1. The Serge Ibaka “disaster-class”
What else could top this list but the granddaddy of them all? The Serge Ibaka horror show of 2016.
Everything, and we mean absolutely everything, was wrong with this trade.
Ibaka himself had been an important part of those contending Oklahoma City Thunder teams, and in a vacuum that was all well and good.
But the Magic had Nikola Vucevic under contract already along with a promising young power forward in Aaron Gordon. And that same summer, the team signed Bismack Biyombo to a four-year, $72-million deal during a spike in the cap that caused the organization to lose its collective minds.
Having three centers made no sense especially in a league trending smaller. And trying to fit Gordon in as a small forward was asking for disaster with the team’s overall lack of shooting.
With the league getting smaller and becoming obsessed with 3-point shooting, adding Ibaka to that duo was never going to work. To the surprise of nobody, it did not.
The additional layer here is the fact the Magic gave up on Oladipo a fraction too early (not that fans at the time minded), and also added veteran Ersan Ilyasova and future All-Star Domantas Sabonis — yes really — to the deal.
Before injuries robbed him of his athleticism, Oladipo would become a two-time All-Star with the Indiana Pacers. It is the addition of Sabonis to the deal however, that hurts the most.
Right now he is a top 35 player in the entire league in helping the Sacramento Kings to light the beam, having been an All-Star himself in a previous life with the Pacers and once again this season with the Kings.
To trade Sabonis on draft night in this deal, having never had a chance to work with him properly, is one of the lowest moments of this 10-year period. This right here was the darkest day.