15) Knicks, seven years (2014-2020)

Thanks to the exploits of All-Star Julius Randle, the Knicks are returning to the playoffs in 2021 for the first time since 2013, when Carmelo Anthony led them to the Conference Semifinals. This seven year drought tied for the longest in franchise history. It was previously set between 1960 and 1966, when the Knicks made a slow transition from the Carl Braun/Richie Guerin ’50s teams to the Willis Reed/Walt Frazier mini dynasty that eventually won titles in 1970 and 1973. Will this team see similar success? It’s doubtful based on the current construction of the roster but never say never.

14) Nuggets, eight years (1996-2003)

One of the premier ABA franchises, the Nuggets reached the postseason all nine seasons (though they never won a title) and they carried over that consistency in their first 14 NBA seasons, making the playoffs in 12 of them. But the ’90s and early ’00s were a rough time for Denver. They reached the playoffs just twice between 1990 and 2003, and as far as the second round just once, in 1994, when they pulled off an improbable first round upset over the SuperSonics. Despite the presence of several legendary coaches like Bernie Bickerstaff, Paul Westhead, Dick Motta, Mike D’Antoni, and franchise legend Dan Issel (whom the team turned against completely during the ’00-’01 season). It took the 2003 drafting of Carmelo Anthony to change the franchise’s fortunes as the Nuggets kicked off a 10 season playoff appearance streak in his rookie campaign. (Unfortunately, they also made it past the first round just once in those 10 years).

13) Hawks, eight years (2000-2007)

There’s been some real ups and down in Hawks franchise history. They were one of the top franchises in the NBA in the ’50s and ’60s, reaching at least the Conference Finals 12 times in a 15-year stretch starting in ’55-’56. Though the successes were more tempered in later years (they haven’t been to the NBA Finals since 1961), following their late ’60s move to Atlanta, they still made some endearing playoff memories in the ’80s with the Dominique Wilkins-led teams and in the ’90s, when they had stars like Mookie Blaylock and Dikembe Mutombo. A trade of Blaylock in 2000 signaled a rebuild that would keep Atlanta out of the postseason for eight consecutive seasons. They finally re-emerged in ’07-’08, led by a new crop of young stars in Joe Johnson, Al Horford, and Josh Smith.

12) Clippers, eight years (1998-2005)

Playing in the league’s second biggest market and seemingly perennially stocked with All-Star level talent, the Clippers probably seem like NBA royalty to the youngest fans amongst us. It would be hard to blame them for not realizing that this franchise was the laughingstock of the league in its first three decades in Southern California. This streak probably should have been even longer, but the Clippers made a shocking playoff appearance in 1997, sneaking in as the West’s #8 seed despite a 36-46 record (they were summarily swept in the first round by the Jazz). The team finally hit on a winning formula in ’05-’06, when the gruff but effective (for a while) Mike Dunleavy coached them not just to a winning record and playoff appearance but even a first round upset over the Nuggets. It was a likable, exciting team, with Elton Brand having a career year surrounded by young talents Shaun Livingston and Chris Kaman, plus veteran leaders like Sam Cassell. Of course, it didn’t last long, as the Clippers kicked off another five-year drought by missing the postseason in 2007.

11) Grizzlies, eight years (1996-2003)

From the beginning, the deck was stacked against the Vancouver Grizzlies. Starting life in ’95-’96, they were one of the smallest markets in the league and the U.S.-Canada currency exchange (weak at the time) was an additional detractor for potential free agents. They finished 13th or worst in the West in all six seasons spent in Vancouver, including dead last three times. While some of the young talent like Mike Bibby and Shareef Abdur-Rahim panned out, there were also some high profile flops (i.e., Bryant “Big Country” Reeves) and guys who forced their way out of town immediately (i.e., Steve Francis). Things finally started to turn around after the 2001 move to Memphis, as the Grizzlies hired Hubie Brown as head coach and completely rebuilt the roster around their young star center Pau Gasol. They had their first winning season, 50-win season, and playoff appearance in ’03-’04, though it all ultimately ended with a first round sweep at the hands of the Spurs.

10) Bullets, eight years (1989-1996)

Already the team’s general manager and a television analyst, franchise legend Wes Unseld decided to additionally take the reins as Bullets head coach during the ’87-’88 season. It was considered a disappointment at the time when his team lost in the first round of the 1988 playoffs but that would retrospectively seem like an impossible dream for the next seven years. Unseld was quite obviously in over his head as a coach but still hung around until ’93-’94, when he was mercifully fired after a seventh straight losing season. Though Washington remained consistently bad for another decade following, they did sneak in one playoff appearance in 1997, led by Chris Webber and Juwan Howard. It ended in a first round sweep against the Bulls and was ultimately the lone postseason trip in a 16-year stretch between 1989 and 2004.

9) Warriors, nine years (1978-1986)

Led by legends Al Attles on the sidelines and Rick Barry on the court, the Warriors were surprise NBA champions in ’74-’75 and remained a title contender the following two seasons. Things fell apart quickly though, as Barry was traded to the Rockets, young All-Star Jamaal Wilkes fled in free agency, and the team slumped. Numerous potential franchise saviors came and went without much of an impact, due to either constant injuries (Bernard King and Purvis Short), ill-advised trades (Robert Parish), bad attitudes (World B. Free, Joe Barry Carroll), or unreliability (Micheal Ray Richardson). ’81-’82 was especially cruel as Golden State dropped their last two contests of the season to miss the playoffs by one game. Their drought was finally broken in ’86-’87, when second year star Chris Mullin teamed up with Carroll and Sleepy Floyd to reach the Conference Semifinals.

8) Kings, nine years (1987-1995)

The Kings are currently mired in a 15-year stretch without a postseason appearance which we’ll get to later in this list but droughts are nothing new for the franchise. They missed the playoffs for seven straight years in the late ’60s and early ’70s, during which time they relocated from Cincinnati to Kansas City. Then, starting in the ’86-’87 season, their second after moving to Sacramento, the Kings kicked off a nine-year era of playoff-free frustration. The roster was stacked at the time with young talent, highlighted by Reggie Theus and Otis Thorpe, but the mismanagement in the front office was palpable. They used and discarded head coaches like Kleenex, going from Phil Johnson to Jerry Reynolds to Bill Russell back to Jerry Reynolds to Dick Motta to Rex Hughes to Garry St. Jean all over the course of just six years. Meanwhile, #1 overall pick Pervis Ellison was traded after just one disappointing season, while first round picks Bobby Hurley and Ricky Berry had brief careers due to a car crash and suicide, respectively. Trading for All-Star Mitch Richmond keyed a slight turnaround that did result in one playoff appearance, a first round exit in 1996.

“Thus, the Braves became the San Diego Clippers in 1978 and it’s arguable that the franchise’s history since can only be described as the result of a curse placed on it upon departing Buffalo.”

7) Jazz, nine years (1975-1983)

One of three franchises on this list whose drought spanned a relocation and one of two, along with the Grizzlies, who started their streak in their inaugural season. Originally located in New Orleans, the Jazz were an unmitigated disaster in their first decade. The lynchpin of those struggles was brash star Pete Maravich, who racked up stats (he was scoring champ in ’76-’77) while simultaneously clashing with coaches (especially Elgin Baylor) and teammates like Truck Robinson. That rancor on the court and in the locker room was reflected in the standings and in the stands, as New Orleans fans mostly ignored their dysfunctional, underperforming basketball franchise. They relocated to Salt Lake City, waived Maravich, traded for Adrian Dantley, and a slow rebuild finally paid off with a playoff appearance in ’83-’84. In fact, thanks to the subsequent drafting of Karl Malone and John Stockton, and the eventual hiring of Jerry Sloan, that kicked off 20 straight years of postseason trips, the fourth longest streak in NBA history.

6) Suns, 10 years (2011-2020)

On the penultimate day of the ’19-’20 regular season, the Suns closed out their run in the Orlando bubble undefeated at 8-0, with a blowout win over the Mavericks. It was all for naught unfortunately, as they finished just short of the play-in game, but portended great things for the franchise. After a decade of languishing once the “Seven Seconds or Less” roster was dissolved in the early ’10s, Phoenix finally swung for the fences again in the 2020 offseason, trading for Chris Paul and signing Jae Crowder and Dario Saric to supplement their rising young stars, Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton. But even in their wildest dreams, Suns fans likely didn’t envision how good the team would be in ’20-’21, not just breaking a playoff drought but doing so with a likely #2 seed in the competitive Western Conference.

5) Mavericks, 10 years (1991-2000)

As opposed to most franchises in the modern era, the Mavericks were successful pretty quickly. They reached the playoffs in just their fourth season, ’83-’84, and as far as the Conference Finals in 1988. A rebuilding project started in the early ’90s, with mainstay stars Derek Harper, Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Sam Perkins, and Roy Tarpley, all getting traded, departing as free agents, or just flaming out completely due to alcoholism (in the case of Tarpley). It looked like it was going to be a quick return to contention for Dallas, with Jim Jackson, Jason Kidd, and Jamal Mashburn drafted between 1992 and 1994, but that trio was undone by infighting and poor coaching and quickly broken up. The turning points came in 1998, when the team drafted Dirk Nowitzki, and in 2000, when the franchise was sold to the high-spending Mark Cuban. Not only did the ’00-’01 Mavs return to the postseason, they were a legitimate contender, winning 53 games and reaching the Conference Semifinals. They eventually made 11 straight playoff appearances, culminating in a championship in 2011.

4) Warriors, 12 years (1995-2006)

When Chris Cohan purchased the Warriors in 1994, he took over a powder keg set to explode. Young stars Latrell Sprewell and Chris Webber were disgruntled, as was longtime head coach Don Nelson, while franchise legends Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway were struggling with major injuries. Golden State won 50 games in ’93-’94 but were swept in the first round of the playoffs and wouldn’t return again for over a decade. That stretch of time included Nelson resigning in disgust, disastrous trades of Hardaway and Webber, Sprewell infamously choking coach P.J. Carlisemo and getting subsequently suspended then traded, lottery pick disasters like Joe Smith, Troy Murphy, and Adonal Foyle, and letting Gilbert Arenas leave in free agency because so much salary cap had been tied up in washed up veterans. Things finally turned around in dramatic fashion in ’06-’07, when the Warriors re-hired Nelson, completely rebuilt the roster via savvy trades, eked their way into playoffs as a #8 seed, and proceeded to stun the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round, earning the “We Believe” team nickname. Even with three championships won during the ’10s, many Warriors fans still consider that ’06-’07 squad to be their favorite.

3) Timberwolves, 13 years (2005-2017)

After missing the postseason entirely in their first seven years as a franchise, then losing in the first round in the next seven, the Timberwolves finally broke through in ’03-’04. It was Kevin Garnett’s MVP season as the face of the franchise was finally flanked by fellow All-Star level talent in Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell. Minnesota lost to the Lakers in the Conference Finals but put up a fight in that series, raising expectations for ’04-’05. But the potential dream season quickly became a nightmare, as the aging and disgruntled Sprewell and Cassell struggled, Flip Saunders was fired as coach, and the T-Wolves finished one game out of the #8 seed. While Timberwolves fans lamented the 44 win season as a disappointment, they would eventually come to look back on it fondly as a distant dream as the team would finish below .500 for the next 12 seasons. They traded Garnett to the Celtics in 2007 and seemed to be quickly replacing him with a new superstar in Kevin Love. But the Love-led T-Wolves kept falling just short of the playoffs in a competitive Western Conference and he was eventually shipped to the Cavaliers in 2015. Just as Minnesota was looking like an incubator for stars to struggle valiantly before getting dealt to contenders, the team finally landed a star via trade. Jimmy Butler spent less than two seasons with the Timberwolves but he carried them to the playoffs in 2017, their only such appearance in the last 17 seasons.

2) Kings, 15 years (2007-2021)

Led by a savvy general manager in Geoff Petrie and an innovative coach in Rick Adelman, the Kings were one of the premier NBA franchises of the late ’90s and early ’00s, and often held up as a vanguard of how small market teams could thrive. But when things started to sour, they crashed hard, and the franchise has been arguably the worst in the NBA in the last 15 years. Since their first round playoff loss in ’05-’06, Adelman’s last season before getting unceremoniously fired, the Kings have a collective record of 431-753, a winning percentage of 36.4%. They’ve come reasonably closing to reaching the postseason just once during that stretch, in ’18-’19, when they finished ninth in the West but a full nine games behind the #8 seed. Potential franchise saviors like DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, Ben McLemore, Willie Cauley-Stein, De’Aaron Fox, and Marvin Bagley have come and gone with little-to-no impact. 12 coaches have led the team in the past 15 years, including legends like George Karl and Paul Westphal who couldn’t turn things around. The future seemed bright after that decent ’18-’19 season but the Kings have regressed from there, finishing well outside of playoff contention again in ’20-’21. There’s little doubt they will claim sole ownership of the longest playoff drought in NBA history in ’21-’22.

1) Clippers, 15 years (1977-1991)

A funny thing happened in 1978. Celtics owner Irv Levin and Buffalo Braves owner John Brown swapped franchises. Why was Levin willing to rescind ownership of the most successful franchise in NBA history for a young one with only minimal previous success and a bare cupboard of a roster? Because he wanted a team nearby his vast Hollywood film studio investments and knew the Celtics couldn’t be relocated. Thus, the Braves became the San Diego Clippers in 1978 and it’s arguable that the franchise’s history since can only be described as the result of a curse placed on it upon departing Buffalo. The ’78-’79 season was actually a solid one for the Clippers, with the newly acquired World B. Free leading them to a 43-39 record, just shy of the playoffs. But this was ultimately an illusion, as the team lost almost 70% of the games it played in the next 12 seasons. The trouble started with a trade for Bill Walton, who would play just 169 games in six seasons with the Clippers but really crested when Levin sold the franchise to Donald Sterling in 1981. Sterling’s miserly ownership tenure was bad enough, but the “Clippers Triangle” curse compounded it, as star player after star player seemed to suffer debilitating injuries. A savvy trade for Ron Harper combined with the drafting of Danny Manning finally proved fruitful in ’91-’92, as the Clippers had their first playoff appearance in 15 years, despite cycling through three head coaches during the season (finally landing on Larry Brown). They made it back to the playoffs again in 1993 but in classic Sterling fashion, he blew things up immediately, letting Brown walk for a job with the Pacers, trading Manning for an ancient Dominique Wilkins, and making headlines by threatening to move the team to Anaheim.