Top-5 Great Players campaigns despite being in the worst teams

With the NBA coming to an end, we decided to take a look at which players have had historic seasons while playing in lottery teams. From the impressive first campaing from Victor Wembanyama to another wonderful performances we'll be observing the last 24 seasons. Let's go ahead and find out who are these guys.

Basketball is a team sport but with only 5 players per team, there's major room for one of those to carry with his team success. The NBA has a lot of examples to represent this concept. Devin Booker and his phenomenal season back in 2018-19 with a very bad team of the Phoenix Suns; Dwyane Wade and that Heat squad a few years after the '06 championship. Wemby being the lone star of this years' Spurs, and another less known cases, like Elton Brand in the 2000-01 season with the post-Jordan Bulls or Ilgauskas solid 2002-03 season, before The Cavs changed their history by drafting LeBron James on the following summer.

Wemby is clearly the easiest story to remember, because his first season with the Spurs is still being written. The first pick of the 2023 NBA Draft has surpass what was expected from him at this point. Victor is a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, averaging 3.5 blocks per game. He's also putting up 21.1 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.3 steals per contest while shooting 46.3% from the floor, looking like a future MVP-level talent for San Antonio. Pop's team holds a 19-58 record, sitting on the Western Conference last spot.

The campaign that led the Cavs to pick LeBron James in that historic 2004 NBA Draft was viewed as Ilgauskas coming out party. Zydrunas averaged 17.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks that season on 44.1% from the field. He was selected as one of the Eastern All-Stars and he even got some Most Improved Player votes. Cleveland's record that season was 17-65.

As Wemby, Brand was selected with the first pick in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. In his second season with the franchise, Elton averaged 20.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.6 blocks on 47.6% shooting while playing in 74 games. In addition, he was a part of that legendary 2001 All-Star game, representing the East. The Bulls struggled that season despite Brand's efforts, finishing with a 15-67 record. The following year he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Flash had already won a championship with Miami Heat, back in 2006. Two years after that accomplishment, Miami started to crumble physically. A series of injuries hampered the team (including Wade) as they were beginning a re-build after Shaqs departure by the trade deadline. Dwyane averaged 24.6 points, 6.9 assists and 1.7 steals on 46.9% from the in his 51 appearances. He also earned All-Star honors, making him one of the best players on a terrible team anyway. O'Neal, Mourning and other team members were getting old and wouldn't do much for a team that ended the season with a 15-67 record.

Booker's Phoenix Suns were a total disaster back then, despite Devin's impressive performances. The previous campaign earned the Suns the first pick of the 2018 NBA Draft, which they used to select DeAndre Ayton. Alongside a young Ayton, Booker saw flashes of improvement. That season, the talented shooting guard only played 64 games and didn’t get any accolades while average 26.6 points (No. 6 in the NBA that year), 4.1 rebounds and 6.8 assists on 46.7% from the field. A monumental and historic display which resulted in a 19-63 record.