There are some ‘sad’ teams in the NBA. What is a ‘sad’ team you ask, I am not totally sure. I will describe them as teams who had some expectations entering the season and have just fallen flat on their face, teams who make their fans sad. Teams who have some talent, some of which have elite talent, and yet still are a big disappointment. Let’s dive into 4 teams that fit this description.
Let’s start in Boston. What a disappointment the Boston Celtics have been. Losers of 4 in a row and 8 out of 11, the Celtics are a mess. Their last 2 losses have been embarrassing and brutal to watch. On Monday, they went into Minnesota against a Timberwolves team without Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, and Patrick Beverly, and lost. On Wednesday, they hosted the Clippers who were playing without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, and lost again (the 2nd time they have lost to the Clippers without their stars). I know Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart have not played in either game but that is not an excuse. Boston shot 4 for 42 from 3 point range last night, which is the second worst percentage a team has shot in a game this season, the team with the worst, the Celtics when they shot 2 for 26 vs the Wizards in October. They have no shooting leading to them struggling to score. They clearly need Jayson Tatum back and fast as he is their entire offense at times, but don’t start with fake Jaylen Brown trades, I do not think they need to go that far yet.
The Lakers are bad. They are a bad basketball team. LeBron James is amazing, averaging 34.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists over his last 6 games, the issue is they are 1-5 over those 6 games with the one win being against the 10-25 Houston Rockets. LeBron at center is not the great discovery some have made it out to be, Carmelo at center is a defensive nightmare. They have players who shot 3’s but don’t play defense, players who play defense but don’t shoot 3’s, and they have players who do neither, like Russell Westbrook. The Lakers traded a potential 4 rotation pieces (Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and the 22nd pick) for Westbrook, who has been a disaster this season. His defense is a joke, his shooting is a joke, and he does not even finish well at the rim late in games anymore. That trade was a mistake, a massive mistake, no one is saying otherwise (and if they are they shouldn’t be). They also lost Dennis Schroder and Alex Caruso for nothing in the offseason. DeAndre Jordan and Rajon Rondo are unplayable, Kendrick Nunn has not played this season, Dwight Howard can no longer get off of the bench, their depth is a mess. LeBron has played at an MVP level over the past couple weeks with Anthony Davis hurt. Speaking of Davis, what makes us believe he is gonna turn into bubble AD when he returns? He was not that before he got hurt and his body cannot sustain an entire NBA season playing like that. He has shot 18% on 3’s this year and he has disappeared during stretches of a bunch of games. What makes everyone saying the Lakers are going to turn it around believe that the Lakers can turn it around.
The Knicks are… interesting. The starting 5 of Kemba Walker, Evan Fournier, R.J. Barrett, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson has a net rating of -11.6 per 100 possessions, which is dreadfully bad.. Their bench is what saves them nightly. However, now Derrick Rose is out for 6 to 8 weeks and he has been awesome for the Knicks ever since they traded for him last February. They need the starting 5 to play better, relying on Alec Burks, Immanuel Quickley, and Quinton Grimes to save you nightly is not a reliable strategy. Just like Boston and LA, the Knicks are bad. Julius Randle, who was an All-NBA player last season, has been dreadful this season. Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker were supposed to be big additions to improve an offense that was horrible in the playoffs but they have not done so. Their defense has taken a step back and their offense has not taken a step forward. They are a play-in team in what has become a deep Eastern Conference and simply no better than that.
The last team I want to talk about is the Portland Trail Blazers. You can’t talk about ‘sad’ NBA teams in 2022 and not talk about the Portland Trail Blazers. They are 13-21 sitting 12th in a very mediocre (behind the top 3 teams) Western Conference. They still play no defense, and score at a mediocre rate, leaving them 25th in net rating, only in front of the Pistons, Magic, Thunder, Rockets, and Pelicans. We are nearing a point where Portland should say, let’s trade Dame Lillard, even without the request, and start the rebuild, because this is a mess. They are no fun to watch, they play guys like Tony Snell and Cody Zeller consistent minutes, their cap situation is a mess, they don’t have enough young players, and they have made trades that fall flat on their face, see the Robert Covington trade. Everything Portland has done since reaching the 2019 West Finals has been not good. It is time to blow it up.
Cheering for a ‘sad’ team stinks because your team stinks and you expected to be better than this. These teams are stuck in no man’s land where you are not bad on purpose you just have a bad team. Players have disappointed, injuries have happened, and COVID has hit are what usually leads teams to these places. The question is, where do these 4 teams go from here?
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