What if Clippers never traded the pick that became Kyrie Irving?

On June 23, 2011, the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted point guard and astronomy enthusiast Kyrie Irving with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. He went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award and an NBA title with the Cavaliers, make six All-Star teams and play for three different teams.  

But the career path for Kyrie, now with the Brooklyn Nets, would have been totally different if it weren’t for a deadline trade in 2011. Follow along ... if you dare.

On Feb. 24, 2011, the Cavaliers sent Mo Williams and Jamario Moon to the Clippers in exchange for Baron Davis and an unprotected lottery pick — that became No. 1 when the 32-50 Clippers jumped up to the top pick. Overall, the deal changed the futures of at least three franchises and countless superstars, ended Cleveland’s 52-year title drought and indirectly led to the Clippers’ ownership change. Not bad for a salary dump.

Clippers’ GM Neil Olshey had one main goal when it came to this deal: Get rid of Davis and the two years and $28 million left on his contract. Williams was a nice enough player to play point alongside Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Davis? Well, former owner Donald Sterling had started heckling him during games. Little did the Clippers know that the NBA would let teams dump bad contracts via the amnesty provision that fall, which Cleveland did to Davis in December.

The Clippers weren’t thinking about that because they were busy acquiring Chris Paul from New Orleans. But with 19-year-old Kyrie, the consensus No. 1 pick in the draft in the fold, it’s unlikely they’d make such a dramatic move for another point guard. Instead, the Clippers could have had this lineup:

Point guard: Kyrie Irving
Shooting guard: Eric Gordon
Small foward: Al-Farouq Aminu
Power forward: Blake Griffin
Center: DeAndre Jordan
Sixth man: Eric Bledsoe

All were between 19 and 23. Plus, the Clippers had 2010 All-Star Chris Kaman, a lottery pick in 2012 (which became Austin Rivers), and a whole lot of cap space — assuming they’d also have amnestied Davis. It’s an intriguing team, with incredible athleticism and even more dunk potential than CP3’s Lob City squads.

Would they have been as good without Paul? 

Almost certainly not, at least at first, and a developing Clippers team might not lure Doc Rivers from Boston to coach in 2013, even if it did have his son. But they’d probably be even more entertaining, playing much faster than the methodical Paul, and we’d have seen Blake Griffin unlock his playmaking potential much earlier. The chemistry would be good for a while, as Kyrie loves Jordan, demanding Brooklyn sign him last summer. And it’s certainly possible that a Kyrie-Bledsoe-Gordon backcourt would have been better suited to take on the Splash Brothers than Paul and J.J. Redick/Jamal Crawford were. 

Regardless, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Clippers end up with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in 2020 in this case, although it was also impossible to imagine the Clippers as any kind of free-agent destination in 2011.

There were also huge repercussions for the other team in Los Angeles. Would commissioner David Stern have vetoed New Orleans' CP3-to-the-Lakers deal without a competing offer from the Clippers? That three-way deal would have sent Paul to play alongside 33-year-old Kobe Bryant, while Pau Gasol headed to Houston and Lamar Odom went to New Orleans. The rumored follow-up was a Lakers deal sending Andrew Bynum and sweeteners to Orlando for Dwight Howard, possibly the real reason the NBA blocked the trade. 2011’s lockout happened because certain owners were opposed to the “superteams” in Miami and to a lesser extent, Boston, and Stern wanted to avoid the same thing in Los Angeles.