Where 2023-24 Suns rank among most disappointing NBA teams ever

The Houston Rockets are often credited with creating the first superteam. While there had been teams before them with stacked rosters because of impressive drafting, it was rare at this time for a team to add so many superstars through free agency and trades, but that was how the Rockets built their roster.

They had previously won two NBA Finals in the mid-’90s while Michael Jordan was playing baseball, and his second retirement from the league opened up another window for them to pursue another championship. There was no better way to do that than by adding Jordan’s running mate, Scottie Pippen. They added Pippen through a sign-and-trade, which came only two years after adding Charles Barkley via trade. The two teamed up with Hakeem Olajuwon to form what was one of the most stacked teams ever on paper.

Of course, something being good on paper doesn’t always translate to it being good in real life. That was the case here. None of the three were as talented as they were a couple of years prior, and their fit together wasn’t great either. Their time together was short, as the NBA lockout delayed the season and limited it to 50 games. The team ended up losing in the first round, and because Pippen and Barkley couldn’t get along, the team traded the former champion to the Portland Trail Blazers.

7. 2022-23 Milwaukee Bucks

After losing in the first round of the playoffs, Giannis Antetokounmpo famously said that “there is no failure in sports.” Respectively, we have to disagree. The Bucks had won the NBA Finals two years prior, but the team’s record actually improved in each of the following two seasons.

Milwaukee earned the one-seed and seemed poised to make another run to the championship. Then, they became only the sixth top seed to ever lose in the first round of the playoffs. The Bucks had an impressive core with Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, and Brook Lopez, but their first-round exit forced them to blow things up and trade for Damian Lillard in the following offseason.

6. 2015-16 Golden State Warriors

The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are a very different kind of disappointment than a lot of the other teams on this list. A lot of the other teams here failed as a whole and were never able to accomplish championship success. That was not the case for the team led by Steph Curry, who is one of the greatest point guards ever.He turned the Warriors into a dynasty and helped his team win four championships.

There was no year where the Warriors were more dominant than during the 2015-16 season, though, and that year they fell short of holding up the Larry O’Brien Trophy. In fact, the Warriors were better than any regular season team ever that year. They went 73-9 and won the most games in league history.

It seemed inevitable that Golden State would cruise to hanging up another banner, especially considering they won the NBA Finals the year prior. The team reached the NBA Finals, and they even went up 3-1 on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then, the impossible happened. The Warriors lost out on having the best season in league history after Cleveland became only the 11th team to overcome a 3-1 deficit.

Golden State was an incredible team, and they went on to win the next two championships. Their 2015-16 team does qualify as one of the most disappointing teams in NBA history, though, because no one would have guessed that they wouldn’t win it all.

5. 1961-62 St. Louis Hawks

The St. Louis Hawks are not a team that a lot of people remember, but in the early ’60s, they had the makings of a championship team. The team won the NBA Finals in 1958, and they went back to the big dance in 1960 and 1961.

Bob Pettit was a two-time MVP, and both Cliff Hagan and Clyde Lovellette were 20 point per game scorers. The team also had Lenny Wilkens entering his second season, and the point guard was expected to make a big jump and help the team get back to the top.

Instead, the team had a disastrous season that ended with only 29 wins, the second-fewest in the league. Wilkens played in only 20 games, and the big three’s style looked outdated in a league that was playing with more pace. The team had major chemistry issues, and their owner even threw his players under the bus and said they were never stars. St. Louis’ sudden fall off was the 21st worst season-to-season decline in league history, but they did it with a team that was only supposed to improve.

4. 2023-24 Phoenix Suns

Kevin Durant was a part of one of the most disappointing NBA teams ever this season, which marked the second time in only a couple of years in which that has been the case. That may come as a surprise, as the four-time scoring champion is one of the best small forwards ever and can fit on any roster due to his unique skillset. However, his Suns and Nets tenures are prime examples of the risks of building a superteam.

While you need talent to win a championship, it has become clear that chemistry and playstyle are also important factors. There is only one ball, and these superteams featuring Durant recently have featured three players who need the ball in their hands in order to be successful. On the Suns, whoever didn’t have the ball out of Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal tended to just sit in the corner and allow their fellow star to make a tough isolation play.

That isn’t an easy way to win games, especially when the role players around the stars lack defense and playmaking like they did on the Suns this year.

Phoenix was supposed to contend for a championship because of its big three. Instead, the trio struggled to find chemistry while dealing with a number of injuries, and it resulted in a first-round sweep by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, questions will arise about whether the team needs to blow up the core or if they will run it back next season.

3. 2018-19 Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics have had a number of teams in recent years that have disappointed in the NBA playoffs despite the sky-high expectations that were placed on the team. The most notable example came in 2018-19, when the team deployed a rotation of Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, and Gordon Hayward.

That is an incredibly stacked and deep lineup, but the team was another victim of lacking chemistry. Boston had an underwhelming regular season, and they lost in only five games in the second round of the playoffs.

2. 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers have the biggest market in the NBA, so they have become a destination spot for veteran stars. This has led to the team winning 17 championships, but they have also had some of the most disappointing teams in NBA history.

The Lakers had big names, including Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton in 2003-04. That team came up short of winning it all, but they are less of a failure than the 2012-13 team because they still made the NBA Finals, and Malone and Payton were clearly past their primes.

The 2012-13 Lakers team had even greater expectations, but they failed much more drastically. Bryant was still on the team, and he was only a few seasons removed from winning back-to-back championships without O’Neal, but the team wanted more firepower.

The team was able to land both Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to pair with Bryant and Pau Gasol. While Nash, Bryant, and Gasol were getting older, it was expected that they would still have some good years left, and Howard was still in the prime of his career and fresh off of single-handedly making the Orlando Magic title contenders.

The four were supposed to compliment each other perfectly, but fans overestimated the team’s fit together. Howard and Bryant had a rocky relationship, and the team even made a mid-season coaching change. Their championship window closed nearly as quickly as it opened after Bryant tore his achilles. Los Angeles barely made the playoffs, and then the San Antonio Spurs swept them in the first round.

1. 2021-22 Brooklyn Nets

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Nets superteam of the early 2020s. This era of Brooklyn basketball started in the 2019 offseason when Brooklyn signed Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and DeAndre Jordan to contracts in free agency. Durant was set to miss the ensuing season because of an achilles injury, but the team was still expected to capture championships left and right once he returned.

It didn’t work out that way. During their time together, Irving dealt with injury problems of his own, but the team strengthened its championship case by adding yet another star. The Nets traded for James Harden early in the 2020-21 season, which gave the Nets the most talented offensive trio in league history.

Playoff injuries to Harden and Irving in the 2021 playoffs meant the team would lose in the conference semifinals, but the team was still favored to win the championship the next year, as it would be their first full season together. That is when things got really weird. Kyrie Irving was unvaccinated for COVID-19, which meant he wasn’t eligible to play in New York. Harden grew unhappy with the state of the team and demanded a trade prior to the 2022 NBA trade deadline.

All in all, the trio played only 16 games together. They seemed unbeatable during that time, but it ended all too quickly. The team was then swept in the first round, and the rest of the big three were traded the following year. No team has ever done less with as much potential as Brooklyn, which makes them the most disappointing NBA team in league history.