The Bucks were the eight seed in the playoffs last season, and despite trading Brandon Jennings in the offseason, made some additional moves to bring in talent in hopes of remaining competitive this year.
It was the opposite of what the front office chose to do in Philadelphia, where tanking has been the buzz word most commonly used to describe the Sixers strategy.
Yet with just a few games remaining on the schedule, and despite Philadelphia tying an NBA record by racking up 26 straight losses, it’s the Bucks that find themselves with the league’s worst record, purely by accident.
From the Associated Press via NBA.com:The Bucks set a franchise record for futility this season, though they aren’t dwelling on their failures.
With its 102-98 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night, Milwaukee established a dubious club record with its 63rd loss. It sealed the team’s fate as the biggest loser in the franchise’s 45-year history. ...
This version of the Bucks topped the record for futility that the 1993-94 Bucks previously held, going 20-62 in Vin Baker’s rookie season. Milwaukee won the NBA draft lottery that spring, selected Glenn Robinson from Purdue and used that as a springboard to get to the Eastern Conference finals in the 2000-2001 season.
The Bucks had their two biggest offseason moves backfire completely. O.J. Mayo experienced a statistical decline in his performance, and Larry Sanders, the recipient of a four-year, $44 million contract extension in the offseason, has been nothing short of a disaster, for a variety of reasons.
Add in the fact that Milwaukee has had 14 players miss a combined 247 games due to injury, and that’s how you get a franchise record of 63 losses -- with five games still remaining on this season’s schedule.
