5. The Nets trading everything for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2014
One of the most famous trades in NBA history, if only for how abominably insane it was, even at the moment.
The Brooklyn Nets gave up first-round picks in 2014, 2016, and 2018, with the option to swap picks in 2017. In exchange for four first-round picks, you’d think they got someone that could change the course of the franchise. Instead, they got a 37-year-old Kevin Garnett and a 36-year-old Paul Pierce who were fresh off of a first-round exit courtesy of the New York Knicks.
The trade culminated with a second-round exit in the 2014 playoffs which proved to be the only full season that team would ever play together. Paul Pierce would go on to sign a contract with the Washington Wizards in the offseason and Kevin Garnett was traded halfway through the 2015 season to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Thaddeus Young.
For those keeping score at home, that means the Nets ended up trading four first-round picks for a second-round exit and Thaddeus Young. Young isn’t a bad player, but…yikes.
That being said, Thad Young is in the elite 13.5, 5.9, 1.4, 49 percent, 30 percent club so maybe they were onto something:
https://twitter.com/FSIndiana/status/969012390158262272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw