The Kings still have comically inept leadership; the Nets have roughly no assets and little hope on the horizon; Clippers star Blake Griffin punched an equipment manager, breaking his hand; and the Bucks and Pelicans, instead of taking big steps forward this season, have fallen backward, hard.
But those teams aren't the biggest mess in the NBA. That title belongs the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets were supposed to compete for an NBA title this season. After all, in May, Houston was playing the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals after a regular season that brought 56 wins and the second playoff seed.
Today, Houston is a sub-.500 team fighting for a postseason spot. They're currently half-a-game up on the Jazz for the eighth and final Western Conference seed.
Houston's latest bit of dysfunction came Tuesday when the team bought out Ty Lawson, the so-called missing piece in the team's push to overtake the Warriors and win their first NBA title in 21 years.
Just paperwork left on Ty Lawson-Rockets, but buyout agreed upon and will be finalized today, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) March 1, 2016
The talented but troubled point guard was a reclamation project for Houston's iconoclastic general manager Daryl Morey, who acquired him from the Nuggets in July for four players and a protected first-round pick.
Lawson, who was twice arrested twice for DUI last year, completed a 30-day stint in rehab before the start of the season and then quickly got to talking:
"Steph Curry needed someone to go back at him," Lawson told Yahoo Sports in September. "I thought Steph was just chillin' on defense and then going crazy on offense... I'm not saying, 'Oh, I'm going to stop Steph,' but just make him work harder at the other end. I saw that in the Cavs series too...He wasn't really working at the other end."
Lawson averaged 5.3 points in 23.3 minutes per game against the Warriors this season. Curry rested for the teams' New Years Eve game.
By the end of Lawson's tenure in Houston, he was averaging 2.8 points and 1.5 assists in only 13.8 minutes per game, as he had fallen behind Corey Brewer and Jason Terry in the team's pecking order.
And frankly, the complete swing-and-miss on Lawson isn't in the top-five of dysfunctional things the Rockets have done this season.
This is a team that:
• Fired its well-respected coach, Kevin McHale, 11 games into the regular season, reportedly at the behest of James Harden.
• Had its two biggest stars, Harden and Dwight Howard, reportedly lobby team management to trade the other.
• Let Josh Smith walk this summer because the team's rotation was "foggy," only to then trade for him in January.
• Traded Donatas Motiejunas in a three-way deal before the trade deadline, only to have the trade voided by the Pistons after the forward failed his physical. (At the time of the trade, Motiejunas had been limited to 14 games this season because of an offseason back surgery.)
• Dealt with an endless stream of trade rumors regarding Howard, who broadcaster Gus Johnson claims wanted to be traded to Milwaukee before the deadline. Any possible deal broke down because Howard, a pending free agent, was adamant he would not sign a contract extension with any team.
Say what you will about Vivek Ranadive and the failure that is the Kings, but no one expected much better from them this year. The Clippers might be a soap opera, but they're still 39-20. The Bucks and Pelicans — well, they were never supposed to compete for a championship this year.
No, the biggest mess in the NBA is in Houston, and it seems no one is sure how to clean it up.
Dieter Kurtenbach is also a mess. He tweets @dkurtenbach.
