2018 Tanking Rankings: Memphis Grizzlies and NBA’s Best of the Worst

8. Brooklyn Nets

This may seem like a cheap shot at the posthumous Billy King era, but the pathetic nature of Brooklyn’s predicament – still crippled with no draft pick, half a decade later – can’t be over-stated.

In case you’re unaware, Brooklyn mortgaged its future back in 2013 for an ill-conceived and ill-timed “win-now” move. They traded four years’ worth of draft picks to Boston, believing their team would be good, and the picks affordable casualties. Instead, the Nets were washed far sooner than they’d hoped; left in the league’s basement without the picks to better themselves.

This season, through more jokes about another team owning their lottery rights, they made strides towards respectability. The emergence of Spencer Dinwiddie, exciting flashes of interior D from Jarrett Allen, and a return to form from DeMarre Carroll helped offset D’Angelo Russell’s injury-plagued year.

Brooklyn managed to steal some draft equity by pocketing the Raptors’ first-rounder in the Carroll trade, but the 29th pick isn’t much consolation. It’s been torture for a franchise to be this bad for this long, with no sign of hope. But losing for somebody else’s benefit is a song Brooklyn’s used to singing.