The Charlotte Bobcats are the worst team in NBA history.
Charlotte fell to the Knicks by 20 points, 104-84, on a night when the Knicks basically gave their best players a night off. On a night the Bobcats should have played with desperation, they were passive and just missed good looks.
It was their 23rd loss in a row and leaves them with a 7-59 record, a .106 willing percentage. Before the Bobcats, the 1972-73 Sixers were the worst team in the NBA with a 9-73 record — a .110 winning percentage. The Bobcats were worse. They are now the worst.
The coach of that Sixers team was right, they did have more talent.
These Bobcats were not going to be good — they rightly realized before the season started that if they kept their entire roster together and everything broke right they could maybe grab the last playoff spot in the East. But if that is your ceiling, it’s a smart long term to get bad and draft high. It can work and turn a team around.
Of course, part of the reason the Bobcats are here are picks like Adam Morrison No. 3 overall six years ago, and other picks like Alexis Ajinca. They moved their 2010 first round pick for Tyrus Thomas. While they have made some decent picks, they have missed on plenty.
This season disaster came with that as the foundation. They moved Tyson Chandler for the contract of Erick Dampier and then cut him, saving owner Michael Jordan a lot of money. They traded Gerald Wallace to Portland (for two first round picks). They did not re-sign Raymond Felton. They planned to give big minutes to rookies Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo.
But they took a couple steps so the team would not be historically bad this season —it’s just all of those backfired. They brought in Corey Maggette (in a trade for Stephen Jackson) to put points on the board, but he could not stay healthy. Boris Diaw won the “Shawn Kemp Memorial Award” for being the most out of shape after the lockout. Second place may have gone to teammate DeSagana Diop.
From bad decisions to bad choices by players to bad luck it all snowballed into the worst season in NBA history.
For their reward, the Bobcats will have a 25 percent chance of landing Anthony Davis with the top pick. Do that, and a lot of this will be forgotten.
