25 NBA 'What ifs' from last 25 years: LeBron changes Decision, Steph not a Warrior, Derrick Rose stays healthy

The two most fun words in sports discourse are "what" and "if." Every fanbase has its share. What if we'd drafted the superstar instead of the bust? What if our best player never got hurt? What if that one shot had clanked off the rim instead of going in? These two words can fuel limitless speculation and debate, and no sport better accommodates them than basketball.

This is, after all, a sport defined by a relatively small number of people. A star in basketball can impact outcomes more than any other sport. The decisions those stars and the executives that draft, sign and trade them make are largely what shape NBA history. And since we've just hit a milestone in NBA history, we figured now was a good time to look back and what we've seen and ponder those two incredible words, what if?

Ranking top 25 NBA players of the 21st century, from LeBron to Russ: Kobe misses top five, Jokić over Shaq

Brad Botkin

With the first quarter of the 21st century now in the books, we are going to look at the 25 biggest "What ifs" the NBA has seen over the past 25 years. We only operated with two firm rules. The first was that we were not going to change the lottery results. That's a slippery slope. The second is that no single figure can be the impetus for more than two items on this list. While the most notable figures in recent league history will obviously appear in more than two blurbs apiece, we didn't want to turn this into a list that revolved around three or four players. Otherwise? Anything is fair game. So with that in mind, here are the 25 biggest "What ifs" of the 21st century.

What if the Wolves drafted Steph Curry?

For my money, this is the top what-if of the century -- not only because of the MVP player that Curry went on to become, and by extension, the dynasty that developed in Golden State, but because the Wolves didn't just pass on Curry once. They passed on him twice. 

With the No. 5 pick in 2009, Minnesota took Ricky Rubio. Fine. At the time, Rubio better fit the more traditionally acceptable point guard mold as a wunderkind passer with size who had given the Americans the business as a 17-year-old starter in the gold medal game of the 2008 Olympics. Hindsight is 20/20. Rubio never made an All-Star team and shooting, which Rubio was never good at, became the paramount skill of a modern point guard, but with Al Jefferson in place as the Alpha scorer (oops) you can understand Minnesota's fancy for a facilitator. 

But then, with the No. 6 pick, the Wolves passed on Curry again. Now, maybe you think they passed on Curry because they already had their future point guard in Rubio, but that wasn't the case at all, because Minnesota took six-foot (in heels) Jonny Flynn out of Syracuse. So what, they thought Flynn, at that size, could eventually play off the ball next to Rubio? Or they thought Rubio, as a terrible shooter, was going to play shooting guard?

Sure, Rubio stayed overseas for the next two years, but long term, this was just bad logic, even independent of Curry's particular skillset (which, even had he just turned out to be a great shooter, which was the floor of his potential, would've fit perfectly next to either Rubio or Flynn). 

Of course, Curry turned out to be a lot more than just a great shooter. He became the greatest shooter and, almost inarguably, one of the 10 best players to ever live. Teams pass on stars in the draft all the time. The Blazers passed on Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant for crying out loud. But you won't find another case in history, in any sport, of a team passing on a player of anything close to Curry's caliber on two straight picks, which, to make matters worse, were both used on players in his exact position. 

Had the Wolves taken Curry, obviously, a lot would have changed. The Warriors never become the Warriors, at least. But would Curry have even become the same player in Minnesota? Would the Wolves have been able to build a perfect supporting roster inside a system specifically designed to maximize Curry's unique gifts? That took honest foresight on the part of the Warriors, and they deserve all the credit for that. Still, David Kahn has to wonder for the rest of his life: What if I had just drafted that skinny shooter out of little Davidson College? -- Brad Botkin

What if LeBron stayed in Cleveland in 2010?

LeBron James left Cleveland seeking championships in 2010. Had he remained with the Cavaliers, it would've taken him a whole lot longer to get one. As Dwyane Wade has said, he planned to go to Chicago if James hadn't come to Miami. So if James had re-signed in Cleveland, the Bulls, with two max cap slots, would have almost certainly landed Wade and Chris Bosh, with whom he shared an agent. As Chicago already had Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah on rookie deals and Luol Deng on a decent-sized extension, the Bulls would have boasted one of the most dangerous starting fives in all of basketball. With so much star depth, Chicago almost certainly has a big enough lead in Game 1 of its 2011 first-round series against Philadelphia to take Derrick Rose off the floor before he tears his ACL. The Bulls, not the Heat, win the Eastern Conference four years in a row, nabbing two titles in the process. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are perpetual Eastern Conference contenders who can't scale the Chicago wall.

When James becomes a free agent again in 2014, he's an 11-year veteran with no championship rings. So this time, he makes a decision solely based on the roster he's joining. When James became a free agent in 2014, he met with the Cavaliers, Bulls, Lakers, Mavericks, Suns, Heat, and our winners: the Houston Rockets. Daryl Morey acquired James Harden in 2012 and Dwight Howard in 2013, and he makes it three straight offseasons of star moves in 2014 by landing James and giving himself the most talented trio in basketball. The Rockets win the 2015 and 2016 championships, but Golden State lands Kevin Durant to win in 2017. Morey responds by landing Chris Paul in 2018 and putting the Rockets back on top. An injured quad for James in 2019, coupled with dysfunction between Harden and Paul, ends Houston's run, and James and Anthony Davis conspire to unite with the Lakers thereafter. -- Sam Quinn

What if Derrick Rose didn't tear his ACL?

You could argue that this is perhaps the biggest "What if" in NBA history. Numerous trickle-down effects would have occurred had Rose not torn his ACL in Game 1 of the 2012 playoffs, starting with the Bulls almost certainly making it back to the Eastern Conference finals for a second-straight year to face the Miami Heat. Given that part of the reason why the Bulls struggled in 2011 against the Heat was that they didn't have enough reliable depth, the addition of Richard Hamilton could've allowed the Bulls to put up a better fight against the Heat in 2012. But it's still hard to see LeBron and Miami falling short against the Bulls a year after they imploded in the 2011 NBA Finals. 

So let's say 2012 ends with a healthy Rose, but the Bulls fall once again to the Heat. If we play this out a bit further, with a healthy Rose and a core that now has a young Jimmy Butler, the Bulls are well equipped to challenge the Heat in 2013 and 2014. The Heat made the Finals in each of those years, winning it all in 2013, and falling to the Spurs in 2014. Chicago certainly could've put up a fight in 2013, but 2014 was probably the best shot at beating Miami to advance to the Finals. There was a ton of uncertainty around the Heat that year because of James' impending free agency status, and the Bulls could've caught a distracted Heat team off guard.

Beating San Antonio that season would've been tough, but the point is that if Rose had not torn his ACL, the Bulls would have been championship contenders nearly every season. Rose has at least half a dozen All-Star appearances to his name, maybe another MVP award in his trophy case, and is considered one of the greatest guards of his generation. -- Jasmyn Wimbish

What if Draymond didn't get suspended in 2016?

We have to specify 2016 because Draymond Green has, suffice it to say, been suspended numerous times for numerous reasons, pretty much all stemming from his hot-head temper. But the suspension in the 2016 Finals stands out as the one everyone remembers. It's probably the most infamous suspension in NBA history. 

The act itself wasn't egregious. The Warriors had Game 4 and a 3-1 series lead in the bag when Green wound up on the ground after some animated screening action involving LeBron James, who then stepped over Green, who, in turn, shot up off the floor and offered a little mini jab at LeBron's man region. He was issued a flagrant foul, and LeBron got a technical. The problem was, Green had already racked up three flagrant foul points on his postseason ledger, and the fourth one is a suspension. He didn't get suspended for the LeBron deed. He got suspended for all his dirty deeds in that postseason. 

Did it cost the Warriors the championship? Maybe. Green only missed one game, meaning the Warriors still had two chances to close the series out with Green back in the lineup. But that Game 5 without Green undoubtedly sparked some serious Cavs momentum that wound up carrying them to the only 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history. 

If Green had just kept his cool, and the Warriors had finished off that title, not only would they be considered the best team in NBA history after the 73-win season, but Kevin Durant has gone on record saying he "damn sure" wouldn't have gone to Golden State if the Warriors had beaten the Cavs. 

So then his career takes an entirely different path. Maybe he's still searching for his first ring, and maybe Curry, who would now have five rings, would have a better all-time case than LeBron, who would only have three. Green's suspension potentially altered significant chunks of NBA history, and it's impossible not to wonder about an alternate universe in which he keeps his hands to himself. -- Botkin

What if Tim Duncan signed with the Magic?

As the story goes, Tim Duncan didn't sign with the Orlando Magic in 2000 because Doc Rivers wouldn't allow girlfriends or wives on the team plane. Whether or not that is true is unknowable, but Rivers himself made something else clear in a later interview: Orlando only had the cap space for two stars in 2000, not three. That meant they could only have added Grant Hill, who shared an agent with Duncan and visited the Magic together, without bringing in Tracy McGrady as well. Considering the injuries Hill endured in Orlando, Duncan staying in San Antonio was easily the better choice. He won four more titles with the Spurs. However, Hill only played 47 total games in his first three seasons with the Magic.

This is relevant because the contract Duncan signed with the Spurs in 2000 was only for three years. He signed a much bigger seven-year deal with them in 2003, but if he had spent three years in Orlando getting no support from the injury-riddled Hill, he would have become a free agent in 2003, likely intent on moving. 

So, which teams would have made sense? Ironically, the easiest answer would be the Spurs, as they would have had max cap space following David Robinson's retirement. However, free-agent reunions of this caliber weren't exactly common before James, so let's rule them out. Besides, there's a much easier solution here. In 2003, Miami signed Elton Brand to a six-year, $84 million offer sheet in restricted free agency that the Clippers ultimately matched. The Heat would have only needed to carve out a bit more space to sign Duncan to the $112 million contract the Spurs ultimately gave him. Duncan wanted to compete for titles in Florida, and the Heat, having just drafted Dwyane Wade, would have given him that chance. So in truth, Duncan signing in Miami in 2000 would have led to an Eastern Conference powerhouse... just not the one you were expecting. -- Quinn

What if Ray Allen missed the corner 3?

If Allen didn't sink that clutch 3-pointer in the closing seconds of Game 6 in the 2013 NBA Finals to tie the game, the Heat would have lost the Finals. There are then two ways this could've played out: the Heat could've just come back the following year in 2014 and won, which wouldn't have changed much going forward. Or they could've lost again in 2014 (which is what happened) and that would've altered several legacies.

If the Heat lose in 2013 and 2014, that means LeBron goes 1 of 4 in the Finals with the Heat. He was already under so much scrutiny during his Miami tenure that the criticism would've been raised to astronomical levels had he failed to deliver more than one championship. James probably would've still left the Heat to go back to Cleveland because the relationship between him and Pat Riley genuinely seemed unsalvageable at the time, and because James always seemed destined to return with the hopes of delivering his city a championship.

But let's say the rest of James' career still plays out the same way, though. He wins with the Cavs in 2016, joins the Lakers and gets a title in 2020. He would then have three championships, not four, and he'd probably be more motivated to try and chase that fourth ring, even at 40 years old. Maybe he leaves the Lakers in the summer of 2024, when he declines his player option to negotiate a new deal. That was following a year in which the Lakers lost pretty convincingly to the Denver Nuggets in the first round, and L.A. did very little to improve the roster heading into last season. 

There was speculation this summer that LeBron was intrigued by the idea of joining the Dallas Mavericks. So what if he did it a year earlier? He's talked about missing playing with Kyrie Irving, and we know he has an affinity for Luka Dončić. The Mavericks just came off an NBA Finals run, so maybe James looks at that as an opportunity to try and win a fourth ring with Dončić and Irving. The landscape of the league would certainly look different right now if that were the case, and if that were Dallas' roster, they'd surely have enough firepower to win the NBA Finals last season. -- Wimbish

What if the Warriors traded Klay Thompson?

By all accounts, this one was close to going through. It was the summer of 2014 and the Warriors, looking to vault into championship contention after two straight playoff runs under Mark Jackson (who had been fired and replaced by Steve Kerr), were hot after Kevin Love, a blue-chip big man the likes of which the Warriors hadn't enjoyed since Chris Webber. 

You can understand, even in hindsight, the Warriors' interest in pairing Love with Stephen Curry. Love was a monster player in his prime, and he was perfectly suited to give Golden State a massive interior presence next to Andrew Bogut while spacing the floor alongside Curry. But Golden State's brass was split on trading Thompson. Kerr reportedly didn't want to do it, and there were rumors that Jerry West, then a consultant with the Warriors, threatened to quit if Golden State gave up Thompson, whom West would later call "the perfect player for Steph." 

Thankfully, West's voice was the loudest and the deal never went through. But what if it did? I'm not willing to say the Warriors wouldn't have won a championship with Love. That would've been a monster team in its own right. But it wouldn't have been as great as what the Warriors would become on the strength of not just the greatest shooter of all time, but the two greatest shooters of all time. 

There's also this: Would Draymond Green have had the opportunity to grow into the player he became if Love was on the team? Maybe not. Love and Draymond certainly would've worked in small lineups, but could Love have handled a full center workload to make room for Green as a starter? Would Green have been empowered as a facilitator with the offense focused on the Curry/Love tandem? Would Green's lack of shooting have been a bigger problem without two snipers to disproportionately space the floor? Would Golden State's defense have become the force that it did with Love as a target and without the perimeter presence of Thompson? Again, the answers here are probably no.

Without full-blown Draymond, without as elite a defense, and without the second greatest shooter of all time, the Warriors probably don't become the Warriors if this trade happens. Simple as that. Love was great at this point in his career, but he wasn't enough to make up for all he would've cost in basketball currency. The Warriors clearly made the right move in keeping Thompson, whose career also would have gone completely differently in Minnesota. -- Botkin

What if Chris Paul to the Lakers wasn't vetoed?

Even if the Lakers had been allowed to trade for Chris Paul, the 2011-12 roster was too flawed to seriously compete for a championship. Only four players averaged double figures, and one of them -- Ramon Sessions -- was a deadline addition at Paul's position. So even with Paul, Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum, the Lakers still lose to Oklahoma City in the second round. They trade for Dwight Howard in the 2012 offseason as they did in reality, but if he struggled to coexist with Bryant alone, the presence of the equally dictatorial Paul would only drive him away faster. Still, Paul's presence does have two major benefits early on. The first is that, with him in place, they see no reason to trade for the declining Steve Nash. The second is that Paul carries enough of the ball-handling load to prevent the Lakers from overburdening Bryant as they did. So in this world, he doesn't tear his Achilles in 2013. Instead, he's allowed a slower, more gradual age-related decline.

Howard still leaves as a 2013 free agent. The Lakers, however, manage to rebound nicely in the coming years. Without Nash or any high-level role players on their books, they still manage to create significant enough cap space moving forward. Paul and a healthier Bryant make them a much more attractive draw than they were in reality. They struck out in 2014, when LeBron James went back to Cleveland and Carmelo Anthony stayed with the Knicks, but as LaMarcus Aldridge has said, the Lakers were his early favorite in 2015. They just botched the pitch by focusing on off-court concerns. With Paul in place and Bryant not a shell of his former self, they make a compelling basketball pitch and land him. The Paul-Bryant-Aldridge trio can't overcome Golden State, but it remains solidly competitive in the years that follow. Bryant retired a year later in 2017, but James took his place in Los Angeles in 2018, and the Lakers finally broke through in 2020 when the Warriors lost Kevin Durant. -- Quinn

What if the Suns drafted Luka Dončić?

Let's envision a world in which the Phoenix Suns had a better general manager that didn't care about how Dončić and Devin Booker would've fit next to each other, and instead just took the best available player in the draft. I don't care if there were concerns about Dončić at the time, even with those concerns -- most of which weren't valid -- he was still a better player than Deandre Ayton. So let's say the Suns pulled off a draft-night stunner and surprised everyone by taking Dončić. With him and Booker as the backcourt tandem, Phoenix would've experienced success very early on. Dončić actually excels when there's another elite playmaker in the backcourt, and Booker would've fit that bill perfectly. And assuming the Suns still do the draft night trade to land Mikal Bridges in that same draft as Dončić, Phoenix would've had a powerful trio of players for many years to come.

Just imagine Booker and Bridges knocking down shots off of no-look over the back passes from Dončić. The Suns would routinely put up historic offensive numbers, and could've built a championship contender rather quickly with those three. The Mavericks struggled early on to surround Dončić with the kind of elite talent that would've allowed them to make deeper runs in the postseason in his first few seasons, but with Booker and Bridges, the Suns would've accomplished the hard part in a single draft night. Phoenix's mild weather and proximity to Los Angeles make it an attractive city for many NBA players, so the Suns would've had no issue trying to bring in more talent to surround them.

If the Suns continued to build around Dončić and Booker properly, they might have a championship by now. Dončić has probably also won an MVP award, too. And he certainly wouldn't have been traded in the middle of the night like he was with the Mavericks, because there's literally only one person on this planet who would've done that deal. -- Wimbish

What if the 2007 Suns suspensions didn't happen?

Suns superstar Amar'e Stoudemire and key bench player Boris Diaw getting suspended for Game 5 of the 2007 Western Conference semifinals was one of the most bogus rulings you will ever see. Still, in a post "Malice in the Palace" world in which the NBA was terrified of any confrontation escalation, it was, to be fair, the letter of the law that if you leave the bench during an altercation, you were going to get suspended.

Never mind that with 18 seconds left in Game 4, San Antonio's Robert Horry forearm shivered Steve Nash into the scorer's table with enough force to move a small car, and that Stoudemire never got more than a few feet onto the court and was immediately held back from even entering the fray. I mean, take a look at this and tell me that Phoenix deserved to be without its first-team All-NBA and Diaw in Game 5 of a 2-2 playoff series.

So what if these suspensions never happened? Would the Suns have gone on to win that series? Nobody can say. But that was certainly Phoenix's best shot to win a title in the Seven Seconds or Less era, and most people who were watching that series at the time would've said they looked like the better team vs. San Antonio. Even without Stoudemire and Diaw, the Suns only lost Game 5 by three points. It's fair to say they would've been in position to win that game, and the winner of Game 5 in a 2-2 series goes on to win the series nearly 80% of the time.

Add to that how easy, relatively speaking, the postseason path was from this point forward. That was the year the top-seeded Mavericks got upset in the first round by the "We Believe" Warriors. The 61-win Suns would've gotten the 51-win Jazz in the conference finals and the Cavaliers, who had Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao, in the Finals.

The pace-and-space style of play was coming to the NBA as a whole with or without the Suns, but even as late as 2015, with the emergence of the Warriors, the basketball world was still skeptical that this run-and-gun style of play could actually net a championship. Had the Suns won, which it really does feel like they would have if these suspensions didn't happen, that doubt would've been erased, especially if they had done so with a middling defense. It wasn't fair. But it was the letter of the law, and it bit the Suns at the worst possible time. -- Botkin

What if COVID never happened?

To be clear, we are sticking to the basketball implications of a pandemic-free world. It'd be hard to argue that the Orlando bubble helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the 2020 championship. It deprived them of home-court advantage that they'd earned throughout the regular season, and Avery Bradley, one of their starting guards, skipped it entirely. The Nuggets and Heat exposed flaws that the Clippers and Bucks had all along. There were no other obvious threats to the Lakers. We'll assume that Los Angeles still wins it all, with or without COVID. Notably, though, Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a knee injury on March 6, 2020, right before the season stopped. Had it continued and he missed more time, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who finished as runners up for MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively, likely would have taken home some individual hardware as well.

The 2020-21 season was so injury-riddled that predicting what would have happened would be almost impossible. Do the Lakers still have injury issues? The sad answer is... probably. Davis has a long history of injuries, and James got hurt only when Solomon Hill dove into his ankle. However, it's possible that Jamal Murray and Kawhi Leonard could have avoided torn ACLs if the schedule hadn't been so condensed. If James Harden had more time to recover from his late-season hamstring injury, he might not have aggravated it in the second round against the Nets. There's just no fair way of predicting a 2021 champion in this scenario.

Here's what we can say: the 2022 championship favorite in a world without COVID would have been the Nets. Without COVID, there is no vaccine mandate and New York, and Kyrie Irving therefore plays all season, which prevents Harden's eventual trade request. So we'll say Brooklyn is our 2022 champion, which deprives Golden State of its fourth, putting Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry in a 3-3 tie. The Nets stay together after that, so the Mavericks never get Kyrie Irving as their Jalen Brunson replacement and the Suns don't mortgage their future for Durant. Philadelphia likely would have needed to trade Ben Simmons somewhere else in time for the 2023 deadline. There have been conflicting reports on whether Sacramento ever offered Tyrese Haliburton for Simmons. As the Kings eventually dealt him for Domantas Sabonis, viewed as inferior to Simmons at the time, though, we'll say they would have ultimately relented, giving the 76ers a core of Haliburton, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. -- Quinn

What if Mark Cuban didn't sell Mavs?

There's a lot of what if's from last season, and none more intriguing than what would've happened if Cuban never sold the team to Miriam Adelson. The first thought that comes to mind is obviously Luka Dončić would still be with the Mavericks. We know that with 100% certainty because he's said as much in interviews, saying that if he still had control of basketball operations, that trade would've never happened. And honestly, if Nico Harrison ever approached Cuban with the proposition of trading Dončić, he likely would've been fired on the spot. Cuban was perhaps Dončić's biggest supporter remaining within Dallas' organization before he was traded, so indeed, Cuban would've never allowed their franchise star to be traded, and at the very least, if he considered it, there would've been a far greater return for a 26-year-old superstar.

So, if Dončić had stayed with the Mavericks to finish out last season and returned from the calf injury around the same time as he did with the Lakers, it would have certainly increased Dallas' likelihood of making the playoffs. Having Dončić also probably decreases the likelihood of Kyrie Irving tearing his ACL, who was saddled with a way higher workload once Dončić was traded. We obviously can't predict health, but for the purpose of this exercise, let's just assume Irving doesn't get hurt. Then there's really nothing stopping the Mavericks from making another deep postseason run. They were positioned to be the biggest threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and were the only team with multiple wins against the Thunder during the regular season. If those two met in the playoffs again, we'd probably get a thrilling seven-game series, one that OKC probably wins with all the motivation from last year's loss on their minds.

Taking it a step further, having Dončić means the Mavericks are unlikely to land the No. 1 pick in the draft and select Cooper Flagg. But that's a small price to pay when you still have Dončić on the roster. --Wimbish

What if the Pistons drafted Carmelo Anthony?

The obvious question is: Would they still have won the 2004 championship if they had taken Anthony over Darko Milicic with the No. 2 pick in the 2003 draft? Carmelo certainly thinks so, and has gone so far as to say he would've won "two or three rings" in his career had he gone to Detroit. 

Ben Wallace has publicly stated the opposite, saying the Pistons made a smart move by not drafting Anthony and, further, that they wouldn't have won a championship if they did. Wallace believes that Anthony would've wanted too big a role as a rookie on a team that was ready to win a championship. 

Wallace is definitely right about the fact that Anthony would've wanted a big role, because frankly, he would've deserved one. This is a guy who averaged 22 and 6 as a rookie and finished in the top 15 of MVP voting as the best player on a playoff team. But the Pistons were a sum-of-their-parts operation and there would surely have been a risk of Carmelo smothering that fire before it had a chance to really get going. 

Think about it: What really sent the Pistons into championship contention was the trade for Rasheed Wallace at the 2004 deadline. They probably don't make that move if Anthony is on the roster, and at that point in each of their careers, Wallace was a better player -- or at least better within the starless context of the Pistons -- than a 19-year-old Anthony. It's just hard to see them having the same success with a teenage starter, let alone a focal point. 

Even if the Wallace trade did still happen, Tayshaun Prince probably would've become the odd man out. At the very least, the Pistons, though it's certainly a reasonable argument that they still would've won a championship with Anthony, would've looked very different, as would the Nuggets, who landed Anthony, and eventually New York, which traded for him. A lot of teams and careers would've changed had Joe Dumars taken Anthony over Milicic (which, no matter how it would've turned out, he absolutely should have done). But he didn't do it. And now it's actually kind of funny that a massive mistake by Dumars actually wound up setting him up for the one championship that is still being used as the cover up for all his other mistakes, including the mess he's making in New Orleans right now. -- Botkin

What if the Thunder approved Tyson Chandler's physical?

It was perhaps the most important physical in NBA history. In 2009, the Thunder agreed to trade Chris Wilcox, Joe Smith and DeVon Hardin for Tyson Chandler, but Oklahoma City's doctors felt that the risk in Chandler's left big toe was too great to pass the deal. A number of things change if the Thunder complete their acquisition of Chandler.

First, with Chandler in place, Oklahoma City has no reason to trade Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins, who would later sign a disastrous long-term contract extension. Second, if Chandler is in Oklahoma City, that means he isn't in Dallas. Without Chandler, the Mavericks have little hope in the 2011 Western Conference playoffs. The Thunder, with Chandler and Green, would win the West and the championship against a thin Heat team. 

This means that Dirk Nowitzki never wins a championship, but it also sets the Thunder up far better for the long haul. They'd never let Chandler walk after the 2011 title as Dallas did, so they signed him to a new, long-term deal. With their center position locked up, they have less motivation to secure a second shot-blocker, Serge Ibaka, to a pricey long-term deal. Instead, after they repeat as champions in 2012, they extend James Harden at the max. Russell Westbrook's 2013 injury ends Oklahoma City's three-peat bid, but Harden acquits himself so well as the primary ball-handler in a run to the Western Conference finals that when Chandler inevitably regresses due to age, Oklahoma City elects to trade Westbrook for a monster package that includes a new center. The Harden-Kevin Durant duo ultimately keeps the Thunder in the championship picture for their entire primes. Neither ever sees a reason to leave. -- Quinn

What if Tyrese Haliburton didn't tear his Achilles?

The most recent entry in the "What If" category will be looked at as something that could've dramatically changed the landscape of the league. Let's say Haliburton doesn't suffer the devastating Achilles tear in the opening minutes of Game 7 in the NBA Finals, the Pacers sure looked like they had a great shot at winning that game. Haliburton was on a heater early, and Indiana had proven several times in the series that they were well equipped to beat that Thunder team. If Haliburton kept up his pace to open the game, the Pacers probably would have won that game and hoisted the Larry O'Brien trophy.

If OKC loses, we may have seen an incredibly aggressive offseason from the Thunder in an effort to win a championship next season. They've got a treasure trove of future draft picks, both their own and several attractive ones from other teams due to previous trades. It wouldn't be surprising to see them use those picks to get some real firepower to place alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Maybe they try to lure Giannis Antetokounmpo out of Milwaukee. There were hints that he might request a trade – which ultimately didn't happen – but what if OKC was interested in him, would that have changed his mind? The Bucks surely would've jumped at the chance to take some of the young excess talent OKC has, and they'd be able to pull off a Giannis trade with plenty left over to still remain a title contender.

If Haliburton doesn't get injured, that also means that the Pacers don't lose Myles Turner to the Bucks. The primary reason Turner surprisingly signed with Milwaukee this summer is that he wanted a chance to compete for a title. While he didn't outright say it, Haliburton's Achilles tear meant that Indiana no longer provided that opportunity for next season. Turner didn't want to waste a season, so he joined Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. But in the scenario where Haliburton's healthy, Turner's popping champagne bottles in Indianapolis, and the Pacers are well-positioned to get back to the Finals next year, too. --Wimbish

What if The Process worked?

To be fair, many would argue that it did work. Sam Hinkie's plan was simple: The 76ers needed to be bad enough (a process initiated by trading young Jrue Holiday), for long enough, to pile up as many lottery picks as possible, knowing that the draft is a crapshoot and it's all about how many shots you get up. It worked. The Sixers landed a ton of top picks. There were some misses (Jahili Okafor, Norlens Noel). Still, in the end, they netted a future MVP in Joel Embiid and two No. 1 overall picks in Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz, who were both universally regarded as future stars.

Simmons lived up to the hype for a while, then fell apart. Fultz fell apart immediately. Whether you land on the physical or mental side of the fence, Fultz quite literally lost the ability to shoot a basketball while Simmons, increasingly, refused to shoot one, even from point-blank range. If you locked the best scriptwriters in Hollywood in a room and told them to come up with a scenario in which two can't-miss basketball phenoms go into the tank in the most bizarre fashion imaginable, nobody could come up with this. It will forever be one of the craziest stories in NBA lore.

And yet, it happened. And we are only left to wonder: What if it had gone as planned? It was so close. The Sixers got the players. If Simmons stays on the path that led him to three All-Star selections and an All-NBA nod in his first four years, Fultz doesn't go full Rick Ankiel, and Embiid stays at least relatively healthy alongside the two of them, the Sixers might've become an honest juggernaut.

Instead, Simmons and Fultz turned into memes. Jimmy Butler came and went. Kawhi Leonard's shot bounced in. Seeing it all slip away, Elton Brand threw Tobias Harris 180 million desperate dollars. And here we are, with the Sixers clinging to another Hail Mary in the name of Paul George as they continue in their quest to finish The Process. But the fact is, it was over the minute Simmons and Fultz crashed and burned. All that's left is a limping Embiid and what might be the biggest what if in at least modern NBA history. -- Botkin

What if the Clippers never traded SGA?

Kawhi Leonard positioned himself and Paul George as a package deal to the Clippers in 2019, but Doc Rivers claims he tried to push back against the idea of trading Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. "I even brought it up to Kawhi: 'Are you sure? I think Shai's going to be an amazing player,'" Rivers said. "It may take a year or two, but I think you're underestimating how good Shai's going to be.'" 

The first question here is where Leonard goes if the Clippers had refused to trade Gilgeous-Alexander. Leonard wanted to play with George, but the Lakers were out of trade assets following the Anthony Davis blockbuster, and the Raptors reportedly never got far in talks with the Thunder. Ultimately, the Clippers believed that if they didn't get George, the Lakers would land Leonard. So we'll assume that's the case here.

The Lakers win the 2020 championship pretty comfortably with Leonard, Davis and LeBron James. However, Leonard's health kills any notion of a dynasty. The Clippers not only keep Gilgeous-Alexander in this scenario, but also all of their own draft picks. We know they would have gone star-hunting on the trade market down the line, and there were plenty of obvious candidates. Both James Harden and Jrue Holiday requested trades in the 2020 offseason. Both are Los Angeles natives. But they are both also guards. The far likelier candidate at this point, ironically enough, would be Paul George. After all, we know he wanted to wind up in Los Angeles eventually. The Lakers had nothing left to trade. And by the 2020 offseason, he would have been on an expiring contract with far more leverage to dictate his destination. So the Clippers, even after missing out on Leonard, likely could have nabbed George for a package just based on draft picks.

By the time Gilgeous-Alexander hits his MVP-caliber peak, George likely starts to decline. That duo doesn't win a championship together. However, the Clippers did eventually let George walk as a free agent in real life. They likely would have either traded him or done the same in this scenario, knowing that with Gilgeous-Alexander, they could eventually recruit a younger star. The path to a title isn't obvious, but they'd have one of the best players in the NBA in his prime and the Los Angeles market to recruit with. They'd build a contender, and it wouldn't have to contend with the real-life monster in Oklahoma City that the actual Clippers created. All in all, it's still a pretty enviable position. -- Quinn

What if Kevin Durant's foot was smaller?

If Durant didn't have a size 18 foot, the Brooklyn Nets would've probably been NBA champions in 2021. Durant nailed a clutch turnaround, fadeaway long 2-pointer in the closing seconds of a Game 7 matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 2021 playoffs. When it happened live, it first looked like Durant's shot was a 3-pointer, which would've won the Nets the game and sent them to the Eastern Conference finals. But Durant knew immediately his foot was on the line, ruling it a 2-pointer and only tying up the game to send it to overtime. Brooklyn lost, and the Bucks went on to be crowned NBA champions.

But what if Durant's foot was behind the line? There was only one second remaining on the clock for Milwaukee to get a shot off. Assuming they also don't nail a miracle shot, the Nets advance to the conference finals to face an Atlanta Hawks team that surprised everyone but won't fare any better against Durant and James Harden. Even with the injuries to Harden, who was playing through a hamstring strain, and Kyrie Irving, who didn't play in the last three games of the Bucks series with an ankle sprain, the Nets probably still beat the Hawks. They'd then face the Phoenix Suns, for whom you could argue both sides. Without a fully healthy Harden and Irving, it's difficult to see Durant alone beating that Suns team. But if Irving managed to return for the Finals and Harden could play through his injury, the Nets at full strength beat Phoenix.

If the Nets win it all in 2021, we then wouldn't have all the drama surrounding that Brooklyn team in the years that follow. Harden probably doesn't request a trade in 2022, which then led to Irving and Durant requesting trades in 2023, breaking apart a short-lived era that had tons of potential with little success. Durant would have three rings and would certainly quiet the criticism of him not being able to win without being on the Warriors. Irving would also silence doubters in securing a second ring, and Harden's legacy would include an NBA champion, a title that has eluded him so far in his illustrious career. Irving probably still leaves Brooklyn, because from what he's revealed recently, it sounds like he just didn't have a good relationship with the front office. But if Durant and Harden are still in Brooklyn, that's a duo that could easily get through the East and make multiple Finals appearances. -- Wimbish

What if the Bucks chose Curry over Monta Ellis?

There has been a lot of hearsay over the years about how the Warriors basically gave the Milwaukee Bucks their choice of Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry in the 2012 trade for Andrew Bogut, or at the very least, both were on the proverbial table. 

The full details of what was discussed have never been completely revealed, but Curry has confirmed -- go to about the 17-minute mark in the video below -- that the Bucks wanted him in the deal, but a team doctor persuaded them against it because of Curry's constant ankle injuries, which were honestly threatening to derail his career. 

Bogut has also said on record that he knows "for a fact" that the Bucks could've had Curry or Ellis and chose Ellis "based on health." So there's enough smoke here to imagine a world in which the fire of trading Stephen Curry would still be burning the Warriors. But we've already looked at how things would've gone differently for the Warriors sans Steph when we detailed how the Wolves passed on drafting him not once but twice with the two picks immediately preceding Golden State in 2009. So let's look at this from the Bucks' standpoint. 

First and foremost, it's understandable that the Bucks were scared of Curry's ankles. Everyone was. Curry had to eventually sign what turned out to be the most clearance-rack contract, maybe in sports history, with the Warriors because there was such doubt that he would ever be able to stay healthy. Still, had the Bucks just taken the risk and gone with Curry, he would've shown up in 2012-13 fully healthy and ready to shoot into superstardom as he did for the Warriors.  

The Bucks still would've stunk that season, but the following summer, in 2013, things would've gotten wild as that was the summer that Milwaukee stumbled onto a young Greek kid by the name of Giannis Antetokounmpo with the No. 15 pick. Now, Giannis took a while to develop into a star, but it happened within a reasonable enough timeframe -- and might well have happened sooner in a Curry-led ecosystem -- that it's fair to wonder: What if the Bucks had Giannis and Curry, with the latter on the same team-friendly deal that subsequently allowed the Warriors to build out a championship roster, with both in the middle of their prime? Man, what a pairing. But it never happened. Given what the Warriors became with Curry, and the fact that another surprise superstar was just one year away from also going to Milwaukee, it's one of the biggest what-ifs in NBA history. -- Botkin

What if Kobe answered KG's phone calls?

Kevin Garnett says that he was interested in playing for the Lakers in 2007. The only problem? He couldn't get in touch with Kobe Bryant, who was in China for Nike. Well, let's say the two had spoken and Garnett, who had leverage through his expiring contract, instructed the Timberwolves to send him to Tinseltown. A deal would have cost Los Angeles young center Andrew Bynum and key forward Lamar Odom, but it would have given Bryant his best teammate since Shaquille O'Neal. The Bryant-Garnett duo, with the bulk of the remaining supporting cast in place, wins the 2008 championship.

There's an added bonus here, though. If the Lakers had Garnett, they likely wouldn't have made the Pau Gasol trade. Garnett was the highest-paid player in the NBA and Bryant was in the top five, so the Lakers just wouldn't have been able to make the money work. This is critical because it means the Lakers would have been able to keep his brother, Marc Gasol. Meanwhile, Boston would have a bunch of leftover trade assets from having missed out on Garnett, so we'll say the Celtics land Pau. Garnett got hurt in 2009, so that knocks the Lakers out, but remember, the Celtics still pushed the eventual Eastern Conference champion Magic to seven without Garnett that season. With Gasol, we'll say Boston knocks out Orlando... but then loses to Cleveland, as Garnett's defense was instrumental against him. This leads to Cleveland winning it all in 2009, and LeBron James ultimately staying in 2010.

With Garnett back healthy in 2010 and the younger Marc Gasol coming into his own, the Lakers make it back to the Finals. Again, James and the Cavaliers beat the Celtics. In the Bryant vs. James Finals that NBA fans dreamed of throughout that era, Bryant and Garnett came out on top. However, with age taking its toll on the Lakers and the Heat never forming with James a champion in Cleveland, the new superpowers to emerge following those two Laker titles are the Thunder and Bulls, who land Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to play alongside Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng in 2010 free agency. -- Quinn

What if Kawhi missed the shot vs. Sixers?

Leonard's wild game-winning shot that sent the Raptors to the Eastern Conference finals in 2019 is one of the most memorable playoff moments in recent history. But what if that ball bounced around the rim a dozen times and fell out, instead of sinking through the net? That game then goes to overtime and there's a chance the 76ers come out on top after finding their rhythm down the stretch of the fourth quarter.

If the Sixers come out on top, that means meeting with the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals. Given Milwaukee's dominance that whole season, with 60 wins and the top spot in the East, the Bucks probably advance to the NBA Finals. The Raptors were better equipped to contain the Bucks, and had a fifth best defense, while the Sixers were league average in that regard. That means we'd get a Bucks vs. Warriors matchup in the NBA Finals, watching Giannis Antetokounmpo go up against a Golden State team that still had Kevin Durant.

In this scenario, the Bucks, as dominant as they were in the regular season, certainly don't have enough firepower to contend with Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. We have to assume that in his universe the injuries to Thompson and Durant don't happen, and even though the Warriors were running on fumes throughout their playoff run, it's difficult to see a world where that core of Hall of Fame players can't string together four wins against a Bucks team that still hadn't reached its peak yet. That means we get the Warriors' three-peat that never happened, but probably should've, there's no storybook ending in Toronto, and Leonard still leaves that summer to join the Clippers, but this time in a much more solemn way. -- Wimbish

What if the Warriors didn't fire Mark Jackson?

In hindsight, the Warriors firing Jackson and replacing him with Steve Kerr was a stroke of genius. But at the time, there was plenty of reason to question the decision. Jackson, after all, had piloted a punchline franchise to a pair of playoff berths and a 51-win season. More importantly, he had the support of the star player, as Stephen Curry had advocated on his behalf. In the NBA, especially at that time, star players usually get their way with coaches they want to, or don't want to, play for. 

But the Warriors went against the grain and got rid of Jackson, who was, to put it mildly, a controversial coach in his time with the Warriors. We don't need to get into all of his behind-the-scenes drama, most of which has been chronicled, but even just from a basketball perspective, the Warriors were underperforming with him in control. It was ridiculous, frankly, that an offense with Stephen Curry would be ranked 12th in the league, but Jackson was matchup obsessed and was frankly holding the Warriors back. 

Good on Golden State for realizing that even in the face of undeniable on-court success relative to their recent history. But had they gone the easier way and kept Jackson, and still brought in Shaun Livingston (the only real addition of consequence in the summer of 2014), would they still have won the championship the next season? Personally, I don't think so. Kerr's system, based on ball and player movement, turned the Warriors into a full-on juggernaut, and for all the credit Jackson got for Golden State's sudden defensive prowess, that was mostly a tribute to the players they had added, like Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala, and Klay Thompson. 

I think there's a very real chance that had Jackson stayed in Golden State, they never would've won a title. Forget about winning four of them. Chances are, he wouldn't have lasted long even if they had kept him in 2014, but for as long as he was there, the Warriors, in my opinion, would've been ringless. There are plenty of people who would disagree with that sentiment, of course. That's what makes it a good what-if. -- Brad Botkin

What if the Mavs traded Dirk for Shaq?

The 2004 trade sweepstakes for Shaquille O'Neal came down to two teams. He actually landed with the Miami Heat. The Dallas Mavericks were also in the mix. According to O'Neal himself, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was willing to give up anyone but Dirk Nowitzki to get a deal done. Apparently, that wasn't enough. Had he been willing to give up Dirk, though, quite a few things would have changed for the Mavericks. Most notably, their 2004 free-agent plans. In reality, they let Steve Nash walk to Phoenix. With O'Neal incoming, though, they wouldn't have needed to reserve money for another big man, Erick Dampier. So let's say they keep Nash to make life as easy on O'Neal as possible. Nash and O'Neal, in real life, finished first and second in 2005 MVP voting. The two of them, with a deep supporting cast, could have easily gone on to win the 2005 championship.

Dallas remains in the running for a few years after this, trading Western Conference crowns with the Spurs while the Lakers figure out how to maximize the Kobe Bryant-Dirk Nowitzki duo. Eventually, Phil Jackson returns to his post as coach, Mitch Kupchak finds a suitable defensive center and some 3-and-D wings, and the Lakers take the Western Conference in 2008 and the title in 2009. In this scenario, though, they three-peat between 2009 and 2011. Dallas wouldn't have stood in their way with Nowitzki now in purple and gold. This takes Bryant up to six championships, tying him with Michael Jordan. O'Neal and Nash would be revered as the two best Mavericks ever. And Nowitzki would have a statue next to Bryant's outside of Crypto.com Arena. Everyone wins, even if some win more than others. -- Quinn

What if Brandon Roy/Greg Oden were healthy?

Let's first show appreciation for the fact that the Portland Trail Blazers constructed a roster that should've been competing for multiple championships in the mid-2000s. They were savvy in their roster decisions, swindled teams on draft night -- looking at you, Chicago, and trading LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas in 2006 -- and while it is a complete failure that they decided to take Greg Oden over Kevin Durant, had Oden stayed healthy, that might not look as egregious now. In fact, had Brandon Roy stayed healthy too, the Trail Blazers probably have a championship from that era.

If Oden enters the league healthy after being taken No. 1 overall in 2007, he immediately forms an exciting trio alongside both Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. The Blazers are likely to finish with a better record than their .500 mark in the 2007-08 season, mirroring their performance the following year in Oden's first professional season, when they won 54 games. The Trail Blazers would've been a consistent threat in the playoffs with Oden and Aldridge in the frontcourt, and Roy as the scoring threat in the backcourt.

Remember, Oden was taken ahead of Durant because he was seen as a can't-miss franchise cornerstone at the center position. He was going to be the premier rim-protecting big man, capable of putting up a double-double on a nightly basis. You pair that with Aldridge, who was one of the best mid-range scoring big men of that era, and Roy, who Kobe Bryant once said was the most difficult player to guard in the Western Conference because he had no weaknesses in his game, you get a Portland team that would've caused problems for those Bryant-Pau Gasol Lakers teams during that time. -- Wimbish

What if the Sonics stayed in Seattle?

It's been 17 years, and the city of Seattle is still reeling from the loss of its SuperSonics to the Professional Basketball Club, LLC, headed by Clay Bennett, who moved the team to Oklahoma City and renamed it the Thunder in 2008. 

Just six days before that move was officially announced -- though everyone could see it coming the minute the OKC-based group bought the Sonics from Starbucks founder Howard Schultz in 2006 -- the Sonics drafted Russell Westbrook. He was introduced in Seattle. The summer before, Kevin Durant had been drafted and had immediately established himself as a future superstar after a sensational rookie season in Seattle. 

Essentially, the events that unfolded in Oklahoma City with Durant and Westbrook, and eventually with young James Harden, were all set up to happen in Seattle. There haven't been any expansion teams since Charlotte, which had lost the Hornets to New Orleans in 2002, became the Bobcats in 2004. 

Perhaps the Sacramento deal would have gone through in 2013 when the Kings nearly moved to Seattle, but it's very likely that Oklahoma would still be without an NBA franchise while Seattle would, if everything else had gone the same, have a second championship to hang alongside the 1979 banner. 

Meanwhile, Sonics legend Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp would have their jerseys hanging in the rafters of a new Seattle arena that was -- in terms of who was going to pay for it -- the central sticking point in the last-ditch 2008 efforts to keep the team in Seattle. As it stands, there is nowhere to hang those jerseys. At present, thousands of pieces of Sonics memorabilia, everything from the 1996 Western Conference championship banner to the retired jerseys of Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Nate McMillan, Downtown Freddie Brown and Spencer Haywood, currently reside inside Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. 

Spencer Hawes, who played 10 years in the NBA and grew up in Seattle down the street from Key Arena, where his uncle, Steve Hawes, played for the Sonics in the early 80s, told CBS Sports the city has been in something of a "17-year [basketball] coma" since the Sonics left. Part of the pain, he says, was watching Durant, who by all accounts loved Seattle and had a special connection with the city for the short time he played there, become the player he did in Oklahoma City. Same thing for Westbrook, though he never actually played in Seattle. To Seattle people, those guys belonged to their city. And everything they went on to accomplish in Oklahoma City could've, and perhaps should've, if you listen to the people who will tell you the city screwed that deal up 10 different ways, happened in Seattle. -- Botkin