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The NBA bottom feeders learning to swim
D'Angelo Russell and the Los Angeles Lakers have been unleashed under new coach Luke Walton. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The NBA bottom feeders learning to swim

A part of what makes the NBA fantastic is that even the league’s bottom feeders can become interesting stories to watch from one season to the next. The league has a history of seeing teams flourish after awful seasons. After the '98 Spurs added Tim Duncan and a previously injured David Robinson, they finished 36 wins better than they did in '97. Going back to 1980, the Boston Celtics saw a 32-win increase after drafting a kid out of Indiana State University named Larry Bird.

The 2001 New Jersey Nets recorded their first 50-win season in franchise history after the addition of point guard Jason Kidd and rookie Richard Jefferson. That team picked up 26 more wins than it did the year before and earned the franchise's first trip to the Finals. The '98 Pacers didn’t change their roster much, but that Larry Bird guy changed another franchise, this time as head coach, and led the team to 19 more wins than the '97 Pacers, coached by Larry Brown.

There are other times, however, when things stay the course despite the expectation that the team will get better because of draft picks, free agency signings, or changes in the front office and bench. For the 2016-17 season, we’re not far enough along to know much if things have or have not changed for last year’s bottom feeders, but we do have a good enough sense to know if some of the trends we’ve seen so far are above or below the expectations we had coming into this season. Moving forward, we take a look at five of 2016’s worst teams and whether they’re staying the course or looking to take a different route this year.

Philadelphia 76ers — (2015-16 Record: 10-72) 

When you look at the numbers between the 76ers of this season and the last, the universal statistics are nearly identical for just about every metric. They’re averaging 0.5 points per game more this season while giving up 0.3 fewer points per game. They're playing at a pace six-tenths slower than what they were last year. Their offensive rating is 0.4 points per 100 possessions worse, the defensive rating is 0.7 points per 100 possessions better. In other words, this team is nearly mirroring the output on both ends of the floor it produced in the previous season.

Philadelphia isn’t a very good basketball team, but the optimism is growing — mainly because "Trusting the Process" has transformed from a mere ideology to a physical manifestation through the play, and self-given nickname, of Joel Embiid. The kid is averaging 18 points and nearly eight rebounds in only 23 minutes per night — his per 36 numbers stretch out to 28 and 12. Philly is winning at a slightly greater pace than last year’s team, and Embiid is only playing in about two-thirds of the team’s games. Dario Saric has been a pleasant surprise for Philly, especially considering Jahlil Okafor’s sophomore slump. The team has been without defensive stalwart Nerlens Noel and highly touted rookie Ben Simmons as well.

Philly fans have been awfully patient with this team but should see dividends start to pay off once this team is fully healthy and Embiid is seeing regular starter’s minutes. It looks like another year drowning at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but the 2017-18 76ers will be awfully interesting.

Los Angeles Lakers — (2015-16 Record: 17-65) 

The 2015-16 Lakers were painful to watch. They were running an antiquated offensive system with a coach who sucked the joy out of a young team and discouraged three-point shooting. Rookie D’Angelo Russell was moved to the bench for an extended period, and Tarik Black wasn’t given an opportunity to earn minutes because Scott wanted him to play more "like a man." It was a strange season that resulted in the worst record in franchise history.

This year, things are already completely different. Luke Walton has come in and not only changed how the Lakers operate on the floor but has injected life back into a young team, and it’s showing in the wins column. Through 18 games, the Lakers are playing .500 basketball, and it’s not entirely because of the young core that starts games in Los Angeles. With Walton deciding to start Nick Young instead of Jordan Clarkson or Lou Williams, the Lakers now have the best bench unit in all of basketball, and they’re producing with some of the best lineups in the NBA.

This Lakers team already has impressive wins over Houston, Golden State (who has not lost since that game, including a nearly 50-point win against these very Lakers), Oklahoma City and Atlanta (twice). If the Lakers continue to play this well, this is a fringe playoff team in a slightly diluted Western Conference. Julius Randle seems to be figuring out the NBA, and Young seems happy again, shooting better than he has in his entire career. D’Angelo Russell is leading them all, playing with the confidence that was momentarily taken away from him with Scott running the show. The team is young and weird and looking to prove wrong all those who thought this would be the worst team in the Western Conference. 

Brooklyn Nets — (2015-16 Record: 21-61)

Last year’s Brooklyn Nets team featured an incredibly strange roster. It looked pieced together with names to give off the appearance that the front office was trying to field a competitive team. The team did not compete and saw its coach, Lionel Hollins, fired after a 10-27 start to the season. Things didn’t improve once Tony Brown took over, as the team faltered during the final 45 games of the season, winning only 11 of those contests.

This year, some of those recognizable names are gone. Joe Johnson is in Utah, Jarrett Jack and Andrea Bargnani are free agents without homes, Wayne Ellington is in Miami, and Thaddeus Young is in Indiana. This left the team with Brook Lopez and a whole bunch of question marks. I watch the Nets' first game this season out of general curiosity. Like, who are these guys?

It turns out, this year’s Nets team isn’t very good, either. Brooklyn can score the ball in bunches — Bojan Bogdanovic and Sean Kilpatrick have been nice second and third options next to Brook Lopez, and Jeremy Lin has held his own running the show. But on the other end, the Nets have been comically bad. They gave up 122 points in their first game of the season to a Boston Celtics offense that’s middle-of-the-pack at best and have had a four-game stretch this season where they gave up at least 120 points. In fact, the Nets have given up at least 110 in nine of their last 10 games and gave up 104 in the other (a win over Phoenix). The Nets are giving up a league-worst 114 points per game and have only kept opponents from reaching the century mark twice in their first 16 games. This Nets team was expected to be bad, but if it weren’t for the Dallas Mavericks, they would be the worst in the NBA.

Phoenix Suns — (2015-16 Record: 23-59)

The Phoenix Suns have a roster with a few promising young players, but expectations were lower than any potential upside. Despite this reality, it still feels like the Suns are underperforming because of the playing time some of the youngsters have yet to receive. So much of why many people were excited to see how Phoenix would fare this season was because of the play of Devin Booker, last year’s standout rookie. This year’s class featured Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss and Tyler Ulis — who are combining for a mere 36 minutes per game under head coach Earl Watson.

Even if it were justifiable to fail to play this rookie class at all (Ulis not getting minutes in a crowded backcourt makes some sense), it’s hard to imagine why Alex Len still isn’t the team’s starting center over an aging Tyson Chandler. With Chandler out, Len averaged 10 and 10 with the offense flowing much better (he still has a lot of work to do on the defensive end of the floor). Len improves an offense that is scoring a lot of points but still ranks only 21st in offensive rating.

A lot of the problems that Phoenix is seeing are coaching related. Watson has struggled to instill any kind of cohesive offense, and the team is struggling because of it. There is no ball movement and too many mid-range jumpers. The Suns rank 29th in assist percentage and rank in the bottom five in every meaningful three-point shooting metric. The Suns have more guys who can create their own shots than most teams, but the whole offense is just those guys creating their own shots, which is going to continue to be a problem for the rest of the season.

New York Knicks — (2015-16 Record: 32-50)

The only thing remotely interesting about last year’s New York Knicks was the emergence of one Kristaps Porzingis, a Dirk Nowitzki clone with a cooler name and the potential for a smoother game. Other than their talented rookie, the Knicks' backcourt was a mess, Carmelo Anthony was Carmelo Anthony and the coaching was less than underwhelming. Phil Jackson wanted a guy who could run the triangle, and Derek Fisher wasn’t up to the task.

This year, there is a new face prowling the sidelines. So far, Jeff Hornacek’s Knicks haven’t looked entirely terrible trying to run the triangle, but the problem is that they haven’t run much of it yet. Anthony is a perfect fit in a read-react offense predicated on an individual’s scoring ability, but the addition of Derrick Rose has complicated things in new ways. The Knicks, for everything they do well, are still struggling with the idea that Porzingis should be a part of the offense as much as possible. In all of New York’s best five-man lineups, Porzingis is the only Knickerbocker in the top six most efficient lineups — even Anthony drops out after three.

The Knicks are a better basketball team than they were last year but not quite the super team Rose felt he had going into the season. They’re playing .500 basketball, which is underachieving for a team with this much talent. There are some who like Brandon Jennings’ game with this roster more than Rose’s, so it’ll be interesting to watch if their minutes start to flop moving forward. Other than that, it’s hard to imagine the Knicks shaking things up enough to make the jump from middling Eastern Conference team to a team fighting for one of the top four spots in the conference. They are, kind of, who we thought they were, and only Porzingis can let them off the hook.

Can you name every New York Knicks first round draft pick since 1985?
SCORE:
0/30
TIME:
8:00
1985: 1, C, Georgetown
Patrick Ewing
1986: 5, SF, Kentucky
Kenny Walker
1987: 18, PG, St. John's
Mark Jackson
1988: 19, PG, DePaul
Rod Strickland
1990: 17, PF/C, Maryland
Jerrod Mustaf
1991: 12, PG, UNLV
Greg Anthony
1992: 20, SG, UNC
Hubert Davis
1994: 26, PG, Florida St.
Charlie Ward
1994: 24, SF Notre Dame
Monty Williams
1996: 21, PF, Mississippi St.
Dontae' Jones
1996: 19, PF, Kentucky
Walter McCarty
1996: 18, SF, Syracuse
John Wallace
1997: 25, C, Minnesota
John Thomas
1999: 15, C, France
Frederic Weis
2000: 22, SF, Florida
Donnell Harvey
2002: 7, PF/C, Brazil
Nene
2003: 9, PF, Georgetown
Michael Sweetney
2005: 30, PF, Florida
David Lee
2005: 8, PF/C, Arizona
Channing Frye
2006: 29, PG/SG, Temple
Mardy Collins
2006: 20, SF/PF, South Carolina
Renaldo Balkman
2007: 23, SF, DePaul
Wilson Chandler
2008: 6, SF, Italy
Danilo Gallinari
2009: 8, PF, Arizona
Jordan Hill
2011: 17, SG/PG, Georgia Tech
Iman Shumpert
2013: 24, G, Michigan
Tim Hardaway, Jr.
2015: 4, C, Latvia
Kristaps Porzingis
2017: 8, PG, France
Frank Ntilikina
2018: 1, SF, Kentucky
Kevin Knox
2019: 3, SG, Duke
RJ Barrett

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