The Top Five Mismanaged NBA Teams of the Last Five Years

Having a poor team record doesn’t necessarily mean a team was mismanaged. Getting lucky in the draft, having good team chemistry, staying healthy, and many other aspects are all things that a team’s management can’t necessarily predict.  

While the Timberwolves, Thunder, and Grizzlies are all poor teams, their GMs have had the right philosophy by trying to rebuild through the draft and free up cap space for the future.

While the Raptors and Sixers also have underachieving records, they have had the right philosophy by trying to push their good teams over the top by adding a superstar this offseason.

Poorly managing a team has more to do with the team's goals and philosophy than anything else. Here are the top five mismanaged NBA teams of the last five years.

5. Sacramento Kings, are you finally trying to rebuild now?

Since '03-'04, essentially the last year the Kings were considered contenders, they have been kind of beating around the bush whether they want to rebuild their team or not.

In the '05-'06 season they added injury-prone Shareef Abdur-Rahim and two troubled players in Ron Artest and Bonzi Wells. Did the Kings really think teaming up these players with Mike Bibby and Brad Miller was going to lead this team to a championship?

What the Kings needed to do was start over. Since the middle of last year, they’ve traded Bibby and Artest and seem to have learned that they need to rebuild.

They have a couple of great young players in John Salmons and Kevin Martin; hopefully the Kings will try to continue building their team with younger players.

4. Phoenix Suns, why do you say one thing but do another? 

Steve Kerr realized the Suns weren't going to win a championship with the offense they had in place.

However, the truth is that although Steve Kerr, the GM of the suns, verbally committed to bringing a more physical, defensive-minded team to Phoenix, he has made only enough moves to be able to get to complete his transition.

All Steve Kerr has really done is added Shaq, gotten rid of Shawn Marion, and added a different style coach.

The Suns were obviously filled with talent before the season, and what Kerr really needed to do was trade Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash, or both before the season.

Somehow Kerr thought that coach Terry Porter and the addition of Shaq could help turn the same players who were used to running the Suns fast break offense into more half-court offensive-oriented players.

A team that half-commits to a philosophy isn’t going to succeed. Kerr didn’t want to get rid of the Suns foundational players, but at the same time wanted to change the team’s foundation.

Now that he has made it obvious he wants to trade Stoudemire, and Stoudemire hasn’t been as dominant, he is isn’t going to get as much as he could have.

If Steve Kerr gets fired, it won’t be because he broke up the Sun’s exciting five-second offense. It will be because he didn’t do a good job of transitioning it.

3. Chicago Bulls, why won’t you ever make a trade for or sign a real superstar?

The Bulls have been filled with talent the last few years, but they have always lacked a true superstar. How many times have they been in trade discussions for a superstar like Amare Stoudemire, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett (just to name a few)?

The one big free agent pickup they had in the last few years has been Ben Wallace, who was clearly a bad signing. Why did they overpay an aging veteran who is clearly more of a system star than a true star? 

Their team has been filled with very good players like Ben Gordon, Kirk Heinrich, Luol Deng, Larry Hughes, Andres Nocioni, and Drew Gooden, but no great players.

They do finally have a player who potentially can be a great player in Derrick Rose.  However, Rose still needs to develop and isn’t going to lead the team anywhere for at least a couple years.

The Bulls had the opportunity to finally get past the Jordan era, but their failure to add a superstar has put them back in rebuilding mode.

2. Washing Wizards, what were you thinking?

You put $161 million into resigning two players who have shown they’re not going to take your team to the promised land. There is no doubt that Gibert Arenas, if healthy, is a great player and Jamison is a consistent borderline All-Star. 

But why on earth would you want to have almost the exact same team you had in the last few years, when they’ve shown they have no potential of winning a championship? Not to mention Gilbert Arenas hasn’t shown he can stay healthy either.

The Wizards needed to go in a different direction and start over. They would have had a lot of cap room if they had resisted to re-sign them, but now it looks like the next few years are going to be filled with average basketball.

1. New York Knicks, why can’t you put an actual team together?

Since Isiah Thomas became the president of the Knicks, they have put together a team of overpaid underachievers. It’s amazing how the highest-paid team in the league has had one of the worst teams of the last five years.

They traded and signed players like Stephon Marbury, Jerome James, Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, Malik Rose, Quinton Richardson, Jalen Rose, Steve Francis, and Zach Randolph. The problem is that all of these players were all either past their primes, selfish, or lacked heart.

This year they have shown they are trying to go in a different direction by bringing in Chris Duhon, starting David Lee, benching Eddy Curry and Marbury, and getting rid of Randolph and Jamal Crawford.

Even so, the Knicks have shown they aren’t in a rush to make their team that much better for this year or next year. Their main goal seems to be to free up cap space for the most hyped year of free agency ever in 2010.

Brought to you by TheSportingTruth.com