​​Lakers on their way to wrong kind of history

Moses Malone was limited to 59 games, but he averaged 15 rebounds, while Calvin Murphy averaged 25.6 points and the Rockets had 23 games of Rudy Tomjanovich (this was the year he got punched by Kermit Washington). Houston also had John Lucas, not a Hall of Famer, but a good pro at the start of a decade-long pro career… and they went 28-54 under Tom Nissalke.

Connie Hawkins and Charlie Scott had representative seasons, but Gus Johnson only played 21 games for the Suns, who despite a 20-point, 12-rebound per game season from Neal Walk — a career year for him — went 38-44, installing Jerry Colangelo as coach after seven games.

 
Dave Bing, Dave Cowens, John Havlicek, Charlie Scott, and Jo Jo White were five of Boston’s top six scorers, along with four-time All-Star Sidney Wicks, while Boston started the season with two-time championship coach Tommy Heinsohn, who was replaced by Tom Sanders after an 11-23 start. Those scorers were on a per-game basis, as Scott (who was traded to the Lakers for Don Chaney and Kermit Washington) and White played a combined 77 games for Boston. It also didn’t help that Havlicek was 37 and Bing was 34, but it’s still bizarre to see that roster roll up a 50-loss season.

The highlight of the 1979-80 season was trading George McGinnis for Alex English, who joined fellow future Hall of Famers Dan Issel, David Thompson, and Charlie Scott in the final season of his career… to go 30-52. The next year, Denver had the top offense in the NBA with English, Issel, and Thompson, but also the worst defense in the league en route to going 37-45 — although they were 26-25 after Doug Moe took over as coach for Donnie Walsh.

Coached by Jeff Van Gundy, with Tom Thibodeau and Patrick Ewing on the staff, the Rockets had three players who already are in the Hall of Fame — Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, and Dikembe Mutombo — and went 34-48. Mutombo was 39 years old and a bench player, while Yao and McGrady missed a combined 60 games. Still, Houston had Juwan Howard play 80 games and still stunk.

This was the Rockets’ first year after moving from San Diego, and what a welcome to Houston: a lineup with three Hall of Famers — Elvin Hayes, Calvin Murphy, and Rudy Tomjanovich — coached by Tex Winter, and they went 34-48. Did you ever think about how the Rockets moving from San Diego to Houston is the spiritual opposite of the Jazz moving from New Orleans to Utah? Anyway, Stu Lantz, the best non-Hall of Famer on this team, was eventually picked by the New Orleans Jazz in the 1974 expansion draft.

It was Don Nelson’s second year as coach in the Bay Area, coming off a trip to the second round, and with future Hall of Famers Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, and Lithuanian rookie Šarūnas Marčiulionis. Golden State also had rookie Tim Hardaway, who may yet find his way to Springfield, and Manute Bol, who’s spiritually a Hall of Famer. Yet the Warriors managed to go 37-45, as the roster also included Uwe Blab starting 33 games, plus the memorable names Mike Smrek and Chris Welp.

 
Connie Hawkins and Pat Riley only played about half the games, while Zelmo Beaty was getting to the end of the road, but Gail Goodrich was still in his prime, and the Lakers had non-Hall of Famer Happy Hairston averaging a double-double. They went 30-52, the Lakers’ only 50-loss season in Los Angeles until the 2010s.Connie Hawkins and Charlie Scott had representative seasons, but Gus Johnson only played 21 games for the Suns, who despite a 20-point, 12-rebound per game season from Neal Walk — a career year for him — went 38-44, installing Jerry Colangelo as coach after seven games.

Back-to-back 39-43 seasons as Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, and Bob Dandridge wound down their careers, having led Washington to the 1978 title and 1979 NBA Finals.

1992-93 Detroit Pistons: This was the year it all fell apart for the old Bad Boys, with Chuck Daly having left for New Jersey, replaced on the bench by Ron Rothstein. Still featuring Hall of Famers Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, and Isiah Thomas — with Bill Laimbeer still there, too — a team just a couple of years removed from a championship tumbled to 40-42.

Bill Bradley and Phil Jackson were bench guys, and Spencer Haywood only played 31 games in 19777, but the Knicks also had Walt Frazier, Bob McAdoo, and Earl Monroe on the roster, were coached by Hall of Famer Red Holzman, and went 40-42 to finish three games out of the final playoff spot in 1977, a year after they had Bradley, Frazier, Haywood, Jackson, and Monroe on a team that went 38-44. The first of these three disappointments featured only Bradley, Frazier, Jackson, and Monroe going 40-42.

If there’s a team this year’s Lakers wouldn’t mind emulating, it’s the Rockets of 40 years ago, who went 40-42 with Moses Malone, Calvin Murphy, and Rudy Tomjanovich playing for them (plus Mike Dunleavy Sr.), but squeaked into the playoffs, upset the Lakers, then beat the Spurs and Kings to reach the Finals, where the Cinderella run finally ended against the Celtics and Boston’s own Hall of Fame-heavy team with Tiny Arichibald, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish.