98% of the trades are my idea anyways, so there are very few instances to choose from in terms of things I’ve turned down. But it’s easily from season 3 in LA, when hank approaches me about Anthony Davis for Nico Mannion, Yoeli Childs, Scottie Lewis, Pelicans 22, Pelicans 24, Bucks 25 right to swap, #14, #17 and #30 (those picks became Wendell Moore, Cassius Stanley and Kyle Guy) for Anthony Davis. I was angling to get Paul George with Scottie Lewis so I was hesitant on adding him and then hank wanted to dump like $30M in bad contracts in Gallinari and Lowry in as well and I was telling him I can’t waste my cap on them and it leaves me with just AD and I didn’t wanna do that but he refused to negotiate so I said I’ll pass.
I ended up winning a title like 2 years later anyways by using all those guys in separate deals to build a really fucking awesome team, so I can’t regret it too much but I would’ve absolutely murdered him in that deal especially since he never would’ve drafted Cassius, Wendell or Guy at those picks and Lewis busted and Mannion and Yoeli never really lived up to their potential.
Think I used Mannion and Yoeli to get Kawhi, I used those picks to get Capela, and I used Lewis to get Middleton, I used Cassius to get Jordan Bell, I used Wendell to get Caris LeVert, and Guy was a role player on the title team. So in the end it may have even been the right move to turn it down because it allowed me to build a powerhouse but having like 7 years of AD would’ve been nice too