While I concede that the decision to trade James Harden (and pay Kendrick Perkins) may be the biggest ‘What If?’ moment for the Thunder, I would like to introduce another contender:
The Tyson Chandler no-trade.
This is the ultimate Butterfly Effect trade. The aim of this game is not to choose the greatest point of deviation between the life we have and the life we could have. Rather, it is to make a small change, an infinitesimal alteration to the fabric of the basketball universe, and watch chaos unfold.
In the middle of February 2009, a team with a 13-40 record made a trade with a team sitting at 30-20 for a 26-year-old big who was averaging just 8.