The NBA post-season is one of the best times of the year to be a sports fan. The 16 best teams in the league are seeded in both conferences and play through their opponents until a champion in both Eastern and Western Conferences is crowned. After which, the final two battle over who will be the NBA champion.
- 9. Houston Rockets – 2 Years
- 8. Oklahoma City Thunder – 2 Years
- 7. Indiana Pacers – 2 Years
- 6. Orlando Magic – 2 Years
- 5. San Antonio Spurs – 3 Years
- 4. Detroit Pistons – 3 Years
- 3. Cleveland Cavaliers – 4 Years
- 2. Charlotte Hornets – 6 Years
- 1. Sacramento Kings – 16 Years
- Next
- The Most 3-Pointers Attempted In A Single Season In NBA History: James Harden Holds The Record With 1,028
- 3 Realistic Superteams The Los Angeles Lakers Can Create For The 2022-23 NBA Season
- NBA Playoffs Single-Game Records: Michael Jordan Still Holds The 63-Point Record, Wilt Chamberlain’s 41 Rebounds Won’t Ever Be Repeated
- Ranking The 25 Best NBA Players For The 2021-22 Season
- Who Will Win The 2022 NBA Championship: Bucks Are Biggest Favorites, Grizzlies Can Surprise
Every team dreams of one day holding the Larry O’Brien trophy, but some are a long way from earning their way to that honor. The first thing a team needs to do is at least qualify for the Playoffs. Some teams are better at that than others, but with the NBA Draft system, long streaks of missing the playoffs are hard to see.
Out of the 30 NBA teams, only 8 haven’t made the Playoffs in the last two seasons. But more than a few of them seem to have a problem breaking out of their rebuild. The New Orleans Pelicans avoided this list after ending their playoff drought at three years and qualifying for the 2022 playoffs. However, these other teams haven’t been so lucky.
9. Houston Rockets – 2 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2020
The Houston Rockets were competing for titles through the 2010s and were expected to be competitive for years. However, after their last playoff appearance led to a second-round exit in 2020, the team proceeded to implode. The failed championship runs in 2018 and 2019 forced the Rockets to make moves like trading for Russell Westbrook. However, after that failed in 2020, the Rockets blew their team-up, with former MVP James Harden being traded in early-2021.
The Rockets have quickly pivoted to a rebuild and have missed the playoffs for the second year running. However, they hit big in the 2022 draft and have exciting players like Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, and Usman Garuba on the roster. With another top pick on the horizon, it seems Houston has a lot of great pieces to build around. Whether they will return to playoff contention in a year is hard to tell, but the drought shouldn’t extend for years if they play their cards right.
8. Oklahoma City Thunder – 2 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2020
The Oklahoma City Thunder were Western Conference Playoff mainstays through the 2010s. The team made a Finals appearance in 2012 and blew a spectacular 3-1 lead in the 2016 Western Conference finals. The team’s success was predicated on fantastic drafting by Sam Presti, who built a core of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, and many others over the course of a decade.
The Thunder entered a rebuild in 2019 when they moved on from Westbrook, but still made the 2020 playoffs led by Chris Paul. They were eliminated in the first round by the Houston Rockets (4-3). After trading Paul to the Phoenix Suns in 2020, the Thunder have been rooted at the bottom of the West for consecutive seasons. Despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s emergence, it seems the Thunder will have to wait at least a couple of more seasons before they see the post-season again.
7. Indiana Pacers – 2 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2020
Like the Thunder, the Indiana Pacers were Playoff regulars in the 2010s. They made some deep runs through the Eastern Conference, making the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014. The Pacers have made 10 of the last 13 post-seasons. However, their consecutive seasons of misses in 2021 and 22 means they join this list alongside members of the 2020 playoff field that haven’t made it back since.
The Pacers have successfully pivoted from competitive teams to competitive teams, but by the end of the last decade, they were perennial first-round exits. After firing Nate McMillan in 2020, the Pacers have been forced to go into a rebuild with new coach Rick Carlisle. After trading All-Star Domantas Sabonis for sophomore Tyrese Haliburton, it seems the Pacers will need some time to find the right pieces around the former Kings player.
6. Orlando Magic – 2 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2020
The last team from the 2020 playoff field to haven’t gone back to the post-season is the Orlando Magic. The Magic have consistently been one of the poorest performing teams in the Eastern Conference over the last decade. After making the NBA Finals in 2009, the wheels have come off the Magic and they have never recovered from the loss of Dwight Howard. Nikola Vucevic dragged them to the playoffs in 2019 and 2020 and interrupted what could have possibly been 10 seasons of no playoff appearances for Orlando.
After trading Vucevic in 2021, the Magic have a very solid core to work with. 2021 draft picks Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner have high potential, with Wagner outperforming expectations as a rookie. They have an emerging big-man in Wendell Carter Jr., and solid role players. A top pick in the 2022 draft could possibly land the Magic a piece that can expedite their road back to the NBA playoffs.
5. San Antonio Spurs – 3 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2019
The San Antonio Spurs own the longest consecutive streak of playoff appearances in the NBA with 22. That run started in 1997 under Gregg Popovich and would end after the Spurs failed to make the 2020 playoffs. Their last Playoff run saw them stretch the Denver Nuggets to seven games in 2019 with DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, but the Spurs haven’t made it since.
The team has been in the Western Conference play-in for the last 2 years but has failed to make it through the field. They currently have an extremely promising young core led by All-Star Dejounte Murray. However, the team has been looking strong by out-performing the expectations set on this young team. Hopefully, Pop can take the Spurs back to the Playoffs again. He has the building blocks to do so, but whether the Spurs can compete in the next year or two is a question mark.
4. Detroit Pistons – 3 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2019
Another first-round exit from 2019, the Detroit Pistons have not looked on the path to making the playoffs for three consecutive seasons now. After a fantastic Blake Griffin season led them to the 2019 Playoffs, the Pistons were stomped by the #1 seed Milwaukee Bucks. Griffin’s injuries led to the team being left in limbo in 2019 and 2020, where they started moving around their competitive players like Reggie Jackson, Derrick Rose, Andre Drummond, and Markieff Morris.
The Pistons committed to a rebuild and landed a generational piece in Cade Cunningham in the 2021 Draft, despite making the misstep of drafting Killian Hayes with a top-10 pick in 2020. The growth of players like Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart, along with the flexibility the Pistons have through high draft picks and valuable assets like Jerami Grant make them a formidable team for the future. Hopefully, their drought ends soon.
3. Cleveland Cavaliers – 4 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2018
The Cleveland Cavaliers are the only team on this list to last make a playoff appearance and make it to the NBA Finals that same year. The Cavaliers were coming off a dynastic hold on the Eastern Conference for 4 years, where they made the NBA Finals every single year and won a title in 2016. This was primarily due to LeBron James forming a big three with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving (Irving would leave after 2017).
The Cavaliers were almost guaranteed to make the 2022 Playoffs after the All-Star emergence of Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen. However, injuries to key players like Allen, Collin Sexton, Ricky Rubio, and others through the season sapped their momentum. They were eliminated by the Atlanta Hawks in the Play-In this year, but look the most likely on this list to break their playoff duck next season.
2. Charlotte Hornets – 6 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2016
Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets have one of the worst records over the last 20 years of NBA basketball. The team has been bottom of the Conference almost consistently. Since 2005, the team has made just three Playoff appearances (2010, 14, and 16). Their best finish was in 2016 when Kemba Walker led the team to the sixth seed and battled against the Miami Heat in the first round, before losing 4-3. However, the future looks brighter with a new franchise point guard.
LaMelo Ball has taken the Hornets to the play-in tournament in consecutive seasons and was named an All-Star this year. The team has built a solid foundation around Ball, but have a few roster deficiencies to address. This includes getting a reliable center and figuring out how to keep the core together as they all will hit free agency in upcoming seasons.
1. Sacramento Kings – 16 Years
Last Playoff Appearance: 2006
It doesn’t get any worse than this. There is an entire generation of basketball fans that are about to enter adulthood that hasn’t seen the Sacramento Kings be a playoff team. The last time the Kings made the Playoffs, Kevin Durant was getting ready to be drafted into the NBA and over 95% of today’s players hadn’t even entered the league. This is a shame because prior to 2006, the Kings were regularly pushing to be a possible championship team with players like Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Vlade Divac, Bobby Jackson, and others.
Since 2016, the team has gone through multiple eras of possible picks saving the team. They had a bright spot with DeMarcus Cousins a few seasons ago, but outside of that, it has been a rough decade and a half for the Kings. They made a win-now push this season by trading future star Tyrese Haliburton to put Domantas Sabonis alongside De’Aaron Fox, but it didn’t work out. With so many blown picks and no clear direction on where they are headed, nobody knows how this drought will end for Sacramento.
