Where did it all go wrong? Postmortems for the NBA teams that missed the postseason

The Knicks' regular season was already a funeral. Thus, instead of a eulogy, Knicks fans should look at this post-mortem as a celebration of life. They should be toasting to inefficient play of Emmanuel Mudiay, the inconsistency of Mario Hezonja and the regression of Frank Ntilikina this season as their collective efforts, along with David Fizdale's ornery mail-in of a coaching performance, put New York in the best position to win the Zion Williamson sweepstakes this summer. It will all have been worth it if Madison Square Garden's rims are being assaulted by Williamson next fall. If Knicks fans really want to look at the positives from this lost season, they can point to the respective development of Mitchell Robinson, Kevin Knox, Alonzo Trier and the acquisition of Dennis Smith Jr. — all of whom would fit in nicely alongside two max free agents (Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving?) and whomever they select with their top-five pick. So cheer up Knicks fans: You can only go up from here.

Where did it go wrong for the Cavaliers? Owner Dan Gilbert's ego and unrealistic expectations are a good place to start. If you recall, before the season, Gilbert was dead set on making the playoffs to prove to whomever would listen (no one was listening, Dan), that the franchise wasn't as dependent upon LeBron James as it had seemed. Turns out, it was. The season got off to a rough start, which was exacerbated by Kevin Love getting injured four games into the year (he'd miss the next 50 games) and Gilbert firing coach Ty Lue after an 0-6 start. Much like the Knicks backers, however, Cavaliers fans can find solace in that they will have a 14 percent chance at landing yet another No. 1 overall pick and a chance to rebuild around Zion Williamson, the best athlete to enter the league since LeBron in 2003. 

There are a number of anecdotes to choose from when pointing to what went wrong with the Chicago Bulls this season. You could point to the fact that management brought in an offensive-minded coach in Fred Hoiberg a couple of seasons ago and gave him a roster of bricklayers for two seasons and then fired him before his most gifted offensive player (Lauri Markkanen) made his season debut this year. You could point to the hilarious team mutiny after then-interim coach Jim Boylen tried to treat the players like high schoolers in practice. But the best way to sum up where it all went wrong for the Bulls this year is to have you watch this horrendous last second shot by Zach LaVine against the Spurs. Just when you start to think LaVine and the Bulls roster might have some potential, he shoots a flat-footed, highly contested fadeaway three that barely grazes the rim. Hey, at least they'll get a top five player in the draft.

Where did it all go wrong for the Suns? If we're being honest, it was when they drafted Deandre Ayton over Luka Doncic with the No. 1 overall pick in last summer's draft. Not that Ayton hasn't played well for a rookie big man — he has (averaging 16 and 10 as a rookie ain't no joke) — but Doncic is clearly a better player and prospect moving forward. Imagine Doncic and Devin Booker playing together on offense. If you have two amazing offensive talents like that as your backcourt, you can build around them with three-and-D wings and a rim-running/rim-protector down low, and you have the makings of a good team. Instead, the Suns will hope that the lottery gods reward them again, and Zion Williamson or Ja Morant falls into their laps on draft night.

One could argue that it never went wrong for the Hawks this season. They were expected to be one of the worst teams in the NBA — and they were for the first half of the year — but once Trae Young turned the corner, Atlanta was competitive. At the same time, the Hawks were able to remain in play for the Zion Williamson sweepstakes by not winning too many games. Now they're in line to have a top five pick and possibly another high-lottery pick, as they own the rights to the Mavericks' pick if it doesn't fall in the top five. Equipped with a franchise point guard in Young and a number of talented complementary players like John Collins and Kevin Huerter, the Hawks have positioned themselves perfectly for the future. It'd be amazing if Zion is donning an ATL jersey this fall too!

Where did it all go wrong for the Wizards? I'm not sure of the "where," but I'm pretty sure that the "when" was approximately 4 a.m. every morning this summer at John Wall's favorite night clubs. Harkening back to the "too much, too soon" post-Jordan era of the NBA, Wall seemingly ignored the cautionary tales of stars in the '90s and early-2000s landing big contracts and then partying their way out of stardom. Get a Bumble profile, John Wall! Your Team USA picture in Vegas was absolutely hilarious...and  absolutely embarrassing...as was your showing up to training camp out of shape and ornery. What kind of team leader does that? The funny thing is that all of this nonsense occurred before Wall blew out his Achilles in a "slip and fall" at his home. Don't hold your breath, Wizards fans. This is far from over.

Much like the Hawks, everything pretty much broke right for the Mavericks this season. They made a savvy draft night trade for their next franchise player in Luka Doncic. Then they made another savvy trade (assuming the pending allegations against his are false) for potentially the second coming of Dirk Nowitzki in Kristaps Porzingis. Making matters even better, Dallas, whose draft pick conveys if it falls outside the top five, lost enough games this year to still have a 6 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick and a 26 percent chance at a top four draft pick this summer. That's Tanking 101 right there, folks.

The most obvious moment when it all went wrong for the Pelicans is when Anthony Davis demanded a trade a week before the trade deadline. However, Davis likely doesn't demand a trade if the Pelicans had played up to their potential and were competing for a playoff spot like most experts expected before the season. So what went wrong? The Pelicans caught a case of the injury bug early in the year with injuries to the likes of Davis, Nikola Mirotic, Elfrid Payton and other important rotation pieces. Had it had a clean bill of health all season, the team probably builds off its playoff success from last spring and avoids the Davis drama that ensued thereafter. Hell, if the Pelicans had been injury-free, Davis might be neck and neck with Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden for MVP right now.

If you recall, early in the season the Grizzlies were actually at the top of the Western Conference standings. While the rest of the league was pushing the pace and scoring like teams hadn't scored since the 1980s, Memphis was staying true to its grit-n-grind mantra. It didn't quite make sense how the Grizzlies were winning games this way, but they were...until they weren't. They really started to nosedive in mid-December when they had a five-game losing streak, won two in a row, then lost six straight, won a game, then lost eight more games in a row. I'm not a math guy, but a 3-19 stretch in the middle of the season seems pretty bad. The only thing that could make this season a positive is if the Grizzlies' pick falls outside the top eight because then it will vest to the Celtics and allow Memphis to really tank next season with reckless abandon.

Where did it go wrong for LeBron James and the Lakers? How much time do you have? There are three inflection points that stand out to me. The first came shortly after James signed then the team signed a clown car collective of free agents including JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, Rajon Rondo and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope instead of retaining guys like Julius Randle and Brook Lopez and finding three-point shooting. The second point was when James hurt his groin on Christmas Day against the Warriors. The final inflection point came when the front office/Klutch Sports botched the Anthony Davis deal by trying to bully the Pelicans front office into trading Davis to the Lakers for half of L.A.'s roster. 'Twas an ugly year in the City of Angels — expect a mini-roster overhaul this summer.

Bonus inflection point: Magic Johnson literally resigned during an impromptu session with the media about an hour before the Lakers' last regular-season game. He claimed it was because he wanted to be happy again and didn't want to let his "sister" Jeanie Buss down. But there's got to be something else going on here — be on the lookout for a Woj-Bomb in the next few days. I've got a feeling we're going to hear something juicy about either Rob Pelinka or Jeanie Buss...or both.

Speaking of drama, it all went wrong for the Timberwolves when then-coach and team president Tom Thibodeau refused to take Jimmy Butler's trade demand at the end of the 2017-18 season seriously and allowed the situation to remain unresolved heading into training camp. We all know what happened from there. Butler made his demands public and essentially sabotaged Minnesota's season with his erratic behavior during training camp and at the start of the season. By the time Butler was traded, Thibodeau had lost the team and was fired shortly thereafter. Karl-Anthony Towns went bananas once Butler was gone, but it was too little, too late at that point.

Where did it all go wrong for the Kings this year? What are you talking about? For the first time in more than a decade, the Kings actually caught a break this season as a number of their young prospects — De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley — all played like future stars for much of the season. While they won't break their missed-playoffs streak this year, they nearly went .500 in the brutal Western Conference. The Kings' lack of experience ultimately doomed their shot at the playoffs late in the year, but they have the chance to build some serious momentum heading into next season. Late word is that the team is expected to fire coach Dave Joerger,  who has been linked to the T-Wolves. They also will need to decide whether Harrison Barnes is worth what the market will demand for him.

Where did it all go wrong for the Heat? Let's see: probably the part where their best player this season and their franchise icon who was on a #onelastdance retirement tour the were the same person. I guess if we're splitting hairs, the Heat's best player all season was Josh Richardson, but Dwyane Wade was the best player on the Heat for far too many games for them to be a serious playoff contender. Another telltale sign that Miami wasn't a playoff team was that its top scorer (Richardson) averaged less than 17 points per game, and its top playmaker (Goran Dragic) averaged less than five assists per game. The Heat could really use a young star to give the franchise a jolt of life this offseason.

It all went wrong for the Hornets when they decided to "run it back" after last season. Scratch that. It all went wrong when the Hornets decided to not deal Kemba Walker to the highest bidder last trade deadline, this past offseason or this trade deadline. You see, the Hornets have the least optimistic long-term franchise outlook in the league, but owner Michael Jordan seems content with his team competing for the eight-seed every season (and often failing miserably). With a number of horrendous contracts on the books (Nic Batum, Marvin Williams), Charlotte had the chance these past two years to accelerate a rebuild. Instead, it stood pat and didn't get better or worse at any of the recent deadlines or drafts. I really hope, both for his sake and Hornets fans' sakes, that Kemba doesn't re-sign with the team this offseason because this franchise has no plan. Counterpoint (I guess): If you were MJ and the value of the franchise you'd purchased in 2010 had increased almost tenfold, would you care either?