Has a singular loss completely derailed a franchise’s progress whether in the past or still facing repurcussions today?
D Rose ACL injury in the Sixers playoff series
Lonzo Ball knee injury totally derailed the current iteration of the Bulls
As a Houston fan:
Trading for Westbrook. The team was on fire and with a few smart choices could’ve been a real super team. But nah we had to give away CP3 & a bunch of first rounders in the next following years which would’ve given us heaps of opportunity to get more depth or role players/defenders/etc to have a complete team.
The management in my eyes real fked Houston. Lucky they got some young stars now, but gonna be awhile before we back where we were.
Wanna hear others opinions tho, I’ve been a casual since that trade if I’m being honest.
Game 7 Nuggets/Clippers in the Bubble.
They have yet to recover.
Kings 2002 WCF game 6
Nick Anderson’s four free throws, 1995 Finals Game 1.
I was at the game where KD’s toe touched the line…
KINGS LAKERS 2002 GAME 6
Nets losing to bucks 2021
an inch away from winning, and we’re not even talking about pete carroll
Call me crazy but I think Nets are in the WORST position of any team. Obviously Wizards and Pistons are struggling now but they can tank and have their picks.
Nets got greedy as fuck. KD and Kyrie wasn’t enough so you had to relinquish the rights to your picks for 5 years for Harden?
Nets are spending close to $170m this year. Ben is owed $40m next season. They don’t have their pick in 2024/2026. 2025/2027 are swaps and Houston is looking decent and I’d imagine are gonna be solid in 2025 & 2027.
So Nets CANT tank. If they miss playoffs they will lose lottery picks to Houston. They’re not good enough to compete with this current roster.
They do have the Suns picks but feels like they will all be worse than their own.
Really feels like this team is gonna be stuck at the 8-11 seed next 2-3 years. Not have their own pick. Not have the best cap to sign free agents.
Cam Thomas and Claxton are seen as solid young pieces but you have to pay them soon.
Just feels like the team is stuck in mediocrity right now. Mikal is good and potential all-star but that’s the best right there. Ben doesn’t have trade value. Cam Johnson is solid but idk how much he goes for either. And if you sell, you can’t just tank bc then you lose your pick.
But it’s their fault they handed Tatum and Brown to the Celtics on a silver platter they deserve this shit for not trying atleast one season of Kyrie and KD together. Championship favorites go all-in like really All-in was nuts.
All I can say is they’re lucky they got to move KD for a massive haul. If he walked last offseason instead of the extension we’d be seeing Bobcats level bad play w no Bridges or Johnson and no Suns pick. We’d see Rockets clean up more lottery picks while Nets win 9 games
So yeah that loss did fuck them
Ben is an expiring $40m this upcoming Offseason and the Nets have a bunch of 1st’s they can add if any “Star” demands a Trade. Either straight up or via a 3 Team Deal.
Brooklyn is also in position to potentially have a bunch of Cap Space in the 2025 Offseason before Bridges cheap contract expires.
The whole reason the Celtics got Brown/Tatum was because Sean Marks at the time saw those 1st’s as a “Sunk Cost” and went through with a rebuild instead of doubling down on Brook Lopez, Thad Young, and Bojan Bogdanovic to which would have kept them around an 8 seed with the Cap Spike.
That isn’t the case here because the Nets still had a bunch of talent after Trading away Kyrie West and Durant.
Idk how you have long term faith in the Suns.
Durant is already 35yrs old, Beal is an old 30, and Booker is already injury prone while in his physical prime.
Suns also Traded away every Swap and 1st they have until 2030 and need to wait for every Offseason just for a new 1st or Swap to come available to potentially Trade away.
Also KD locked in his Extension 2yrs ago so he couldn’t have “walked” on the Nets.
He was smart unlike Harden who passed on a 3y/$161m Extension (on top of his 2yrs of Player Options) then gave up a guaranteed 5y/$270m Contract in Brooklyn for a 2y/$68m deal in Philly only to then cried about it afterwards.
Same w/ Kyrie who had to settle for the 3y/$126m Mav’s offer after refusing the sign a 4y/$187m Extension w/ Brooklyn (which was pulled after Kyrie West went Anti-Vax) and demanding a Trade if they didn’t give him a 4-5yr $200-250m “Fully Guaranteed Contract” with “No Strings Attached”.
Those Suns picks won’t be good. Maybe 2029 because it’s very far away and hard to predict but I still doubt the Suns gift wrap them a top-5 pick.
Kawhi and the shot have left us perpetual 2nd round exits
Kawhi’s shot had nothing to do with Butler leaving in free agency and the Sixers giving Tobias that awful contract.
2016 WCF game 6 AKA the Klay game. If the Thunder win that game I truly believe we’re the champions that year. Instead we lose KD and don’t make it out of the first round for 7 years now. We went into the 4th quarter up by 8 with a chance to close vs the best regular season team of all time and advance to the finals
In a way, it’s pretty damn impressive that Presti managed to take a team that lost the most valuable asset in the entire league for nothing, and still turn around and put together a squad with Westbook, PG and Melo.
Thunder didn’t go into full rebuild mode after that, they actually made the playoffs for three straight years.
Yeah and it kind of speaks to me being a little bit spoiled to have been a fan of this team for 15 years and only been legitimately bad for like 3 years total. It was just the end of 6 years of contention after losing that game
Kings 2002 G7. They’ve never had a true championship contender since.
Cavs 2018 Finals G1. JR Smith botching that last possession in regulation killed any chance the Cavs had that series. Lebron joined the Lakers that summer.
Kings 2002 G7. They’ve never had a true championship contender since.
That didn’t cause the Kings to change anything though. They still had the same team together two years later when they lost to the Wolves in the 2nd round of the 2004 playoffs. 2002 was as close as they ever got to the title, but that loss didn’t totally derail their quest like the OP is asking about.
Cavs 2018 Finals G1
I don’t think anyone really thinks the Cavs had a realistic shot at that championship that year, even if they’d won Game 1. It was widely speculated all season long that LeBron would leave that summer, in large part because they were not seen as true contenders anymore after Kyrie left (and especially with KD now on the Warriors). Maybe LeBron stays if they win, but I think he was pretty clearly already looking at the Lakers before that, just like he had looked at Cleveland back in 2014 before the Heat lost that year.
That didn’t cause the Kings to change anything though. They still had the same team together two years later when they lost to the Wolves in the 2nd round of the 2004 playoffs
Yes it did change everything. Kings would be some dynasty they were a one shot wonder at best, but Webber had a career altering injury in the 2003 playoffs and was never the same