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Top 7 NBA Players Who Were Betrayed By Their Franchises In The Last 20 Years
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- Top 7 NBA Players Who Were Betrayed By Their Franchises In The Last 20 Years
NBA teams always talk about loyalty, but that loyalty usually holds up only until a better player shows up, a cheaper contract becomes available, or some first-round picks land on the table. Players get slammed for asking to be traded or leaving in free agency, while franchises can ship someone out without any heads-up and just call it "basketball business."
Not every surprising trade makes this list. Sometimes a team really likes a player but still has to make a smart basketball move. For this ranking, betrayal means something deeper: broken trust, poor communication, a promise that vanished, or a guy who gave everything to the franchise only to find out he was just like everybody else when the time came.
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Some of these trades actually worked out great for the teams. The Raptors won a title after dealing DeMar DeRozan, and the Celtics built another champion after moving Marcus Smart. That doesn't change how the players felt. A trade can be smart on paper and still feel completely wrong on the human side.
7. Anthony Davis By The Lakers
Anthony Davis already knew the NBA is a business. He had requested a trade from the Pelicans back in 2019, so he understood how fast things can change. Even so, there was almost no reason for him to think the Lakers were considering moving him during the 2024-25 season.
Davis had given the Lakers exactly what they needed after they gave up Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, and a huge draft package to get him. In the 2020 championship run, he averaged 27.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks across 21 playoff games. He shot 57.1% from the field, 38.3% from three, and 83.2% from the line, becoming the perfect two-way partner for LeBron James.
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Injuries were frustrating in the following years, but Davis rebuilt his value in a big way. He played 76 games in 2023-24 and averaged 24.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 2.3 blocks. He made the All-NBA Second Team, the All-Defensive First Team, and finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. That was his healthiest season since arriving in Los Angeles.
He was still playing at an elite level before the February 2025 trade. Through 42 games, he was averaging 25.7 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.3 steals, and 2.1 blocks. He remained the Lakers' defensive anchor, their best rebounder, and their most consistent interior scorer. Just days before the trade, he dropped 42 points and 23 rebounds against the Hornets.
Then the Lakers secretly agreed to send Davis, Max Christie, and their 2029 first-round pick to the Mavericks for Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris. Davis didn't ask to leave. LeBron didn't even know the talks were happening , and Davis was reportedly shocked when he found out. The negotiations were so quiet that the entire league learned about it at the same time by a late-night Shams' post.
From a basketball standpoint, it's hard to criticize the Lakers too much. Doncic was 25, Davis was 31, and chances to get a player like Luka don't come around often. Rob Pelinka had to pull the trigger. Still, Davis had spent years being presented as the future of the franchise after LeBron, and they moved him without any warning.
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That's why he only ranks seventh. The trade was brutal on a personal level, but it wasn't disrespectful in terms of value. He was traded for a generational superstar, not dumped for salary relief or because the Lakers stopped believing in him. The betrayal came from the surprise and the broken idea that this would become his franchise one day.
6. Jaylen Brown By The Celtics
Jaylen Brown's situation is much harder to defend because the Celtics didn't trade a declining player. They traded a 29-year-old star coming off the best statistical season of his career, only two years after he won Finals MVP.
Brown spent 10 seasons with the Celtics after they drafted him with the No. 3 pick in 2016. In that time, he helped them reach seven Eastern Conference Finals, two NBA Finals, and the 2024 championship. He averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists in the 2024 Finals while taking the toughest perimeter defensive assignments and winning Finals MVP.
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His final season with the Celtics was his best individual year yet. Brown averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists in 71 games during 2025-26. He shot 47.7% from the field, 34.7% from three, and 79.5% from the line while carrying a much bigger offensive load with Jayson Tatum missing the first 62 games after his Achilles injury. His scoring jumped more than five points per game from the previous season, and he still helped the Celtics finish 56-26.
Apparently that wasn't enough. The Celtics sent him to the 76ers for Paul George, a 2028 first-round pick, a 2031 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2030 second-round pick. George is already 36 and has averaged just 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in 2025-26. This really isn't a talent upgrade, but mostly a financial and flexibility move.
Brad Stevens pretty much admitted it straight on . He said the Celtics needed more future flexibility under the new salary-cap rules, even after back-to-back 50-win seasons and a championship. Brown's contract is expensive, but they gave him the supermax in 2023 because he earned it. Moving him to a division rival right after his best season, and the Celtics blowing a 3-1 lead over them, made all the loyalty talk sound pretty empty.
Brown also made it clear he didn't like how things were handled. He mentioned a lack of respect, that he wasn't happy with some conversations, and that he felt he deserved a better explanation. He never asked to be traded, and the Celtics had spent years calling the Brown-Tatum duo the foundation of the team.
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I think that's the biggest reason he belongs here. The Celtics didn't just trade a star, they traded a homegrown Finals MVP who carried the team through a season without Tatum, all because keeping the roster expensive started to feel uncomfortable. Maybe the picks turn out great. Maybe George gives them a couple good years. But still, Brown gave the Celtics his entire prime and got moved the moment the contract became inconvenient.
5. Chauncey Billups By The Pistons
Chauncey Billups is the oldest case here, but it might be the clearest example of a franchise not understanding what made their own team special.
Billups wasn't the biggest scorer and never put up superstar box-score numbers. His value came from controlling the game. He ran the offense, defended, hit big shots, and kept a roster without a traditional superstar playing at an elite level for years.
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The Pistons won the 2004 championship with Billups averaging 21.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 5.2 assists in the Finals. He shot 50.9% from the field, 47.1% from three, and 92.9% from the line against the Lakers and earned Finals MVP. They returned to the Finals in 2005 and made six straight Eastern Conference Finals from 2003 to 2008.
Billups was still playing some of his best basketball before the trade. In 2007-08, he averaged 17.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 1.3 steals in 78 games. He shot 44.8% from the field, 40.1% from three, and 91.8% from the line, with a 61.9% true shooting percentage. The Pistons went 59-23 and reached another Conference Finals.
Just two games into the next season, the Pistons traded Billups, Antonio McDyess, and Cheikh Samb to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson. Joe Dumars wanted to shake up a roster that had stalled, and Iverson's expiring contract gave them cap flexibility. The logic wasn't totally crazy, but moving Billups broke the exact chemistry that made the Pistons successful.
The results were immediate. The Pistons dropped from 59 wins to 39, finished eighth in the East, and got swept in the first round. The Nuggets jumped to 54-28 and reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1985. Billups averaged 17.9 points and 6.4 assists in the regular season and bumped it up to 20.6 points and 6.8 assists in the playoffs.
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The trade hit him personally, too. Billups said it was one of the hardest times in his life, and he and Rip Hamilton cried together when they realized the run was over. He also mentioned that the toughest part wasn't the trade itself, but how it happened after the close relationship he had built with coach Dumars.
The Pistons had the right to make changes, but they picked the wrong guy to move. Billups wasn't holding them back, he was the one keeping everything together. The franchise treated him like just another contract in a reset, and it took them years to recover.
4. DeMar DeRozan By The Raptors
The Raptors drafted DeMar DeRozan with the No. 9 pick in 2009, and he spent nine seasons growing with a franchise that had almost no success before he arrived. He became a four-time All-Star, made two All-NBA teams, and left as the franchise leader in points, games played, and minutes.
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The Raptors made the playoffs in each of his final five seasons. Before that, they had only reached the postseason five times in their first 18 years. DeRozan and Kyle Lowry completely changed the culture. Winning 50 games stopped feeling impossible.
His last season with the Raptors ended in disappointment, but it was still an excellent year. DeRozan averaged 23.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, and a career-high 5.2 assists in 80 games during 2017-18. The Raptors finished 59-23, got the No. 1 seed in the East, and had the best regular season in franchise history at that point.
Then LeBron and the Cavaliers swept them in the Conference Semifinals for the second year in a row. The Raptors needed a big change, and Kawhi Leonard became available. Basketball-wise, trading DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and a first-round pick for Kawhi (and Danny Green, who played huge) changed franchise history.
The issue was what happened before the deal. DeRozan believed the team had promised he would get another shot with the same core. Soon after, he found out he was going to the Spurs. General Manager Masai Ujiri later apologized for the "gap in communication," while DeRozan saw it as a clear betrayal.
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The Raptors won the 2019 championship, so some people think DeRozan had no right to feel hurt. I don't see it that way. Ujiri made the right basketball move, but DeRozan was the one who built the credibility that made a one-year Kawhi gamble possible. Without those years of him carrying the franchise, the Raptors probably never get in position for that deal.
DeRozan had also stayed loyal when leaving would have been easy. He re-signed for five years and $139.0 million in 2016 without testing the market. He wanted to finish the job in Toronto, and he thought the front office felt the same. Then he watched them win a title right after trading him.
That's why there's still talk about him possibly returning to Toronto (likely next to Kawhi, which would be ironic) after the Kings waived him in the last year of his deal, making him an unrestricted free agent. It doesn't erase how much the trade hurt him at the time.
3. Blake Griffin By The Clippers
What the Clippers did to Blake Griffin was straight-up disrespectful. They spent free agency telling him he was the face of the franchise, acted like he would be there forever, gave him a massive contract, and then traded him just seven months later.
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Griffin was the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft and the player who changed how people saw the franchise. Before his first healthy season, the Clippers had only finished with a winning record three times since moving to California in 1984. Griffin arrived, won Rookie of the Year, and averaged 22.5 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists right away.
Chris Paul's arrival made them contenders, but Griffin was still one of the main reasons people finally took the Clippers seriously. He made five straight All-Star teams from 2011 to 2015 and earned five All-NBA selections with the team. At his peak in 2013-14, he averaged 24.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists while finishing third in MVP voting.
After Paul left in 2017, the Clippers made Griffin their top priority. In their free-agency meeting, they did a fake jersey retirement ceremony, showed his No. 32 in the rafters, and sold him on being a Clipper for life. Griffin signed a five-year, $171.0 million contract. Seven months later, they traded him.
Griffin had played 33 games in the 2017-18 season and was averaging 22.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and a career-high 5.4 assists. He was trying to become more of a point forward, taking 5.7 threes per game and creating more after Paul left. His efficiency wasn't perfect at 44.1% from the field, but he was still playing like an All-Star.
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The Clippers sent Griffin, Willie Reed, and Brice Johnson to the Pistons for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick. Griffin didn't have a no-trade clause, so it was legal. But it showed how little the "Clipper for life" talk really meant.
His first comments with the Pistons said it all. He said he just wanted to play for an organization that actually wanted him. He didn't need to attack the Clippers directly, because, I mean, everyone understood plainly. A franchise had asked him to commit his prime years, put on a whole show about loyalty, and then moved him before the first season of the new contract was even over.
The trade eventually helped the Clippers get the flexibility to sign Kawhi Leonard and trade for Paul George in 2019. There was a basketball plan. Still, the way they handled Griffin was ridiculous. They wanted the emotional boost of calling him a legend, but they didn't want the responsibility of keeping the promise.
Players often get called disloyal for leaving in free agency. Griffin did the opposite. He stayed, took the contract, and trusted the team. The Clippers used that commitment and traded him months later.
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2. Isaiah Thomas By The Celtics
Isaiah Thomas gave the Celtics everything his body and mind could offer. Then, right when he needed the franchise to believe in him, they moved him in a cold, heartbreaking manner.
Thomas came over in a smaller 2015 trade with the Suns. He was 5-foot-9, had played for the Kings and Suns already, and had never started a playoff game. Two years later, he was suddenly one of the best offensive players in the league.
In the 2016-17 season, Thomas averaged 28.9 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 5.9 assists in 76 games. He shot 46.3% from the field, 37.9% from three, and 90.9% from the line, with a 62.5% true shooting percentage. He ranked third in the NBA in scoring, made the All-NBA Second Team, and finished fifth in MVP voting.
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The Celtics went 53-29 and got the No. 1 seed in the East. Thomas became known as the "King in the Fourth" because he averaged 9.8 points in fourth quarters, the highest in the league. He wasn't just padding stats on a bad team, as he was the main engine for a Conference Finals team.
Then his younger sister Chyna died in a car accident one day before the 2017 playoffs. Thomas still played Game 1 against the Bulls and scored 33 points. He traveled for the funeral, came back, and dropped 53 points against the Wizards on what would have been Chyna's 23rd birthday.
At the same time, his right hip was getting worse. He had injured it during the regular season, aggravated it in the playoffs, and finally couldn't continue after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics knew the full medical picture better than anyone.
Three months later, they traded Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Nets' 2018 first-round pick to the Cavaliers for Kyrie Irving. Thomas went from expecting a big long-term deal with the Celtics to joining a new team with a serious injury and only one year left on his contract.
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The injury basically changed his whole career. He played just 15 games for the Cavaliers, got traded again to the Lakers, and never averaged more than 15.6 points in another season. There's a cold basketball argument for the trade — Irving was younger, taller, and had already hit one of the biggest shots in Finals history. Danny Ainge saw a chance to buy low on a superstar. The Celtics also didn't know if Thomas would return to his 2017 level, and sadly he didn't.
Still, this felt like one of those cases where the human cost was too big to ignore. Thomas played through grief, pain, and a hip injury because he wanted to lead the Celtics. The franchise got every point, every ticket sale, and every emotional playoff moment, then used his lowered value to upgrade the roster.
Thomas has since rebuilt his relationship with the organization and joined the Celtics as a scout in May. That's a nice full-circle moment, but it doesn't change what happened in 2017. Very few players have sacrificed more in one season and received less security right after.
1. Luka Doncic By The Mavericks
To me, Luka Doncic is the clear number one . None of the other players were as young, as accomplished, or as central to their franchise's future when they got traded.
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The Mavericks got Doncic on draft night in 2018 and watched him turn into a superstar almost right away. He won Rookie of the Year, made the All-NBA First Team in his second season, and then did it for five straight years. Before turning 26, he already had five All-NBA First Team selections. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Durant didn't do that.
Doncic's final full season with the Mavericks was historic. In 2023-24, he averaged 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists, and 1.4 steals in 70 games. He shot 48.7% from the field, 38.2% from three, and 78.6% from the line, won the scoring title, and finished third in MVP voting (which should have been his, in my opinion).
The Mavericks entered the playoffs as the No. 5 seed, but Doncic led them past the Clippers, Thunder, and Timberwolves to reach the NBA Finals. He averaged 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 8.1 assists across 22 playoff games, leading the postseason in points, rebounds, assists, field goals made, and three-pointers. They lost the Finals 4-1 to the Celtics, but it was the franchise's first Finals since 2011.
Not even a full season later, the franchise decided they didn't want him anymore. Doncic had been dealing with a calf injury and played only 22 games before the February 2025 trade. Even in a slower start, he averaged 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists, and 2.0 steals while shooting 46.4% from the field. His 58.4% true shooting percentage was below normal, but he still had a +168 plus-minus in those games.
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Nico Harrison privately worked out a deal with the Lakers, sending Doncic, Kleber, and Morris for Davis, Christie, and one 2029 first-round pick. The Jazz got Jalen Hood-Schifino and second-round compensation to help complete it. There was no public process and no chance for other teams to offer more.
Doncic didn't ask for a trade . He didn't know it was even being discussed. He thought he would spend his whole career in Dallas and was eligible for a five-year supermax extension worth around $345.0 million. The trade took that away and cost him the chance at the biggest contract in league history at the time.
The Mavericks had concerns about conditioning , defensive effort, and long-term durability. Those weren't completely made up since Doncic had struggled to stay healthy through some seasons with calf, ankle, and thigh issues. But those are things you work through with a 25-year-old generational talent. They aren't reasons to trade him for one first-round pick.
What makes it worse is that the Mavericks had built their entire identity around Doncic. They used his face to sell tickets, jerseys, and the future. He carried them to two Western Conference Finals and one NBA Finals before he even reached his physical prime. Then the ownership and front office decided he didn't fit the culture they wanted.
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Doncic's reaction showed how unexpected it was. He said he thought he would be there his whole career in Dallas, and you could tell the move affected him once he got to Los Angeles. He had never pushed his way out, even during some rough roster years early on.
The Lakers had every reason to celebrate, while the Mavericks had to feel embarrassed. Most franchises spend decades looking for a player like Doncic, and the Mavericks already had him. They didn't lose him in free agency or get an offer they couldn't match. They chose to trade him in secret before he turned 26.
That's why Luka sits alone at number one. Every player on this list had reason to feel hurt, but Doncic was supposed to be untouchable. He had already delivered a Finals run, historic numbers, and years of loyalty. The Mavericks still moved him anyway.
Honorable Mention: Marcus Smart
Marcus Smart just missed the main list because the Celtics' move worked out really well. Trading him helped them get Kristaps Porzingis, who played a big role in the 2024 championship. Even so, how they handled Smart deserves a mention.
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Smart spent nine seasons with the Celtics, playing 581 regular-season games and averaging 10.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.5 steals. He made three All-Defensive First Teams and became the first guard since Gary Payton in 1996 to win Defensive Player of the Year in 2021-22, when he averaged 12.1 points, 5.9 assists, and 1.7 steals.
He had become the emotional heart of the team. Smart wasn't always efficient, but he defended every position, took tough assignments, and played through injuries all the time. He reached five Conference Finals and one NBA Finals in 2022 doing it his way.
The final deal sent Smart to the Grizzlies, Porzingis and two first-round picks to the Celtics, and Tyus Jones plus salary pieces to the Wizards. From the front office view, the Celtics won the trade and won a title the next year. From Smart's view, they told the heart of the team he wasn't going anywhere and then moved him a week later.
That isn't enough to put him in the top seven, but it's enough to show the same lesson again. NBA loyalty always sounds great until a team finds a trade they like better.
