His time with the Clippers was short, but it ultimately ended in the beginning of the best era of Clippers basketball to date. We are obviously talking about shooting guard Eric Gordon. The Clippers used their No. 7 overall pick to draft Gordon out of Indiana in the 2008 NBA Draft. He would only spend three years with the Clippers before being traded.
Gordon was the big piece going the other way in the Chris Paul trade with the then New Orleans Hornets ahead of the 2011-12 NBA season. He would play the next four seasons in New Orleans before signing with the division rival Houston Rockets. In his first year with the Rockets, Gordon would win NBA Sixth Man of the Year. Fate would only have it that Paul would join Gordon as a member of the 2017-18 Rockets shortly before free agency via trade.
Gordon might be just a good, but not great player while with Houston. However, he was an emerging star heading into his fourth year in the league. In three years with the Clippers, Gordon averaged 18.1 points, 3.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game. He made the NBA All-Rookie second team in 2009.
Perhaps New Orleans was just a bad fit for the guy, as Gordon has certainly carved out a solid role on a very good Mike D’Antoni Rockets team. While he surely would have become a star in Los Angeles, it was necessary to trade him for Paul at the end of the day. Who knows if the Clippers would have won either of their two division titles if Gordon was still on the team?