{"id":91614,"date":"2024-08-21T09:51:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T13:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=91614"},"modified":"2024-08-21T09:51:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T13:51:01","slug":"the-4-longest-active-nba-team-playoff-droughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/21\/the-4-longest-active-nba-team-playoff-droughts\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4 Longest Active NBA Team Playoff Droughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sacramento Kings<\/a> had a stretch from 2007 to 2022 where they didn\u2019t reach the playoffs once. That lengthy playoff drought finally came to a conclusion in 2023. A collective sigh of relief was heard throughout Sacramento once they officially clinched a playoff spot for the first time in 17 seasons.<\/p>\n

While no team currently has that long of a period without postseason basketball, there are four teams that haven\u2019t reached the playoffs for at least four straight seasons. Their fans are hopeful that these droughts can end in 2025 and don\u2019t come close to reaching the amount of years that Sacramento\u2019s did.<\/p>\n

The 4 Longest Active NBA Team Playoff Droughts<\/h2>\n

Charlotte Hornets – 8 seasons<\/h3>\n

The Hornets haven\u2019t appeared in the playoffs since 2016. That year, they lost to the Miami Heat<\/a> in seven games in the opening round. Out of the 14 players that saw action for Charlotte in the 2016<\/a> playoffs, only two are currently on a NBA roster (Nicolas Batum<\/a> and Cody Zeller<\/a>). The franchise hasn\u2019t won a playoff series since 2002.<\/p>\n

Any chance of ending the postseason drought falls on LaMelo Ball<\/a>, and his ability to remain on the court. Turning 23 years old on August 22, Ball has only appeared in 58 games over the last two seasons. They have a new head coach in Charles Lee<\/a>, who was an assistant with the champion Boston Celtics<\/a> last season.<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons – 5 seasons<\/h3>\n

It was an ugly 2023-24 season for the Pistons. They went through a brutal 28-game losing streak and finished with a franchise-worst 14-68 record. That resulted in head coach Monty Williams<\/a> being fired after just one season.<\/p>\n

Enter new head coach<\/a>, J.B. Bickerstaff, who will look to instill a winning culture. The team was in dire need of outside shooting. Adding pieces such as Tobias Harris<\/a>, Tim Hardaway Jr.<\/a>, and Malik Beasley<\/a> should help in that area.<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs – 5 seasons<\/h3>\n

The Spurs earning a spot in the postseason used to be a certainty. They reached the playoffs every year from 1998 to 2019, also winning five championships in that time.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s five years without a taste of playoff basketball. San Antonio didn\u2019t come close to qualifying last season with a 22-60 record. Still, fans got a glimpse of what Victor Wembanyama<\/a> could mean for the franchise as they look to once again have the success they did in the Tim Duncan<\/a> days. Adding veterans to the team in Chris Paul<\/a> and Harrison Barnes<\/a> to the team should help improve the win-loss record. In a stacked Western Conference though, postseason basketball for the Spurs won\u2019t be easy to accomplish.<\/p>\n

Houston Rockets – 4 seasons<\/h3>\n

While it\u2019s been nearly half a decade since Houston experienced the playoffs, they are clearly an ascending team. Last season, they improved by 19 wins going 41-41. In 2022-23, they won just 22 games (also won only 20 in 2021-22 and 17 in 2020-21).<\/p>\n

Their young core pieces now have another year of experience (Alperen Sengun<\/a>, Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a>, Jalen Green<\/a>, and Amen Thompson<\/a>). Houston added sharpshooter Reed Sheppard<\/a> with the third overall pick. He is considered the favorite<\/a> to win Rookie of the Year. Out of these four teams, the Rockets seem the likeliest to reach the postseason (currently +120 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>), although it won\u2019t be easy out West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sacramento Kings had a stretch from 2007 to 2022 where they didn\u2019t reach the playoffs once. That lengthy playoff drought finally came to a conclusion in 2023. A collective sigh of relief was heard throughout Sacramento once they officially clinched a playoff spot for the first time in 17 seasons. While no team currently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":91635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,7,10,31,62,29,34],"tags":[49160,229,49128,823,596,4669],"class_list":["post-91614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-pistons","category-rockets","category-nba","category-kings","category-spurs","tag-charles-lee","tag-chris-paul","tag-jb-bickerstaff","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}