The NBA has been around since 1946 and has grown and declined in teams over the years. Currently, the worst team to ever exist according to win percentage is the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats (7-59)(.106) which was owned by Michael Jordan. But there is a team currently in the NBA that is projected to have a worse season than this – the Pistons of Detroit.
As of January 24th, they are 5-39(.114). This record is historically bad and the talent compared between the two teams is astonishing. The Pistons have a lot of promising talent with some players proving they can make an impact before this season started.
The Bobcats were supposed to be horrendous with only two possibly promising players (Kemba Walker & Bismack Biyombo) and the Bobcats were known at this point to draft terrible picks. Now if the Pistons end up with the worst losing percentage in the history of the NBA they won’t just be bad on a basketball scale but they will be bad on a professional sports level.
Comparing other sports to each other can be difficult and certain statistics simply don’t work with each other because of how the games work. For example, you can’t compare point differential to run differential in the MLB it simply wouldn’t be fair because of how many more points are scored in the NBA than runs earned in the MLB. But with certain statistics like win percentage, we can get a closer grasp of just how bad these teams are compared to each other.
Now win percentage (WP) will work for sports like baseball and hockey, but there have been several winless teams in the NFL and to find a better comparison we can add a few seasons together and look at the team’s WP. The Pistons set a record for most games lost in a row this year with 28 games lost in a row. If you combine all of these leagues (NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB) The Pistons are only behind the one team for the longest losing streak and that would be the 1942-45 Chicago Cardinals of the NFL. Now to say the 2023-34 Detroit Pistons are the worst team in North American Sports history would all be dependent to what statistics you determine to be important.
It will be exiting for most to see the champion of the NBA finals this year but a true fan is wondering. Are the Pistons the worst team in NBA history?
