28. Toronto Raptors
I'm not sure if there's a team that has bamboozled me so far this season more than the Toronto Raptors. At the beginning of the year, I did believe that the Raptors had an outside chance to finish as a Play-In Tournament in the Eastern Conference. At this point, it's pretty safe to assume that that ship has sailed. At the midway point of the season, the Raptors are nearly 10 games out of the No. 10 seed in the East. Moving forward, there are still big questions the Raptors must answer before the NBA offseason arrives.
The biggest of those questions revolve around whether this core is good enough to be considered the foundation of a franchise. Right now, I'm not sure if the front office knows the answer to that question. Honestly, I'm not even sure if they are completely sold on Scottie Barnes being considered the face of the franchise moving forward with the small decline he's seen in his overall offensive efficiency so far this season. Toronto still has a bright future, but they clearly have a few things to figure out.
27. New Orleans Pelicans
Call it what you want. But, overall, it's been a pretty forgettable year for the New Orleans Pelicans. For a team that entered the season with as much hope as they did, this year has been pretty disastrous for the team overall. It's been so bad that the complete blueprint of the team build could be in jeopardy as the team begins to prepare the plans for the NBA Trade Deadline. There's a non-zero chance that the Pelicans can look a lot different at the start of next season - perhaps even without both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram on the roster.
At this point, I'd suggest the Pelicans strongly consider such a reset of their roster. New Orleans tried to retool and build a contender around Zion on the fly with the additions of C.J. McCollum and then Dejounte Murray. For as talented as each of those players is in their own right, those additions seemingly didn't work out in the long run for the Pelicans. As New Orleans prepares the plan for the offseason, this could be a moment in which the team seriously considers some big changes. Everything and anything should be on the table right now for New Orleans.