In 2011, after going 37-45 and making their first playoff appearance since 2006, the Indiana Pacers found themselves with the 15th pick in the upcoming NBA draft. They went on to draft Kawhi Leonard, a long, athletic wing out of San Diego State who possessed strong rebounding skills and unlimited defensive potential.
However, the Pacers drafted small forward Paul George 10th overall the year prior and 27-year-old forward Danny Granger had already established himself as the best player on the team. So, rather than create a log jam at his position, Indiana traded the rights to Leonard to the San Antonio Spurs for point guard George Hill as well as the rights to Dāvis Bertāns and Erazem Lorbek.
We all know how things turned out for Leonard as he would go on to win the 2014 NBA Finals MVP for the Spurs, become a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, and is now one of the best two-way players in the entire league.
In Indiana, Paul George would develop into a star himself, averaging over 20 points per game in three separate seasons for the Pacers.
In the 2019 offseason, the two California-born stars seized the chance to team up as they both joined the L.A. Clippers. As of this writing, the Leonard-George combo has been successful as the Clippers are sitting with a 17-7 record despite George missing the first 11 games due to an injury.
But how different would things have been if Indiana decided not to trade Leonard in 2011? Would today's NBA landscape be completely different?
The Pacers of the early 2010s were a scrappy, defensive powerhouse and were a win or two away from competing for an NBA championship.
Led by a core of George, David West, Hill, Lance Stephenson, and 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert, the Pacers, guided by head coach Frank Vogel, had the NBA's top defense in both 2013 and 2014. Add in Leonard, who had already established himself as one of the best young defenders in the league and the Pacers defense could have been downright scary.
The Pacers were eliminated by the Big Three of the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals in six games in 2012 and seven games a year later.
Stephenson and George did their best to contain the power duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade but in the end, the Heat were just too much.
LeBron, in particular, cut through the Pacers defense with ease during the 2013 East Finals, averaging 29 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game while shooting over 50 percent from the field.
Maybe with Leonard on the roster, the Pacers would've gotten past the Heat in the East; maybe Leonard and George would not have left for L.A. since they're already together; James might have left for Hollywood early instead of returning to Cleveland. It's impossible to tell because the fact is, it didn't happen.
We get to see how the duo works now but the NBA was a different world back in the early 2010s and without the trade on draft night in 2011, the landscape of the league would certainly be altered today.
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