The 10 NBA Players With The Worst Record In The Playoffs

Basketball is a team sport, and it’s subsequently hard to blame a single player for a loss in a game where there are usually plenty of other factors that contribute to the final result. With that said, there are some trends that can be a bit hard to ignore.

Plenty of notable NBA players have been plagued by criticisms concerning their inability to rise to the moments when the playoffs roll around, and there are some people who have a good chunk of their legacy defined by their struggle to get over the hump.

That’s not necessarily the case with the players on this list (which is limited to guys who have appeared in at least 50 games), but they still have the dubious distinction of posting the worst winning percentage in NBA history during the postseason.

CJ McCollum: .299 Winning Percentage

CJ McCollum has spent 12 seasons in the NBA and made the playoffs in 10 of them (the only exceptions were the most recent campaign and his first full season with the Pelicans in 2023).

He’s appeared in a grand total of 67 postseason games and been a solid contributor in most of them while averaging 20.1 points and 35.5 minutes per contest.

Unfortunately, his team’s performance in most of those runs has left a lot to be desired.

McCollum has seen his championship dreams die in the first round seven times, which includes three sweeps and two more series that were decided in five games.

He still has a chance to improve on his  20-47 record, but it’s the worst one in NBA history as things currently stand.

Steve Blake: .321 Winning Percentage

Steve Blake was a journeyman who played for seven different teams during an NBA career spanning 13 seasons, and he certainly doesn’t deserve the bulk of the blame for his record in the postseason when you consider he was a roleplayer who averaged 4.6 points and 20.5 minutes in the 53 games he appeared in (starting in just 13 of them).

Six of his nine playoff appearances(which came as a member of the Wizards, Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Lakers, Warriors, and Pistons) resulted in first-round exits, and he also fell victim to a couple of sweeps en route to finishing his career with a 17-36 record in the postseason.

Thaddeus Young: .328 Winning Percentage

It seems like Thaddeus Young has played his final NBA game when you consider he couldn’t find a team willing to sign him after he wrapped up his 18th season in the league with the Suns (his eighth team) in 2024.

The big man was on a squad that made it to the playoffs on ten occasions, but his appearance with the 76ers in 2012 was the only time one of them managed to make it out of the first round.

Two sweeps as a member of the Pacers contributed to his 19-39 postseason record in 58 games where he averaged 9.3 points in 27.3 minutes.

Mookie Blaylock: .333 Winning Percentage

Mookie Blaylock spent the bulk of his 13-year NBA career with the Hawks, and seven of his eight playoff appearances came during his time in Atlanta (his other—and first—was with a Nets team that lost to Cleveland after winning one game in the best-of-five series in 1992).

The guard averaged 14.2 points and 40 minutes per game in the postseason but had to deal with a couple of first-round sweeps and another in the second round (which was never able to advance from) while finishing his career with an 18-36 record in the playoffs.

Carmelo Anthony: .337 Winning Percentage

There isn’t a single player on this list who had a more impressive NBA career than Carmelo Anthony, although the man who was never able to win a ring before he retired after 19 seasons had to deal with a ton of disappointment in the playoffs.

Melo had more postseason experience than anyone on this list, as he appeared in 83 playoff games over the course of 14 runs with four different teams.

Unfortunately, 11 of those were one-and-done appearances—including two sweeps and five other series that were decided in five games that contributed to the 28-55 record he had when everything was said and done.

Eduardo Najera: .339 Winning Percentage

Eduardo Najera is on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Carmelo, as there isn’t a single player on this list who had less than the 3.8 points he averaged in the playoffs during his 12 years in the NBA.

Najera’s primary legacy is being the first player born in Mexico to be selected in the NBA Draft, and he made the playoffs nine times as a member of the Nuggets and Mavericks.

The peak of those appearances was a run to the conference finals with the Dallas in 2003 (where they lost to the Spurs in six games), but he ended up on the wrong side of a lopsided series more often than not while going 20-39 overall.

JaMychal Green: .339 Winning Percentage

JaMychal Green was a bit of a late bloomer who spent a couple of years grinding in the G League before making his NBA debut with the Spurs in 2015.

He ended up playing for five different teams while making it to the playoffs eight different times, but the man who spent the bulk of his nine-year career riding the bench only averaged 5.6 points and 15.5 minutes.

There’s subsequently plenty of blame to go around when it comes to explaining his record in the playoffs, but he nonetheless gets a mention here at 19-37.

Jonas Valanciunas: .345 Winning Percentage

Jonas Valanciunas recently wrapped up his 13th NBA season, and the Lithuanian big man was unable to add another playoff appearance to a résumé that currently boasts eight of them.

The veteran had a run to the Eastern Conference Finals with the Raptors in 2016 and made it to the second round with Toronto on two other occasions—both of which resulted in a sweep at the hands of Cleveland.

Those accounted for two of the four sweeps he’s had to deal with during a career where he’s currently 20-38 in the postseason while averaging 13.2 points and 26.3 minutes.

Rod Strickland

Rod Strickland is the only person on this list who has been name-dropped in a Wu-Tang Clan song, which has nothing to do with anything we’re discussing here but that I still felt like mentioning.

Strickland played for nine teams and spent 17 years in the NBA while making the playoffs 11 times with six of those franchises.

He was one of the better players on this list with an average of 13.7 points and 30.7 minutes. He got off to the right foot in the postseason toward the start of his career, but it was largely downhill from his first couple of playoff appearances before he ended up with an 18-34 record.

Damian Lillard

We’re capping things off with the most accomplished active player on this list and one who has primarily earned a spot due to the strain that came with trying to carry the Trail Blazers on his back for over a decade.

Lillard is the only player here aside from Anthony who’s firmly been the most talented player on his team for the bulk of an NBA career that’s stretched for 13 seasons, but as I said at the start, there’s only so much a single man can do to propelled his team in the playoffs.

Portland did make it to the Western Conference Final in 2019 before getting swept by the Warriors, a run that transpired after back-to-back sweeps in the first round.

Lillard hasn’t fared much better since taking his talent to the Timberwolves, and he’s currently 24-44 in the postseason games he’s appeared in while averaging 25.2 points and 39.5 minutes.