6 NBA Players Who Got Blamed for Teams They Never Should Have Been On

by Jeremy Block - 6/8/2026

NBA players who got blamed for teams they never should have been on Chris Paul

Sports fans absolutely love finding a single guy to blame when a franchise is an absolute trainwreck. It’s way easier to trash a superstar for not winning a ring than it is to admit the front office built the entire roster out of total garage sale scraps and leftovers.

We constantly watch elite players take the fall for cheap owners, terrible coaching, and downright incompetent management. These legends spent their absolute primes dragging dysfunctional franchises up the standings, so let’s break down six players who took the fall for teams that never deserved their talents in the first place.

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Kevin Garnett (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Pointing fingers at Kevin Garnett during his 14-year stint in Minnesota should be a punishable crime, but the Minnesota fanbase made a habit of it. For over a decade, “The Big Ticket” dragged a franchise that went out of its way to make his life miserable into the postseason season after season.

What started it all off on the wrong side was when the Timberwolves front office got caught backroom-dealing an illegal contract with Joe Smith, which cost the team four consecutive first-round draft picks right when Garnett was entering his peak going into the 2000 season.

Despite having the front office delete their own draft assets, Garnett still carried this team to eight straight playoff berths. During his 2004 MVP run, he put up 24.2 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game while sharing the floor with a washed Latrell Sprewell and an aging Sam Cassell.

Expecting one guy to lead the team in scoring, rebounding, blocks, and playmaking while winning several titles because management can't draft an average starter is total insanity. Garnett didn't choke in Minnesota; he just ran out of miracles for a team that literally lost its future draft picks because they got caught cheating for a bench player.

Allen Iverson (Philadelphia 76ers)

Criticizing Allen Iverson for never bringing a championship to Philadelphia ignores the reality of the teams he was given. For much of his prime, the 76ers asked him to carry the offense while surrounding him with defense-first role players and limited scoring options.

Despite playing in an era known for physical defense and limited spacing, Iverson led the Sixers to the NBA Finals in 2001. During that MVP season and playoff run, where he averaged 32.9 points, 6.1 assists, and 2.4 steals per game, accounting for a massive share of the team's offense.

When the Sixers eventually lost to the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals, many fans and analysts pushed the idea that Iverson's playstyle couldn't produce winning basketball. While there is some truth to that argument, the bigger issue was the roster around him.

To put the situation into perspective, after Iverson, the team's next-best scorer was Theo Ratliff, at the time, who averaged just 12.4 points per game that season. That should tell you everything you need to know about the offensive support he had.

For Iverson’s 12 years in Philly, the 76ers never put the pieces around him to make themselves true title contenders.

Elgin Baylor (Los Angeles Lakers)

Few careers got more disrespected by timing than Elgin Baylor's. One of the most gifted players the sport has ever seen. In eight Finals appearances alone, Baylor averaged 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds, spending most of those trips running headfirst into the Boston Celtics dynasty at its absolute peak.

The ugliest chapter came during the 1971-72 season when Baylor called it quits nine games in, both knees completely shot after years of carrying the Lakers almost entirely by himself. Los Angeles immediately rattled off 33 straight wins and won the championship, and fans wasted no time connecting those two dots.

Here’s where it gets interesting though: where those same people booed Baylor, they clearly ignored that this man once averaged 38.3 points and 18.6 rebounds in a single season while fulfilling active military service on weekends.

The reality is that the Lakers won that ring because their bench got better and other stars stepped up around a more balanced roster. Baylor had been destroying his body keeping that franchise relevant long before any of that depth existed. Crediting his exit for their breakthrough is one of the dumbest takes in NBA history.

Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers)

Calling Chris Paul a playoff choker because his co-stars spent every single May in a walking boot or on crutches is flat-out ridiculous, but he took that heat for years with the Clippers. As the floor general for the Lob City era, he took the brunt of the blame for the team never reaching the Western Conference Finals. Critics constantly pointed to his demanding leadership style and late-game micro-managing as the sole reasons for the postseason collapses.

If people actually looked at the numbers, they would know Paul was far from the problem. Over his six seasons there, he posted 18.2 points and 9.6 assists on 52% shooting, including a 2014 playoff run where he averaged 19.8 points and 10.3 assists with a 4.1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

So, what was the issue? A severe lack of scoring depth. Operating an offense with two bigs who couldn't do anything outside of dunking (Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan) meant Paul had zero interior spacing, with only the sixth man as reliable help (Jamal Crawford).

Instead of fixing the roster, the front office kept trading away depth for washed-up veterans, forcing the starters to play heavy minutes until their legs literally fell off. Paul walked out the door with fans acting like he was the anchor holding them back, when he was the only thing keeping them afloat.

DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings)

Six head coaches in seven seasons would break anyone's spirit, and DeMarcus Cousins never really stood a chance in Sacramento. The big man became the designated scapegoat for one of the most dysfunctional franchises in the league, with fans and media constantly pointing to his technical fouls and emotional outbursts as the reason the Kings could never crawl out of the lottery.

Cousins was putting up 27.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game during his final full season there while the front office was busy blowing high draft picks on guys like Jimmer Fredette, Thomas Robinson, and Ben McLemore. Ownership and upper management never once surrounded their star with actual NBA talent and somehow acted surprised when things fell apart every spring.

Expecting a young player to drag a G-League level roster into playoff contention in the Western Conference while learning a new playbook every twelve months is absurd. Cousins got frustrated, he got loud about it, and the organization used that as cover for years of front office negligence.

Dominique Wilkins (Atlanta Hawks)

For over a decade, Dominique Wilkins went toe-to-toe with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan every spring just to keep the Atlanta Hawks relevant, and the organization repaid him by trading him away while the team was sitting in first place in the East.

The “Human Highlight Film”, himself posted 26.4 points per game on 48% shooting across twelve seasons in Atlanta, and spent most of that time hearing that his high-volume shooting and lack of lockdown defense were the reasons the Hawks could never get over the hump.

What the fanbase consistently left out was that management never once put another true superstar next to him during his entire prime. The roster around Wilkins was fine at best and paper-thin at worst, and no amount of individual talent was going to be able to handle the Celtics or Bulls alone, at that time. The ultimate gut punch came in 1994, when the front office traded him mid-season to the Clippers for Danny Manning, with Atlanta sitting 36-16 and tied for first in the Central Division. Manning left for Phoenix that summer anyway and the Hawks got absolutely nothing out of it.

Wilkins shot 48% from the field for his career in Atlanta while handling every double-team the league threw at him. He was the franchise's entire identity for twelve years, and the organization showed him the door to save money. Blaming him for their postseason choking while the people making roster decisions were actively choosing to be frugal over winning is about as unfair as it gets.

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Start:	June 8, 2026 @ 10:00 PM
Expert:	Nick Menken
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6 NBA Players Who Got Blamed for Teams They Never Should Have Been On

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