Most Disappointing teams

[tamaraw08]

I think of the
1. 95-96 Dallas team that had Kidd, Mashburn and Jim Jackson.
Yes, Jason was just a rookie but he was 22 when he joined the league, not 18 or 19, had really good stats, went to the AS.
The previous season Jim just averaged 25.7 pts but still managed to put up nearly 20pts 5 reb/3 apg.
Mashburn just had a 24/4/4 before Kidd joined the team, still averaged 23/5.5/2.8
The team also benefitted with George McCloud a sharpshooter who attempted nearly 9 and had shot a good 38% which gave them 19pts/game.
For that kind of firepower and Kidd leading the offensive attack with 17, 10 assist and 7 rebs, you would think they will be top 5 easily in ORTG but shockingly, the Mavs team only ranked 19th and just won 26 games and lost 56.

2. 96-97 Golden State team with Sprewell, Joe Smith, Mullin, Mark Price, BJ Armstrong.
Sprewell was at peak at age 26, registered 24/5/6
Chris Mullin at 33, still gave them 14.5pts with a really good 60.5 EFG%
Mark Price was still a good 3pt shooter averaged 39.6% from 3, 11 pts/ 5 assists.
Joe Smith gave them 19pts/8.5 rebs
And yet this team lost 52 games under a very smart coach Rick Adelman.

[pace31]

For me personally, the '94 - '95 Jazz

Went 60-22, 4th in offense, 8th in defense, 1st in net rating. Still landed the 3rd seed and get stuck playing a newly healthy reining champion Rockets team in the first round. Lose game 5 at home.

We have a banner if we win that game 5.

[tcheco]

I didn't really understand much of bastketball at the time, but I really admired Turkoglu game with the Magic, when he joined the Suns, who had just lost Stoudemire, I thought he would thrive, but the team as a whole was disappointing

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

2003 2004 lakers. I Know Malone and GP were old but kinda crazy they lost 4-1 in the finals.

2013/2014 Nets- Team was pretty stacked, and they added Garnett and PP, who were past their prime but that team should have done more.

2014/2015 Hawks. 60 win team, first seed and was swept in the ECF.

2015/2016 Warriors 73 win team, was up 3-1 in the finals, and ended up losing 4-3

[KGtabake]

The Olajuwon Drexler Barkley Rockets.
They robbed us of a finals matchup against the Jordan Pippen Rodman Bulls.

[tamaraw08]

2003 2004 lakers. I Know Malone and GP were old but kinda crazy they lost 4-1 in the finals.

2013/2014 Nets- Team was pretty stacked, and they added Garnett and PP, who were past their prime but that team should have done more.

2014/2015 Hawks. 60 win team, first seed and was swept in the ECF.

2015/2016 Warriors 73 win team, was up 3-1 in the finals, and ended up losing 4-3

All these teams were very disappointing indeed but at least they went to the playoffs and most of them are old and/or injured esp the Lakers and Nets.
The Mavs and GSW team didn't even go to the playoffs, that's how bad it turned out for them.

[tamaraw08]

For me personally, the '94 - '95 Jazz

Went 60-22, 4th in offense, 8th in defense, 1st in net rating. Still landed the 3rd seed and get stuck playing a newly healthy reining champion Rockets team in the first round. Lose game 5 at home.

We have a banner if we win that game 5.

I should have made the Title Thread more specific as in most disappointing Regular Season team.

[Bornstellar]

Just looking at single seasons it has to be the 2016 Warriors. Defending champs, record breaking season, first unanimous MVP, up 3-1 in the Finals only to end up losing. Can't think of a bigger single season disappointment than that, considering the expectations and build up

[Bad Bart]

I think of the
1. 95-96 Dallas team that had Kidd, Mashburn and Jim Jackson.
Yes, Jason was just a rookie but he was 22 when he joined the league, not 18 or 19, had really good stats, went to the AS.
The previous season Jim just averaged 25.7 pts but still managed to put up nearly 20pts 5 reb/3 apg.
Mashburn just had a 24/4/4 before Kidd joined the team, still averaged 23/5.5/2.8
The team also benefitted with George McCloud a sharpshooter who attempted nearly 9 and had shot a good 38% which gave them 19pts/game.
For that kind of firepower and Kidd leading the offensive attack with 17, 10 assist and 7 rebs, you would think they will be top 5 easily in ORTG but shockingly, the Mavs team only ranked 19th and just won 26 games and lost 56.

2. 96-97 Golden State team with Sprewell, Joe Smith, Mullin, Mark Price, BJ Armstrong.
Sprewell was at peak at age 26, registered 24/5/6
Chris Mullin at 33, still gave them 14.5pts with a really good 60.5 EFG%
Mark Price was still a good 3pt shooter averaged 39.6% from 3, 11 pts/ 5 assists.
Joe Smith gave them 19pts/8.5 rebs
And yet this team lost 52 games under a very smart coach Rick Adelman.

The 96-97 Warriors is a very bizarre pull, no one at the time thought they were any good. Mully and Price were well past their primes, BJ Armstrong was a pumpkin, Joe Smith couldn't compete with the other bigs out West, and the rest of the roster was, excuse my French, total ****. That Adelman-Twardzik combo was the worst thing to ever happen to the Warriors. They drafted Todd Fuller and Adonal Foyle over Kobe and TMac in consecutive drafts and traded Tim Hardaway essentially for Bimbo Coles. My favorite game (that I was in attendance for) from that era was when the Wizards came to Oakland Arena the next season and Tracy Murray went for 50 and Rod Strickland had a 20 point, 20 assist triple double. Sam Mack also put up 38 on them shortly after being called up to the Rockets from the CBA. This all happened right before they renovated the arena, and when they came back from San Jose, no one showed up.

[UcanUwill]

I didn't really understand much of bastketball at the time, but I really admired Turkoglu game with the Magic, when he joined the Suns, who had just lost Stoudemire, I thought he would thrive, but the team as a whole was disappointing

Turkoglu got paid and got fat, he quit, Raptors fans hated him. For how terribly Colangelo often was, he was pretty good at fixing his errors. That contract was so terrible, but next year he just flat out conned Suns into giving Barbosa for him.

Speaking of Suns, my first thought was Steve Nash's Suns, I really thought they will win a title, that was a superteam in my book. at a time at least. I never really bought Melo and Soudemire Knicks, like some people wanted to believe, but that team was just dumb and it was obvious. Nash's Suns tho, I really believed in them.

Another team that was super disappointing to me at a time, was white Timberwolves, aka Love and Rubio era. I thought all these players were good, how are they not making playoffs even? In Hindsight tho, it makes sense that a team that had Pekovic and Love as main two bigs, sucked... And their best player by true impact and not empty stats, was Rubio, but he was like 13 ppg. scorer... Kirilenko was also great, but they put him at SF alongside Rubio, so that was basically 3 terrible shooters in the same lineup.

[JonFromVA]

I didn't really understand much of bastketball at the time, but I really admired Turkoglu game with the Magic, when he joined the Suns, who had just lost Stoudemire, I thought he would thrive, but the team as a whole was disappointing

Turkoglu got paid and got fat, he quit, Raptors fans hated him. For how terribly Colangelo often was, he was pretty good at fixing his errors. That contract was so terrible, but next year he just flat out conned Suns into giving Barbosa for him.

Speaking of Suns, my first thought was Steve Nash's Suns, I really thought they will win a title, that was a superteam in my book. at a time at least. I never really bought Melo and Soudemire Knicks, like some people wanted to believe, but that team was just dumb and it was obvious. Nash's Suns tho, I really believed in them.

Another team that was super disappointing to me at a time, was white Timberwolves, aka Love and Rubio era. I thought all these players were good, how are they not making playoffs even? In Hindsight tho, it makes sense that a team that had Pekovic and Love as main two bigs, sucked... And their best player by true impact and not empty stats, was Rubio, but he was like 13 ppg. scorer... Kirilenko was also great, but they put him at SF alongside Rubio, so that was basically 3 terrible shooters in the same lineup.

The TWolves are a fun puzzle, in 13/14 their primary starting lineup (C. Brewer | K. Love | K. Martin | N. Peković | R. Rubio) was +11.6 pp100 but they only won 40 games and missed the playoffs. That's not easy to do, especially when they played 1051 minutes together.

[tamaraw08]

I think of the
1. 95-96 Dallas team that had Kidd, Mashburn and Jim Jackson.
Yes, Jason was just a rookie but he was 22 when he joined the league, not 18 or 19, had really good stats, went to the AS.
The previous season Jim just averaged 25.7 pts but still managed to put up nearly 20pts 5 reb/3 apg.
Mashburn just had a 24/4/4 before Kidd joined the team, still averaged 23/5.5/2.8
The team also benefitted with George McCloud a sharpshooter who attempted nearly 9 and had shot a good 38% which gave them 19pts/game.
For that kind of firepower and Kidd leading the offensive attack with 17, 10 assist and 7 rebs, you would think they will be top 5 easily in ORTG but shockingly, the Mavs team only ranked 19th and just won 26 games and lost 56.

2. 96-97 Golden State team with Sprewell, Joe Smith, Mullin, Mark Price, BJ Armstrong.
Sprewell was at peak at age 26, registered 24/5/6
Chris Mullin at 33, still gave them 14.5pts with a really good 60.5 EFG%
Mark Price was still a good 3pt shooter averaged 39.6% from 3, 11 pts/ 5 assists.
Joe Smith gave them 19pts/8.5 rebs
And yet this team lost 52 games under a very smart coach Rick Adelman.

The 96-97 Warriors is a very bizarre pull, no one at the time thought they were any good. Mully and Price were well past their primes, BJ Armstrong was a pumpkin, Joe Smith couldn't compete with the other bigs out West, and the rest of the roster was, excuse my French, total ****. That Adelman-Twardzik combo was the worst thing to ever happen to the Warriors. They drafted Todd Fuller and Adonal Foyle over Kobe and TMac in consecutive drafts and traded Tim Hardaway essentially for Bimbo Coles. My favorite game (that I was in attendance for) from that era was when the Wizards came to Oakland Arena the next season and Tracy Murray went for 50 and Rod Strickland had a 20 point, 20 assist triple double. Sam Mack also put up 38 on them shortly after being called up to the Rockets from the CBA. This all happened right before they renovated the arena, and when they came back from San Jose, no one showed up.

I understand that both Mullin and Price were past their primes but it's not like both of them were 36 year old just collecting paychecks.
at age 33, Chris played 34 mins/game and still managed to play 4 more seasons, 134 games at Indiana after that.
Price was just 32 and still played 27 mins and it's not like relied heavily on speed and athleticism.
Smith was 6'10 and guarded PFs, it's not like he had to go toe to toe with huge centers like Shaq, Olajuwon and David Robinson.
No, I didn't expect them to contend and win it all esp being coached by Adelman, but losing 52 games and placing dead LAST in the Pacific division was pretty hard to accept IMO.
I read some where that the most likely culprit was the very low morale of the team, having to meet in the parking lot, ride by bus for like an hour to a run down practice facility with very cheap soap to shower with, etc.

[Johnny Bball]

2025 Suns?

[Bad Bart]

I think of the
1. 95-96 Dallas team that had Kidd, Mashburn and Jim Jackson.
Yes, Jason was just a rookie but he was 22 when he joined the league, not 18 or 19, had really good stats, went to the AS.
The previous season Jim just averaged 25.7 pts but still managed to put up nearly 20pts 5 reb/3 apg.
Mashburn just had a 24/4/4 before Kidd joined the team, still averaged 23/5.5/2.8
The team also benefitted with George McCloud a sharpshooter who attempted nearly 9 and had shot a good 38% which gave them 19pts/game.
For that kind of firepower and Kidd leading the offensive attack with 17, 10 assist and 7 rebs, you would think they will be top 5 easily in ORTG but shockingly, the Mavs team only ranked 19th and just won 26 games and lost 56.

2. 96-97 Golden State team with Sprewell, Joe Smith, Mullin, Mark Price, BJ Armstrong.
Sprewell was at peak at age 26, registered 24/5/6
Chris Mullin at 33, still gave them 14.5pts with a really good 60.5 EFG%
Mark Price was still a good 3pt shooter averaged 39.6% from 3, 11 pts/ 5 assists.
Joe Smith gave them 19pts/8.5 rebs
And yet this team lost 52 games under a very smart coach Rick Adelman.

The 96-97 Warriors is a very bizarre pull, no one at the time thought they were any good. Mully and Price were well past their primes, BJ Armstrong was a pumpkin, Joe Smith couldn't compete with the other bigs out West, and the rest of the roster was, excuse my French, total ****. That Adelman-Twardzik combo was the worst thing to ever happen to the Warriors. They drafted Todd Fuller and Adonal Foyle over Kobe and TMac in consecutive drafts and traded Tim Hardaway essentially for Bimbo Coles. My favorite game (that I was in attendance for) from that era was when the Wizards came to Oakland Arena the next season and Tracy Murray went for 50 and Rod Strickland had a 20 point, 20 assist triple double. Sam Mack also put up 38 on them shortly after being called up to the Rockets from the CBA. This all happened right before they renovated the arena, and when they came back from San Jose, no one showed up.

I understand that both Mullin and Price were past their primes but it's not like both of them were 36 year old just collecting paychecks.
at age 33, Chris played 34 mins/game and still managed to play 4 more seasons, 134 games at Indiana after that.
Price was just 32 and still played 27 mins and it's not like relied heavily on speed and athleticism.
Smith was 6'10 and guarded PFs, it's not like he had to go toe to toe with huge centers like Shaq, Olajuwon and David Robinson.
No, I didn't expect them to contend and win it all esp being coached by Adelman, but losing 52 games and placing dead LAST in the Pacific division was pretty hard to accept IMO.
I read some where that the most likely culprit was the very low morale of the team, having to meet in the parking lot, ride by bus for like an hour to a run down practice facility with very cheap soap to shower with, etc.

Obviously these are just opinions, but having been a diehard W's fan at the time (very few of us back then), this is a very a bizarre hill to die on to me.

[JXL]

2012-13 Lakers
2021-22 Nets
2017-18 Thunder

There are others similarly.

[tamaraw08]

The 96-97 Warriors is a very bizarre pull, no one at the time thought they were any good. Mully and Price were well past their primes, BJ Armstrong was a pumpkin, Joe Smith couldn't compete with the other bigs out West, and the rest of the roster was, excuse my French, total ****. That Adelman-Twardzik combo was the worst thing to ever happen to the Warriors. They drafted Todd Fuller and Adonal Foyle over Kobe and TMac in consecutive drafts and traded Tim Hardaway essentially for Bimbo Coles. My favorite game (that I was in attendance for) from that era was when the Wizards came to Oakland Arena the next season and Tracy Murray went for 50 and Rod Strickland had a 20 point, 20 assist triple double. Sam Mack also put up 38 on them shortly after being called up to the Rockets from the CBA. This all happened right before they renovated the arena, and when they came back from San Jose, no one showed up.

I understand that both Mullin and Price were past their primes but it's not like both of them were 36 year old just collecting paychecks.
at age 33, Chris played 34 mins/game and still managed to play 4 more seasons, 134 games at Indiana after that.
Price was just 32 and still played 27 mins and it's not like relied heavily on speed and athleticism.
Smith was 6'10 and guarded PFs, it's not like he had to go toe to toe with huge centers like Shaq, Olajuwon and David Robinson.
No, I didn't expect them to contend and win it all esp being coached by Adelman, but losing 52 games and placing dead LAST in the Pacific division was pretty hard to accept IMO.
I read some where that the most likely culprit was the very low morale of the team, having to meet in the parking lot, ride by bus for like an hour to a run down practice facility with very cheap soap to shower with, etc.

Obviously these are just opinions, but having been a diehard W's fan at the time (very few of us back then), this is a very a bizarre hill to die on to me.

I was probably just biased because Mullin, Price and Sprewell were my favorite players, so I expected so much from them.
That '94 Warriors team with Spree, Mullin, Hardaway, Gugs, Marshall and Seikali, Gatling coached by Nelson was also disappointing too IMO.

[tamaraw08]

I didn't really understand much of bastketball at the time, but I really admired Turkoglu game with the Magic, when he joined the Suns, who had just lost Stoudemire, I thought he would thrive, but the team as a whole was disappointing

Turkoglu got paid and got fat, he quit, Raptors fans hated him. For how terribly Colangelo often was, he was pretty good at fixing his errors. That contract was so terrible, but next year he just flat out conned Suns into giving Barbosa for him.

Speaking of Suns, my first thought was Steve Nash's Suns, I really thought they will win a title, that was a superteam in my book. at a time at least. I never really bought Melo and Soudemire Knicks, like some people wanted to believe, but that team was just dumb and it was obvious. Nash's Suns tho, I really believed in them.

Another team that was super disappointing to me at a time, was white Timberwolves, aka Love and Rubio era. I thought all these players were good, how are they not making playoffs even? In Hindsight tho, it makes sense that a team that had Pekovic and Love as main two bigs, sucked... And their best player by true impact and not empty stats, was Rubio, but he was like 13 ppg. scorer... Kirilenko was also great, but they put him at SF alongside Rubio, so that was basically 3 terrible shooters in the same lineup.

wait, Love, Rubio and Kirlienko on the same team? How did I miss this? My first guess on why they sucked was blaming Kurt Rambis but that team was also coached by the pretty good Rick Adelman, how did this team lose 51 games?

[Bad Bart]

I understand that both Mullin and Price were past their primes but it's not like both of them were 36 year old just collecting paychecks.
at age 33, Chris played 34 mins/game and still managed to play 4 more seasons, 134 games at Indiana after that.
Price was just 32 and still played 27 mins and it's not like relied heavily on speed and athleticism.
Smith was 6'10 and guarded PFs, it's not like he had to go toe to toe with huge centers like Shaq, Olajuwon and David Robinson.
No, I didn't expect them to contend and win it all esp being coached by Adelman, but losing 52 games and placing dead LAST in the Pacific division was pretty hard to accept IMO.
I read some where that the most likely culprit was the very low morale of the team, having to meet in the parking lot, ride by bus for like an hour to a run down practice facility with very cheap soap to shower with, etc.

Obviously these are just opinions, but having been a diehard W's fan at the time (very few of us back then), this is a very a bizarre hill to die on to me.

I was probably just biased because Mullin, Price and Sprewell were my favorite players, so I expected so much from them.
That '94 Warriors team with Spree, Mullin, Hardaway, Gugs, Marshall and Seikali, Gatling coached by Nelson was also disappointing too IMO.

I hear you, Mully was my favorite player growing up. Gugs was never going to make it on that team, Spree hated his guts because he was the guy they traded Webber for, which is why he was traded for Donyell so quickly.

The real tragedy is that Tim Hardaway got injured right before Webber's rookie season in '93 and sat out the entire year. Then Webber forced a trade out before the next season and we never got to see them play together.

[Bankai]

15-16' Warriors. If a team had a record 73 wins, at least complete the Season with a Title.
12-13' Lakers. I still believe a team with Kobe, Gasol, Nash, Howard, Peace should have been better.

[MrBigShot]

Just looking at single seasons it has to be the 2016 Warriors. Defending champs, record breaking season, first unanimous MVP, up 3-1 in the Finals only to end up losing. Can't think of a bigger single season disappointment than that, considering the expectations and build up

You are 100% right, and not to take anything away from the Cavs accomplishment, but I remember that year that after Steph got injured he never looked the same in the playoffs. He went from having arguably the single greatest offensive season ever (30/7/5 on 50/45/91 shooting splits) embarrassing the entire league all year, to just looking very good.