The New York Knicks have done their fair share of losing for the last two decades. They achieved a franchise-worst 17-65 record twice, had just one good year from Amar’e Stoudemire‘s max contract, cycled through head coaches and lived through questionable front-office regimes.
That kind of losing exists, but so does being on the wrong end of a trade, whether involved in it or not. A team like the Los Angeles Clippers were arguably losers of the 2018 Kawhi Leonard deal between the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors since Leonard wanted his hometown team.