The San Antonio Spurs have won a game more than the Houston Rockets, but they have undeniably been the worst team in the league this season. They have the league’s worst defense by far, the 28th-ranked offense, and their -10.4 net rating is last in the league with a bullet. Then, of course, they traded away Jakob Poeltl and Josh Richardson at the NBA Trade Deadline. The Spurs are doing a great job of “being trembly for Wemby”.
The Houston Rockets are a disaster of a franchise right now. They have plenty of talent but absolutely no leadership and their two young guards are actively hurting them. Alperen Sengun has been a revelation at center, but every player on their team is immature and plays just one side of the court. Losing Eric Gordon took the one adult out of the room, so the Rockets should be losing the rest of the way to secure a top pick.
Some people collect Pokemon cards, or old coins, or muscle cars. The Detroit Pistons like to collect highly-drafted centers. After drafting Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren, they have also added Marvin Bagley III and now James Wiseman, both non-shooting centers. The result has been a lovely combination of bad offense and bad defense, and the Pistons are the worst team in the East, full stop.
There are four teams at the bottom of the standings, and of those four the Charlotte Hornets have shown the most signs of life recently. That hasn’t meant much, however, and they are clearly heading for a top pick in the NBA Draft. To their credit, they saw the writing on the wall and traded a few players at the deadline, including Mason Plumlee and Jaden McDaniels.
On January 8th the Indiana Pacers were 23-18, right in the mix of the Eastern Conference playoff mix. Since, they have gone 4-17, completely falling apart and falling below a half-dozen teams in the East. Theoretically, this team should be better, with Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner as the centerpieces, but they have been unable to hang on in a number of games and now have the league’s sixth-worst net rating.