The 2011 Redraft: What If Kawhi and Klay Never Became Who We Think They Are?

Two stories broke this offseason that, on the surface, have nothing to do with each other.

First, Klay Thompson signed with the Miami Heat. The Splash Brother, the man who once dropped 37 points in a single quarter, spent the last two years bouncing around Dallas and just got bought out to go chase a ring in South Beach next to a newly acquired Giannis Antetokounmpo. Golden State did not even make the shortlist. The breakup is officially, completely final.

Second, and much louder, Kawhi Leonard is no longer a Clipper. This week the NBA finally dropped the hammer on the Aspiration scandal, stripping Los Angeles of five first round picks, hitting the franchise for 30 million dollars, and suspending owner Steve Ballmer for a full year, all over a "no show" endorsement deal the league says was really just a backdoor way to pay Kawhi around the salary cap. The punishment cleared the last hurdle standing in the way of the trade everyone already knew was coming, Kawhi is headed back to Toronto, the same city where he delivered a championship in 2019 before ever leaving.

Put those two stories side by side and you start seeing a pattern. Both guys got where they are through a chain of draft night trades and organizational decisions that, if even one domino tips differently, sends their entire careers somewhere else entirely. So we went back to the source. June 2011, a draft class that on paper looks like a fairly ordinary top 15, and in practice quietly built the Warriors dynasty, set up the exact chain of events that led to a stripped down, scandal ridden Clippers franchise, and produced one of the most infamous "wait, they took him THERE?" stories in league history. Fire up the DeLorean, because we ran the whole thing back, and the ripple effects reach basically every corner of the last decade and a half of basketball.

Here's how our 2011 redraft board shakes out with the benefit of hindsight:

Pick 1: Kyrie Irving to the Cleveland Cavaliers

No change here, some things the basketball gods just get right on the first try. Kyrie goes first, same as real life, same handles that make grown defenders forget how knees work. The fun starts one pick later.

Pick 2: Kawhi Leonard to the Minnesota Timberwolves

Here is the one that rewrites an entire decade.

In the world we actually live in, Kawhi went 15th to Indiana and was flipped to San Antonio for George Hill before he even got fitted for a Pacers jersey. He won a title and a Finals MVP with the Spurs, had a very public falling out with their medical staff over a mystery quad injury in 2018, got shipped to Toronto, won a championship there in 2019, then bolted in free agency to the Clippers to team up with Paul George. That Clippers chapter just ended in about the messiest way possible, a league investigation found the franchise had been secretly funneling him extra money through a sham endorsement deal to get around the salary cap, and the punishment was brutal, five forfeited first round picks, a 30 million dollar fine, and the owner banned from team activities for a full year. The tidy bow on top is that Kawhi is now headed right back to Toronto, the same city that already gave him a ring, in a trade built entirely out of the wreckage.

If you need a reminder of what that 2019 run actually looked like, this should do it:

None of that happens in this world. Picture the Timberwolves draft room instead. "He's quiet, doesn't say much, just destroys everybody's shooting hand in practice," says a scout, sliding tape across the table. The GM barely looks up. "We already have a franchise big man in Kevin Love. Get me the kid who can guard three positions and doesn't need the ball to be great." Kawhi lands in Minnesota next to prime Kevin Love, immediately giving the Wolves a two way star they had been searching for since Kevin Garnett left town. No Spurs tenure means no medical staff feud. No first Raptors stop means no need for a second one either, and definitely no scandal to trade his way out of, because there is no Clippers front office ever cutting backroom deals with a sponsor to keep him around in the first place. Kawhi just quietly becomes a Wolves legend, never plays a single minute in a Clippers jersey, and the single wildest storyline of the current NBA offseason simply never gets written.

Pick 3: Klay Thompson to the Utah Jazz

And here is the other half of the story.

Real Klay fell to 11, to Golden State, and became one half of the most lethal shooting backcourt in NBA history, four championships, a 73 win season, a place in basketball history forever tied to the Bay. Now send him to Utah instead. Picture the Jazz shootaround. "This kid just does not miss," an assistant coach says, watching rookie Klay casually drain 30 threes in a row like it's a warmup drill. "Great," says the head coach, "put him next to Gordon Hayward and let's see how many people we can outshoot." A Splash Brother in Utah is still a very good outcome for the Jazz, but it is nowhere near the same story, because the magic of Klay was never just the jump shot, it was the specific chemistry with a certain baby faced assassin from Davidson who does not exist yet in this scenario. Which brings us to pick 11.

Pick 4: Jimmy Butler to the Cleveland Cavaliers

Detroit's actual pick here was Tristan Thompson, while Jimmy Butler quietly fell all the way to 30 and turned himself into a six time All-Star and a Finals participant on pure force of will. Give Cleveland back to back picks and now Kyrie is developing next to a rookie who treats every summer workout like a personal grudge match against the sun itself. "Kid ran through a wall during a scrimmage, literally, there is now a Jimmy shaped hole in the practice facility," says an assistant, only half joking. A young two way wing growing up alongside Kyrie during Cleveland's lean pre-LeBron-return years gives the front office a very different set of trade chips heading into 2014, and possibly a very different version of the Kevin Love trade altogether.

Pick 5: Kemba Walker to the Toronto Raptors

Real Raptors pick here was Jonas Valanciunas, while Kemba fell to Charlotte and spent most of his prime as a one man offense on rosters that could not build much around him. In Toronto he gets an actual infrastructure. Picture a front office lunch. "He can get a bucket whenever he wants, problem is our defense," someone says between bites of a sandwich. "We'll figure the defense out later," the GM replies, "get me somebody who can put the ball in the basket in April." Different story for Toronto than the one we know, and considerably different without the pieces still to come at picks 13 and 15.

Pick 6: Nikola Vucevic to the Washington Wizards

Washington took Jan Vesely in real life, a name that has since become draft night shorthand for "how did that happen." Vucevic instead becomes a very solid double double machine for a Wizards team that spent most of this decade searching for exactly that. Picture the front office popping champagne a little early. "We got a guy who just quietly gives us 18 and 11 every night without complaining," says the GM. "In this building? Groundbreaking."

Pick 7: Isaiah Thomas to the Sacramento Kings

Here is the funniest one on the whole board. In real life the Kings already got Isaiah Thomas, at pick 60, dead last, the actual literal definition of Mr. Irrelevant. He went on to become an All-NBA scorer who once dropped 53 points in a playoff game the day after his sister passed away, arguably one of the great "believe in the underdog" stories in modern NBA history. Now imagine Sacramento just taking him at 7 instead of making him climb the entire mountain from the very bottom of the draft first. "Why do we have to find this out the hard way every single time," mutters a scout, staring at fifty nine wasted picks that came before this one.

Pick 8: Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons

Detroit's real pick was Brandon Knight, who never quite became a lead guard at the NBA level. Harris instead grows into a reliable 20 point scorer over a long, steady career. Picture the workout gym. "Kid's just efficient, doesn't force anything, gets his buckets and moves on," a scout notes. "Boring," says another voice from the back, "boring is exactly what this front office needs."

Pick 9: Enes Kanter to the Charlotte Bobcats

Utah's real pick, Kanter turned into a bruising, high motor rebounder with a personality loud enough to fill an arena by himself. Charlotte gets a paint presence and, more importantly, gets a locker room built in postgame quote machine years before his actual outspoken chapters in Boston and New York. "He talked for eleven straight minutes in his exit interview and we didn't even ask a question," says a Bobcats staffer, not entirely upset about it.

Pick 10: Bojan Bogdanovic to the Milwaukee Bucks

Milwaukee's real pick was Jimmer Fredette, who never found NBA legs after a legendary college run. Bogdanovic stayed overseas until 2014 in real life before becoming a genuinely excellent floor spacing wing for multiple playoff teams. A little patience here gives Milwaukee a shooter years before they would eventually need one to space the floor around a certain Greek Freak who, in this specific universe, is still growing up an ocean away completely unaware of any of this.

Pick 11: Iman Shumpert to the Golden State Warriors

And here is the whole ballgame.

Golden State's actual pick at 11 was Klay Thompson. Take him away and hand them Shumpert instead, a solid defensive wing who never developed into a knockdown shooter, and the death lineup simply does not exist. No Splash Brothers. No historic three point volume. No 73 win season. Picture the Warriors front office a few years down the line, watching Steph Curry cook by himself every single night with nobody on the roster who can punish a defense for helping off. "We need a second shooter," says the GM, "somebody, anybody." Shumpert, bless him, is a good role player. He is not that guy. The dynasty simply never gets off the ground.

Pick 12: Tristan Thompson to the Utah Jazz

Real life Cavaliers pick, Thompson instead lands in Utah, giving the Jazz a physical, high energy rebounder to pair with rookie Klay in the frontcourt. Picture the Jazz shootaround again. "This guy just eats offensive rebounds for breakfast," says the coach, watching him fight for three straight put backs in a single possession. A gritty, defense-and-glass big man is a nice enough fit anywhere, quietly useful, never the headline.

Pick 13: Jonas Valanciunas to the Phoenix Suns

Toronto's actual pick, Valanciunas instead becomes a steady rebounding presence for a Suns team stuck in the post Steve Nash wilderness for most of this decade. This one matters more for what it takes away than what it gives. No Valanciunas on Toronto means no trade chip years later to pair with a Marc Gasol deadline deal, one of the quiet, unglamorous pieces of Toronto's actual 2019 championship puzzle. Remove him from the board entirely and that title gets even harder to build, on top of the fact that the guy who actually won it for them was never a Raptor in the first place.

Pick 14: Bismack Biyombo to the Houston Rockets

Sacramento's real pick, Biyombo instead becomes a rim protecting energy big for Houston, the kind of player who will absolutely never touch the ball on offense and will absolutely swat three shots into the stands by halftime. "Just jump," says the coach. "That's the whole scouting report. Just jump really, really high."

Pick 15: Markieff Morris to the Indiana Pacers

And to close out the lottery, the Pacers actually took Kawhi here in real life before trading him away that same night. Now they settle for his draft twin from a different timeline, Markieff Morris, a solid rotation forward who spent his career as exactly that, solid. Picture the Pacers front office a decade later, watching a highlight package of the guy they actually could have kept, and just quietly turning off the television.

The payoff: an NBA where none of it happens

So here is the world we just built. Kawhi Leonard becomes a Timberwolves legend and never sets foot in San Antonio, Toronto, or Los Angeles, which means no Spurs medical drama, no 2019 Finals run through Toronto, and absolutely no Clippers front office quietly cutting side deals with a sponsor just to keep him around, no stripped picks, no suspended owner, no scandal at all. Klay Thompson becomes a very good Utah Jazz sharpshooter instead of one half of the most feared shooting backcourt basketball has ever produced, which means the Warriors never assemble the death lineup, never hit 73 wins, and never stack four championships in eight years. And Toronto, stripped of both its actual champion and the trade chip that helped bring in the final piece, never raises that 2019 banner at all, which also means there is no ring to chase a second time around, because there was never a first trade to begin with.

Golden State spends the 2010s as a good team that occasionally makes the second round. Toronto stays exactly what it was before, a solid, likable franchise that nobody circles on the calendar in June. And Kawhi Leonard, healthy, happy, and playing in relative peace 400 miles from the nearest tabloid back page, just quietly puts together a Hall of Fame career in Minnesota that nobody outside the state properly appreciates until he is long retired.

The real 2011 class, by the numbers

Alright, now let's pump the brakes for a second, because before we close the book on this one, we need to talk about the class itself. Not the redraft. The real one. The one that actually happened back in June 2011.

Folks, this was not just a good draft. This was a stacked, loaded, absolutely ridiculous collection of talent hiding in plain sight, and the numbers back it up. Seven different players from this single class went on to make multiple All-Star teams, and six of them earned at least one All-NBA selection, including the very last pick of the entire night, Isaiah Thomas, Mr. Irrelevant himself, out here making All-NBA Second Team like he had something to prove to every scout who let him fall to 60. That is not normal. That is a class that was lying to everybody about how good it actually was.

Now run the full tally. Combined, the headline names from this class have collected somewhere around 35 All-Star selections and close to 20 All-NBA nods between them. Kyrie brings nine All-Star appearances and a Rookie of the Year trophy to the table. Kawhi brings seven All-Star nods, seven All-NBA selections, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, and two Finals MVPs, numbers that put him in conversation with legends who played twice as long. Klay brings five All-Star trips and a place in the history books for the loudest quarter of basketball ever played by a human being. Jimmy Butler brings six All-Star selections and the kind of competitive fire that has dragged multiple franchises further than their roster had any business going. Kemba Walker, four All-Star trips on rosters that rarely gave him any help. Isaiah Thomas, an All-NBA season that still reads like fiction given where he was picked.

And the rings. Count them up, this class has combined for eleven individual championships across eight different title runs, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022. That means a player from the 2011 draft touched a championship trophy in more than half of the seasons played since. Klay alone accounts for four of them. Kawhi's two rings came with two different franchises as Finals MVP both times, a feat only a small handful of players in league history can claim.

Here is the one stat that might say the most about this class though, zero. Zero scoring titles. Not one player from this entire group ever led the league in points per game, not Kyrie, not Kawhi, not Klay, not Jimmy. This was never a class built on empty numbers or one man carrying a stat sheet. It was a class built on winning, on defense, on two way players who made winning the whole point.

So here's the final verdict. This was one of the deepest, most quietly devastating draft classes the league has produced in the modern era, a group that gave us two separate dynasties, a Finals MVP who won it with two different teams, a Mr. Irrelevant who made All-NBA, and enough championship rings to fill a jewelry case twice over. Take Kawhi and Klay out of Golden State and Toronto's timelines like we did tonight, and you don't just change two careers, you unplug the entire decade. That is not a good draft class. That is one of the great ones, and it took this long, and one perfectly timed offseason of chaos, for everybody to finally sit up and notice.