7 Most Pathetic Franchises in the NBA

Through more than 60 years of professional basketball, the NBA (and the BAA for that matter) has seen its fair share of great teams rumbling through. Dynasties have ruled the '60s, '80s, '90s and the '00s with scatterings of other teams winning thrown in.

Of course, the top of that dynasty list is led by the Los Angeles Lakers, followed closely by the Boston Celtics and then a big drop-off with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs with recent titles in the past few decades.

Those top four teams are responsible for 43 NBA Championships in this, the league's 66th year in existence.

There are certainly some great teams throughout the history of this league, but because of the dominance by the top teams, there have been some utterly miserable teams along the way.

11 teams have never won an NBA Championship, while six of them have never even won a trip to the finals to play for one and three teams feeding at the bottom of the league have never even won their division.

These are the franchises that make you wonder what's been going on in the front offices over the past few decades or more.

7. New Jersey Nets

Playoff Appearances: 16

Playoff Series Victories: 10

Overall Winning Percentage: .416

If you were to include what they'd done in the ABA, the Nets aren't nearly as bad as they look right now, but the ABA was on a different level than the NBA, so I can't bring myself to include all that.

To be fair to the Nets, they were set off in the wrong direction by the league as soon as they came over after the ABA was worked into the NBA. They had to pay both an entry fee and a territorial intrusion fee, as they were encroaching on the New York Knicks territory.

However, being as this was still early in the life of the NBA, the Nets didn't have nearly enough money to pay all of the fees, so they had to sell a player. That player happened to be Julius Erving.

They ended up drafting Bernard King in 1977, which gave them a player good enough to help them to the playoffs in their third year in the NBA, but they didn't win their first playoff series until 1984, their eighth season in the league. They didn't win another one until the Jason Kidd years.

6. New Orleans Hornets

Playoff Appearances: 12

Playoff Series Victories: Five

Overall Winning Percentage: .488

The Hornets have been around in one sense or another since 1988 when they debuted in Charlotte with a 20-62 season. They won the lottery in 1991 and ended up drafting Larry Johnson number one overall and then Alonzo Mourning second overall the next season.

With the help of 'Zo and Grandmama, Charlotte was able to make it to the playoffs for the first time in 1993 and showed moderate success until trading both of these fellows in 1995 and 1996, leading to their first playoff series victory in 1998.

Under the steady hand of Paul Silas and with Jamal Mashburn, Baron Davis and David Wesley as their new core, the Hornets were successful in their transition to New Orleans, making the playoffs for five straight seasons before falling apart after only two series wins.

Davis and Mashburn were traded, Wesley had gotten old and the legendary Lee Nailon led the team in scoring in 2005 as the Hornets bottomed out.

A star point guard came along after that by the name of Chris Paul, but scattered success in the playoffs and the ugliest ownership situation and David Stern's vetoed trade led to the Hornets team we see on the court today.

5. Toronto Raptors

Playoff Appearances: Five

Playoff Series Victories: One

Overall Winning Percentage: .406

Twice now the Toronto Raptors have gotten to the point where they look like they're going to end up with a good team, only to see their star player either force their way out of the city or leave in free agency.

They seemingly hit the jackpot in 1998 when they traded Antawn Jamison to Golden State for Vince Carter on draft day. In his second season in the league, he, along with his cousin Tracy McGrady, led the Raptors to their first playoff appearance.

McGrady then left the Raptors for Orlando, the Raps getting only a first-rounder in 2005 in return which netted them the legendary Fran Vazquez. Still, the team made it back to the playoffs in 2001 and even won their first-round series.

Carter, however, grew tired of the city, the team and wearing the giant dinosaur on his jersey (how could anyone tire of that?) and sulked his way out of the city, getting traded to New Jersey in 2004.

The year before trading Carter, Toronto had drafted a player that would be the future of their team in Chris Bosh. He, with an array of international players would help the team to the playoffs in 2007 and 2008, but with no series wins. Bosh then infamously left for Miami in the summer of 2010 and the team was left in shambles.

Here's hoping that when Jonas Valanciunas comes over and transforms this team so that they keep their players and stay competitive.

4. Memphis Grizzlies

Playoff Appearances: Four

Playoff Series Victories: One

Overall Winning Percentage: .357

Lucky for the Memphis Grizzlies, they've only been in the league since 1995. Otherwise, they would be at the top of this list.

Memphis started out in Vancouver as one of the strangest professional sports team in the history of North America, save possibly the Fort Wayne Pistons or Atlanta Thrashers (seriously, who thought hockey would work in Atlanta?).

Through four seasons, they won just 56 games, failing to top 20 wins in any of those seasons. After finally breaking the 20-win barrier, they reeled off four straight seasons of 20 wins or more, but had yet to top 30 wins, topping out at 28 in 2003. By that time they had already drafted guys nicknamed "Big Country" and "The Franchise," plus they had moved from Vancouver to Memphis.

Their first playoff appearance came in 2004 under Pau Gasol and Shane Battier, with two more coming along right after that season. The only problem was that they ended up going 0-12 in those three series.

Gasol was traded a year-and-a-half later to the Lakers for his brother (basically) and the Grizz wouldn't fully recover until 2011, when they won their first playoff series in their history with an upset of the No. 1-seeded Spurs.

At least things are looking up as of right now.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers

Playoff Appearances: 18

Playoff Series Victories: 12

Overall Winning Percentage: .462

The Cleveland Cavaliers alternate long periods of terrible basketball with short periods of looking like they're capable of winning a championship, only to be struck down by a fatal flaw, whether it be a lack of a star player (mid-'70s), the existence of the best player in basketball history (early '90s) or the late-game failings of their entire team (mid-'00s).

What's worst about the Cavs is that arguments could be made for three different points being the worst time in the team's history.

The first came in the early '80s when Ted Stepien took the team over. He would constantly trade draft picks for veteran players who were either washed up or never that good in the first place, including a trade that ended up giving James Worthy to the Lakers for Don Ford and Chad Kinch.

Stepien was so bad at running this team that they made it a rule after he sold the team that teams couldn't trade first-round picks in consecutive seasons.

Cleveland bottomed out for a second time in the late '90s after their rebuilding efforts turned ugly fast. Shawn Kemp got fat (and boy do I mean fat), Zydrunas Ilgauskas' feet exploded and Wesley Person, who they had traded for to fill out their backcourt, fell apart himself.

I think we all know what the third low point in this team's history was.

2. Minnesota Timberwolves

Playoff Appearances: Eight

Playoff Series Victories: Two

Overall Winning Percentage: .399

The Minnesota Timberwolves are finally on their way back to mattering in the NBA after Kevin Garnett was traded away back in 2007.

In 23 seasons, the Timberwolves have won just two playoff series, despite the fact that they drafted and kept one of the best power forwards of all time back in 1995, and they have nobody to blame but themselves.

In 2000, after the Timberwolves had experienced a first-round playoff exit for the fourth year in a row, they were looking to improve their team as much as possible, doing whatever it takes in the process. Well, they signed Joe Smith to a deal below market value while promising him a future contract worth much more.

That all sounds great, except for the fact that it's illegal in the NBA and considered salary cap tampering. Once the league found out, the T-Wolves had five first-round picks taken away from them, eventually getting two of them back in an appeals process.

All this kept them from really improving through the draft, which, as a team in the middle of Minnesota, would be their best hope of getting better.

1. Los Angeles Clippers

Playoff Appearances: Seven

Playoff Series Victories: Two

Overall Winning Percentage: .365

This team has existed for 42 long years, has spanned the entire United States, passing their stench from Buffalo to San Diego and eventually to Los Angeles and they only made the playoffs seven times.

Who allowed Donald Sterling to buy a basketball team? Hell, who allowed this team to continue to exist?

They've won the lottery three times and twice it ended in one of the worst No. 1 picks of all time with Danny Manning and Michael Olowokandi. There's a reason millions of people out there are wondering what could happen to Blake Griffin over the next few seasons to completely screw this team again.

What stuns me the most about this team—beyond the fact that they've averaged fewer than 30 wins a season and that they've never won their division (something that should change this season)—is the fact that they went 30 years between playoff victories.

30. Freaking. Years.

If you are one of those twitterers, you can follow me @JDorsey33.