Top 10 worst NBA teams of all time

Published on May 20, 2026 14 min. reading

The 2016 Warriors, the 1996 Bulls, the 1972 Lakers, or even the 2025 Thunder. There’s plenty of talk about these teams that dominated the league throughout an entire regular season. Yet we hear less about their polar opposites – those sides that defied the laws of… mediocrity! Even though some of those performances are just as legendary.

Today, we’re setting the record straight by shining a spotlight on these franchises that have turned tanking into an art form. By comparison, the 2025–2026 season for the Nets or the Jazz seems ambitious. Our only criterion? The depth they’ve achieved !

10) Detroit Pistons 2024 : They’ve smashed records to make it into this ranking. Mission accomplished! The youngest basketball fans thought they’d seen the worst the NBA has to offer with these 2024 Pistons. Yet they’re ‘only’ sitting in 10th place! We weren’t lying – there really are some heavyweights in here. Their presence in this ranking, however, is a testament to the magnificent performance put in by Monty Williams’s squad. For a week, we believed in a lovely surprise. Led by an All-Star-calibre Jaden Duren, Detroit won two of their first three games. Savour this moment, for it will be the only ray of sunshine in this endless storm. Following these successes, the team went on to suffer a dreadful 0-28 run. A record in the history of the league, shared with the 2016 76ers (make a note of that team). Fortunately, a lifeline straight from Toronto stopped them from going under. Even so, that’s still just one win in 35 games. During that time, Detroit’s fanbase was more likely to witness several full moons than a victory for their team. It’s out of this world! Such a feat to finally secure the 5th pick in the 2024 Draft. Clearly, even fate was against them. Amidst the thirty-odd players used, a few bright spots such as Ausar Thompson, Marcus Sasser and Cade Cunningham have brought a little light to Michigan. Just like a relatively positive final month (four wins, after all). These two factors prevent them from aiming higher despite that final record of 14-68.

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9) Vancouver Grizzlies 1996 :Perhaps the NBA should have woken the Grizzlies from their hibernation before throwing them in at the deep end. Yes, the inaugural season for a franchise in the heart of the top flight is always a tricky business. It’s difficult for an expansion team to compete even with mid-table sides. But here, we’re ranking the worst teams. Vancouver 1996 has to be mentioned, given just how many things went wrong. Because unlike the 2024 Pistons, there seems to be no cause for satisfaction among the squad members. When your top scorer, Greg Anthony, is averaging just over 14 points a game, that says a lot about the standard of your team. Not to mention their clumsy centre – Bryant Reeves. Come to think of it, how long did they sign him for again? Oh yes, that’s right: six years at $64 million for a rookie! It stings all the more given that they were up against big names like Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace. Right, let’s stop rubbing salt in the wound. Otherwise, on the court, it was a near-disaster. Before the 76ers, they held the worst losing streak with a remarkable 0-23. Benoit Benjamin’s teammates, however, finished the season with a not-too-bad 15-67 record, complemented by the league’s 18th-ranked defence. And this remains a rookie year, unlike the other teams in the rankings. And frankly, the kit was stunning. They may have lost, but they did so in style! The legacy is also grim, as this season would lay the foundations for a move that was finalised in 2001. In the meantime, the franchise would exist in total obscurity.

8) Houston Rockets 1983 : This team revolutionised the NBA! There’s no sarcasm in that statement. The second-oldest team in this ranking actually played at a time when the draft lottery system didn’t yet exist. Before 1985, the equation in the NBA was simple: the team with the worst record got the top pick, and so on. A paradigm that the 1983 Rockets changed in the space of a single season through tanking taken to the extreme. Although the idea of changing how the draft worked had been circulating for some time in the upper echelons of the league, Houston became THE straw that broke the camel’s back. During the summer of 1982, the franchise parted ways with its star centre, Moses Malone. What’s more, their legends seemed completely past their prime. The Texan management then decided to cut to the chase: the tanking mission was officially underway. Out went the few gems in the squad. No, Del Harris was left with nothing but a roster of players with no future in the team, with a few exceptions. They were starting afresh, and in the meantime, the leader would be Allen Leavell. That name doesn’t ring a bell? That’s normal. The future 1986 conference finalists find themselves led by a third-choice coach. Their record isn’t necessarily the most disastrous (14-68). However, this determination to go down fighting, combined with their position at the very bottom of most of the statistics, sees them climb to a solid 8th place. The fact that they lost their franchise player during the off-season also works in their favour.

7) Los Angeles Clippers 1987 : When we talk about losing, how can we not mention the one and only Clippers? A disaster throughout the entire decade, the Californian franchise reached a point of no return during the 1986–87 season. They did it; they reached that Everest of 70 defeats. And to achieve this, Los Angeles had to fight hard. But thanks to their choices, the climb to such a summit was completed in one go. To prepare properly, during the 1986 Draft the team set their sights on Reggie Williams with the third pick. A superb choice, as just behind him was a certain Scottie Pippen. But it didn’t stop there. Although the blue ship had been sinking in the Pacific for quite some time, general manager Elgin Baylor and head coach Don Chaney were retained. Then, to lead this gruelling expedition, the team could count on Marques Johnson. Namely, a third option elevated to the rank of franchise player for a few months. Now, let the game begin. These Clippers have certainly thought of everything; to ensure they don’t run out of supplies, they’re packing suitcase after suitcase. The Staples Center is turning into an open bar where the team concedes an average of 115 points per game. With both the worst defence and the worst attack in the league, L.A. ticks all the boxes in our ranking. Nevertheless, there are definitely worse teams out there.

6) New Jersey Nets 2010 : At the start of the season, the vast majority of teams are still finding their feet. This creates a window of around ten games during which every franchise in the running wins at least one match. Even the teams mentioned earlier didn’t miss out on this opportunity. And these 2010 Nets were certainly not set to be an exception to the rule – quite the opposite, in fact. Admittedly, we’re not talking about a playoff contender, but on paper this is perhaps the best roster on this list. A fact that makes New Jersey’s 2009–2010 campaign all the more incredible. Because the team, first under Lawrence Frank and then Tom Barrise, started with an 0–18 record. A new record broken (at the time)! An entry in the NBA history books that must have delighted the team’s new owner, Mikhail Prokhorov. It wasn’t until Kiki Vandeweghe was appointed that the Nets found their way back to winning ways. Yes, in just 20 games, three coaches had already come and gone on the bench. Fortunately, a young Brook Lopez was in superb form, otherwise the team’s leadership would have fallen to Devin Harris or Courtney Lee. Whilst the defence held its own, up front New Jersey became one of the worst attacking sides the NBA has ever seen. With 12 games to go, the Black and Whites have a disastrous record of 7 wins and 63 defeats. 5 wins in the final stretch have helped them limit the damage considerably, although let’s be honest: the damage has already been done. That touch of talent, combined with a strong finish to the season, has prevented them from making it into our Top 5.

5) Denver Nuggets 1998 : The NBA is a league of series. In both the regular season and the play-offs, demonstrating consistency by winning several games in a row is crucial to securing the ultimate victory. It’s an unwritten rule, yet one known to all, which the Nuggets followed to the letter during the 1997–98 season. Perhaps someone should have told them that this works one way but not the other. Because Denver racked up a string of… defeats! Not even the 2024 Pistons managed such a feat. Especially as the collapse was completely unexpected. In the summer of 1997, Bill Handzik took over a team that was on a roll. The problem: numerous factors quickly began to work against them. Bryant Stith – the team’s highest-paid player – played the season on one leg, whilst behind him Anthony Goldwire, Johnny Newman, Dean Garrett and Danny Fortson seemed to be discovering top-flight basketball for the first time. So, to kick off this historic campaign in the best possible way, the Colorado franchise started with a solid 0-12 run. A warm-up before the real business began. This was followed by a 0–16 run, then the icing on the cake with a 0–23 run. And just to illustrate the scale of their collapse a little further, of the 11 teams that won more than 47 games that year, Denver failed to beat a single one in 37 matches. The final tally stands at 11 wins and 71 defeats. Rock bottom has been reached! Let’s continue, however, to sink a little deeper.

4) Dallas Mavericks 1993 : Few people expected such a disastrous season from the Nuggets in 1998 or from the Nets in 2010. In this case, however, a whiff of disaster quickly spread across the southern United States during the 1992 off-season. The basketball gods seemed to be conducting an experiment on Dallas. Something along the lines of: ‘Hang on? What happens if we concentrate every possible and imaginable problem within a single squad?’. This spell gave us the 1993 Mavericks. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the franchise’s woes: Fat Lever was sidelined for the entire season, rookie Jim Jackson refused to play due to a contractual dispute, and Roy Tarpley remained suspended following a third violation of NBA policy. Unsurprisingly, the team switched to tanking mode. This immediately resulted in superb records of 0-12, 0-15 and even 0-19. The squad led by 31-year-old Derek Harper climbed to the very top of the worst defences and worst attacks. It wasn’t for lack of running on the court, but it didn’t translate into results. Especially as 90% of the players used have at least five years’ experience in the league, so the excuse of youth isn’t even conceivable. Fortunately for them, a strong finish takes them from 4-57 to 11-71. This little spark, combined with the general bad luck the Mavericks have had to face, pushes them to the foot of the podium.

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3) Philadelphie Sixers 2016 🥉 : The pinnacle of tanking! Few general managers have been singled out by the NBA. Sam Hinkie and his infamous ‘Process’ are among that select few. For three years, this magician transformed this NBA franchise into a machine for racking up draft picks. 2014: 19-63, 2015: 18-64 and 2016: 10-72. Already weakened, injuries such as Joel Embiid’s add another layer to the ordeal the Philadelphia fanbase is about to endure. Right from the start, the Sixers send a strong message to the competition. They impose a defeatist approach on anyone wishing to stand in their way. Goodbye to the Nets’ 2010 record. They have to wait not 18 but a full 19 games before winning their very first match of the season. And to add another feather to their cap, this squad breaks the record for the longest losing streak in US sport, with 28 consecutive defeats. Only the 2024 Pistons would reach such heights. This result actually stems from the quality of the players on the court. Between players coming up from the G-League and a host of (at the time) unknowns like Christian Wood, the squad simply wasn’t up to the standard of the competition. Months and months of humiliation only to end up drafting the number 1 pick… Ben Simmons (No comment)! This generation isn’t ranked any higher simply because there are a few positives to note. Young players like Jahlil Okafor have come into their own, and the offence was still averaging 97.4 points per game. But don’t get too upset, 76ers fans – we’re not done with you yet !

2) Philadelphie Sixers 1973 🥈 : Yes, the 76ers have been through worse than ‘Trust the Process’. Because whatever anyone says, the 2016 76ers deliberately tanked. Whereas their 1973 counterparts were simply rubbish. Still reeling from the loss of Wilt Chamberlain five years earlier, Philadelphia were languishing at the bottom of a league reduced to just 17 teams. The low point of this disastrous period, the 1972–73 season saw them rack up the worst record in the history of the NBA (over 82 games). Lacking talent to begin with, the few remaining key players on the roster all failed one by one, without exception. Tom Van Arsdale, Bill Bridges, Kevin Loughery, Fred Carter and even John Bloc failed to reach the 50% shooting mark. The team actually shot at 42%, the worst all-time record. We’re talking about a rabble of headless chickens who kept shooting wildly without really aiming. Defensively, the disaster was at least as bad. The Sixers managed to do better than the 2013 Clippers by conceding an average of 116 points per game. Nothing is going right; the Pennsylvania franchise stands at 4-58 before bringing this unbelievable season to a close with a 9-73 record. Unprecedented. The local press even changed their nickname to the ‘Nine and 73-ers’. It’s hard to imagine anything more humiliating. This record, which is over 50 years old, still stands and is unlikely to be broken any time soon. Then again, that was a different era, when the level of professionalism was light years away from today’s standards. The gaps in quality could therefore be much more pronounced. However, our GOAT of the day really has no excuse.

1) Charlotte Bobcats 2012 🐐 : Derrick Rose, Len Bias, Grant Hill, Greg Oden… The 2012 Charlotte Bobcats would certainly hold their own on this ‘what if’ list. The question arises: what record might the Bobcats have achieved had there not been the NBA lockout? Synonymous with the word ‘defeat’, this team recorded the league’s worst all-time win percentage with a record of 7-59. Throughout the 2011-2012 season, the North Carolina franchise became a punching bag. From first to second-last, everyone ran rings around this soulless, aimless team. Yet that narrow victory over the Milwaukee Bucks with 36 seconds remaining in their opening game brought a breath of optimism. D.J. Augustin, Bismack Biyombo, Gerald Henderson, Corey Maggette and Tyrus Thomas were indeed expected to step up as leaders. Except that it never quite gelled. Youngsters Bismack Biyombo, Kemba Walker and Boris Diaw didn’t even add a touch of spice to this bland dish. In fact, this team has absolutely nothing going for it. Away from home, they’re being run ragged, and at home their own fans are booing them. And as if the 16 consecutive defeats recorded midway through the season weren’t enough, the Bobcats ended this nightmare run with a dreadful 0-23 record. No burst of pride, no reaction. No, just a total void. Oh yes, incidentally, this performance earned Charlotte a mere second-round pick used to draft Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, letting Bradley Beal, Damian Lillard and even Andre Drummond slip through their fingers. Well done to them! These Bobcats have truly exhausted the rigours of fate.

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