19. Portland Trail Blazers (19-27)
The Blazers have fallen hard after last season’s surprise run to the Western Conference Finals, in which they knocked off both the Thunder and Nuggets before bowing out to Golden State. This year’s team still boasts one of the best back-courts in the NBA, but is any team really worse off than the Blazers at the 3 and 4 positions? Carmelo Anthony has been better than expected, and Hassan Whiteside has been decent as a fill-in for Jusuf Nurkic, though this hasn’t translated into much success in the win column for Portland.
The Blazers are also playing hero-ball a little too much, as they’re ranked dead-last in the league in Assists, averaging only 19.7 a game. It would be surprising if the Blazers didn’t get their act together during the second half of the season, though it won’t be easy as the collective winning % of their remaining opponents is 51 percent (8th most difficult remaining strength of schedule).
20. Chicago Bulls (18-30)
The Bulls only have themselves to blame for what is likely to be their third straight losing season. In the 2016 NBA Draft, they selected Denzel Valentine over the likes of Pascal Siakam and Malcolm Brogdon. In the 2017 Draft, they selected Lauri Markannen over guys like Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo. In the 2018 Draft, they selected Wendell Carter Jr. over guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Devonte Graham. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but these are the type of blunders that set franchises back years.
2019 first-rounder Coby White has had some decent moments, but he’s caught in the middle of a log-jam at Point Guard, with the team also employing Tomas Satoransky and Kris Dunn (the latter who has recently been starting games at small forward. Lavine has been fairly good as a scorer, but the Bulls are going to need a lot more than just him to get back to being a perennial playoff team.