Today I was thinking about how a lot of people on here criticize the Cavs and make them sound like they are a horrible team, when the reality of the situation is that they are a piece or two away from being a perenial contender. The way some people act, you would think that the Cavs are the worst team of all time.
Which also got me thinking, what is the worst team in the history of the NBA?
Some nominees:
1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers: This team is technically the worst team of all time since they only recorded 9 wins. That's literally 1 less win than losses than the Bulls had in 1996. Fred Carter, the team's official MVP of that season is proclaimed "the best player on the worst team." One could easily proclaim that team the worst of all time, but the league was much less watered down back then.
2007-2008 Miami Heat: You could easily use injuries as an excuse for why this team was so bad, but the bottom line is that they spent a few months of their season with much of the core that won the championship two years prior. The team finished with a 15-67 record, a far cry from their elite status a few years before that. Once the season was clearly a wash, they traded Shaquille O'Neal, Pat Riley went on vacation and Dwyane Wade was shelved. You could easily make the argument that the team in the later part of the season which saw Ricky Davis, Chris Quinn, Earl Baron, Stephane Lasme, Luke Jackson and Bruce Ahearn playing a significant role on that team might be the worst roster ever assembled.
1992-93 Dallas Mavericks (11-71) The Mavs were actually lucky to win 11 games -- statheads will tell you they should only have won seven. Dallas suffered through a 19-game mid-season losing streak (one shy of the 1972-73 Sixers NBA single-season record 20-game streak), and ended the year being outscored by an average of 15 points per game.
But the Mavs had a powerful finish. In early March, they finally signed Jim Jackson, their No. 1 draft pick. The guard had said he'd never play for Dallas, but it probably helped that in addition to his $1 million bonus, the Mavs agreed to pay him a full season's salary, $2.6 million, for just the final 28 games. Jackson finished the season with an average of 16.3 points, 4.7 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game.
Which was probably why the Mavs managed to avoid being lumped in with the 76ers for the worst season record in NBA history.
When the Mavs won their 10th game, in their final home appearance of the season, fans went wild. "It feels so good to have a win, to have the last game here be a win," said one. "We win! We win! We're successful!" (Taken from ESPN.com)
2002-2003 Cleveland Cavaliers: This team was assembled with one purpose in mind: Get the #1 overall pick. And that they did. Leading the scoring for that year's Cavs was Ricky Davis, who is not knows as being a team player. Also on that team were Darius Miles, Jumaine Jones, Dajuan Wagner, Carlos Boozer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Considering the nice depth with bigs that coach John Lucas had to work with, you would think that that years' Cavs could have had a better record than 17-65, but the task at hand was to lose and to lose big. That team averaged 91.4 PPG and gave up 101.00 PPG.
2004-2005 Atlanta Hawks: This team went 13-69. The most common starting lineup for that team was Josh Childress, Obinna Ekezie, Al Harrington, Tyronn Lue and Josh Smith. A few of those players are nice players now, but that team just couldn't get it done. This team was so bad, they even had 5 less victories than the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
Feel free to make additional nominations. This was just off the top of my head.
Today I was thinking about how a lot of people on here criticize the Cavs and make them sound like they are a horrible team, when the reality of the situation is that they are a piece or two away from being a perenial contender. The way some people act, you would think that the Cavs are the worst team of all time.
Which also got me thinking, what is the worst team in the history of the NBA?
Some nominees:
1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers: This team is technically the worst team of all time since they only recorded 9 wins. That's literally 1 less win than losses than the Bulls had in 1996. Fred Carter, the team's official MVP of that season is proclaimed "the best player on the worst team." One could easily proclaim that team the worst of all time, but the league was much less watered down back then.
2007-2008 Miami Heat: You could easily use injuries as an excuse for why this team was so bad, but the bottom line is that they spent a few months of their season with much of the core that won the championship two years prior. The team finished with a 15-67 record, a far cry from their elite status a few years before that. Once the season was clearly a wash, they traded Shaquille O'Neal, Pat Riley went on vacation and Dwyane Wade was shelved. You could easily make the argument that the team in the later part of the season which saw Ricky Davis, Chris Quinn, Earl Baron, Stephane Lasme, Luke Jackson and Bruce Ahearn playing a significant role on that team might be the worst roster ever assembled.
1992-93 Dallas Mavericks (11-71) The Mavs were actually lucky to win 11 games -- statheads will tell you they should only have won seven. Dallas suffered through a 19-game mid-season losing streak (one shy of the 1972-73 Sixers NBA single-season record 20-game streak), and ended the year being outscored by an average of 15 points per game.
But the Mavs had a powerful finish. In early March, they finally signed Jim Jackson, their No. 1 draft pick. The guard had said he'd never play for Dallas, but it probably helped that in addition to his $1 million bonus, the Mavs agreed to pay him a full season's salary, $2.6 million, for just the final 28 games. Jackson finished the season with an average of 16.3 points, 4.7 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game.
Which was probably why the Mavs managed to avoid being lumped in with the 76ers for the worst season record in NBA history.
When the Mavs won their 10th game, in their final home appearance of the season, fans went wild. "It feels so good to have a win, to have the last game here be a win," said one. "We win! We win! We're successful!" (Taken from ESPN.com)
2002-2003 Cleveland Cavaliers: This team was assembled with one purpose in mind: Get the #1 overall pick. And that they did. Leading the scoring for that year's Cavs was Ricky Davis, who is not knows as being a team player. Also on that team were Darius Miles, Jumaine Jones, Dajuan Wagner, Carlos Boozer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Considering the nice depth with bigs that coach John Lucas had to work with, you would think that that years' Cavs could have had a better record than 17-65, but the task at hand was to lose and to lose big. That team averaged 91.4 PPG and gave up 101.00 PPG.
2004-2005 Atlanta Hawks: This team went 13-69. The most common starting lineup for that team was Josh Childress, Obinna Ekezie, Al Harrington, Tyronn Lue and Josh Smith. A few of those players are nice players now, but that team just couldn't get it done. This team was so bad, they even had 5 less victories than the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
Feel free to make additional nominations. This was just off the top of my head.
I agree with the 2002-2003 Cavs haha also Te 2007-2008 Miami Heat!!!
I was thinking the same thing. They weren't only bad, they were a tragic trainwreck!! I mean, come on, how much bad could possibly happen to one team? The Cavs had some ridiculous runs with injuries, but the Celts that season went way beyond that.
Red Auerbach dies, they start the season losing to NOH, Pierce goes out for 7 weeks with an injury, they proceed to go 3-42, Tony Allen rips his knee trying to be an acrobat, DJ falls dead while coaching their NBDL affiliate, Theo Ratliff and Szczerbiak go down, Pierce injures hmself AGAIN.. THEN the lottery went all wrong for them.
And those are just the highlights.
But the reason I bring it up is because we need to remind ourselves that if they can come back from circumstances like that, if people could stand by Doc Rivers, and if the fans had faith it could be turned around, then there's NO reason for Cleveland to lose it's faith.
We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. --Will Rogers
