With Kevin Durant in tow for a full season, could 2023-24 be the year for the Suns to end their drought?
And then there were 10.
That’s it. That’s the round number of teams still looking for that first NBA championship. The Denver Nuggets removed themselves from the club that everybody’s trying to turn in their membership.
Winning a championship is hard. Staying on this list is even harder, in so many ways. It’s hard from a fan standpoint, an organizational standpoint, a reputation standpoint and of course, just hard coming up short for so many years. Like, aren’t the odds ever in your favor?
Here’s the list of 10 dreamers and a brief summary describing why it hasn’t happened yet.
Brooklyn Nets
Give the Nets some love for trying, even if their most recent plan was faulty. They convinced Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden to team up and have nothing to show for it, mainly because the one full year all three were together, injuries to Kyrie and Harden torpedoed those hopes. Then came the implosion. Before that, Jason Kidd took the Nets to back-to-back Finals trips, only to see Tim Duncan and Shaq standing in his way. And if you want to really go on a historical trip, the Nets’ first good chance at making title noise was lost when they sold Julius Erving to the Sixers at the ABA-NBA merger.
Charlotte Hornets
This second reincarnation of the Hornets (formerly the Bobcats, born 2004) has only made the playoffs three times (winning only three games total). Too many bad draft situations didn’t help — Emeka Okafor, Adam Morrison, Michael-Kidd Gilchrist and Cody Zeller were all top-10 picks. It’s a weird and uncomfortable reflection on team governor Michael Jordan, given his six championships as a player.
Indiana Pacers
Well, Reggie Miller and Rik Smits were pretty good, just not enough to beat Shaq and Kobe Bryant at the turn of the century. Years later, Paul George was pretty solid, but those Pacer teams were a few stars too short against the Big Three Heat. And now Indiana seems years away from any championship buzz … unless they somehow pull off a “Hoosiers”-like miracle in the near future.
LA Clippers
Lob City became Robbed City a decade ago because of the untimely injuries to Blake Griffin and Chris Paul during their franchise heyday. Much has been the same lately, with injuries to George and Kawhi Leonard. And it didn’t help when the Clippers constantly blew leads in the playoffs. Basically, this franchise, born in Buffalo and relocated from San Diego, has been perpetually stuck by a string of crummy luck and also bad personnel decisions. When compared to their sister team in L.A., it’s just not a fair fight. The Lakers have 17 titles, the Clippers would be overjoyed with just one.
Memphis Grizzlies
They have the distinction of not only losing their Canadian roots (Vancouver), but watching Toronto, which came into the league the same year, get a title before them. The Grizzlies only had one stretch where they could smell a championship in the distance, and that was with the Grit-N-Grind teams of Tony Allen, Mike Conley, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. They’ve got a future right now with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. and had good regular seasons the last few years, but then the bright lights managed to freeze them.
Minnesota Timberwolves
They never went to the Finals with Kevin Garnett for over a decade. That was their chance and not only did they miss it, but Garnett cashed in with the Celtics the year after he left Minny. Then the Wolves, created in 1989, endured a lengthy dry spell where nothing went right. And now, a question: Will the cost of the Rudy Gobert trade tack on more years of non-championship misery?
New Orleans Pelicans
Well, the franchise has only been in existence since 1988 (2002 in New Orleans) so the team formerly known as the Hornets gets a pass, to a degree. Their biggest miscue (while in Charlotte) was giving Larry Johnson what was then the largest contract extension in NBA history — and his current deal still had two more years to run — which essentially made it impossible to retain Alonzo Mourning, who was considered the better player. Johnson developed lower back issues and was never the same, Mourning went to Miami (and eventually won a title) and the franchise moved to New Orleans. The Pelicans then squandered the Anthony Davis years, and here they are.
Orlando Magic
Orlando had the misfortune of being blessed with two dominant big men and still couldn’t sip champagne. First Shaquille O’Neal, then Dwight Howard, both unable to bulldoze their way through June. Then Shaq bailed in his prime for the Lakers and went on a dynastic tear, with three straight titles. That had to hurt his old team, or at least it did until the Magic drafted Howard at No. 1 overall … only to see him leave, too. At least Howard had to wait another dozen years before he grabbed a ring — also with the Lakers.
Phoenix Suns
Of all the club members, the Suns are probably dealing with the hardest luck, if only because they’ve had a number of very good teams that just couldn’t cash in. Think of the Charles Barkley Suns of the late 1990s who couldn’t overcome Michael Jordan and then Hakeem Olajuwon. And the Steve Nash Suns who were victimized by a Robert Horry hip-check in 2007. And most recently, the Devin Booker Suns, unable to hold a 2-0 lead against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in 2021. Now they have Durant, a two-time champ, but did he save his best for those Warriors’ teams?
Utah Jazz
Ah, Karl Malone and John Stockton, easily the best tandem never to get crowned. Such was the case with them and others in the 1990s who couldn’t overcome Jordan. It’s unfathomable, really, because with those two all-time greats, the Jazz were true contenders for roughly a dozen years. With nobody on the current roster on the level of Stockton and Malone, Utah might need to, ahem, move mountains to get back into the mix.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.
