collapse after Doncic in 2024-25 meant they ended up in the lottery, where they miraculously lucky to have the first pick and Cooper Flag, their future looks brighter than the Suns, Bucks, Nets or Kings. Flag and Anthony Davis – Dallas’s return to Doncic’s core – could lead Dallas back to the battle at a pace.

But there is only one deal in this century that it has raised questions about whether ESPN’s Shams Charania’s social media account was hacked when it reported the matter. Only one deal is so ridiculous that it becomes a flash memory, and fans around the world will remember where they were when they heard the news in the coming decades. Most importantly, only one deal was so outrageous that it sparked a massive revolt from its fan base.

What's more important than anything else is why Doncic trades ranked No. 1: It goes beyond typical trading reactions and penetrates the hearts of sports fans. This requires a special mistake once in a century.