Thanks for the clarification and for summing up the situation and how it would have played out because in truth, I'm a very casual NBA fan and it's really not in my wheelhouse.
That said, could you enlighten me as to how that Brooklyn trade finally played out, ie, what did they get in return or are there still draft picks yet to be determined from that trade?
There might be a future 2nd or something that they got or owe from a trade of a pick they got in the nets trade but essentially they got:
2014: James Young- Bust, long gone
2016: Jaylen Brown- Great pick
2017: Tatum- Home run
2018: Draft pick was used to get Kyrie, who was useful at times when here but now gone
2019: Langford- TBD (came from trading the nets #1 to move down to #3 and still get tatum)
Plus a bunch of cap space that eventually became horford and hayward though they would have had that space eventually anyway. You could also argue they got some indirect value because those trades let them showcase guys like Jeff Green to get increased trade value, and to trade Rondo for more value, but that's harder to quantify.
edit: And I don't think it's 100% clear what they would have had to actually give up to get either Butler or Paul George at the time, but it was almost certainly at least one of the nets picks that became either Brown or Tatum plus more