Cards might be more suited to their skill set.
The struggling franchise slumped to its 12th consecutive loss this season with a woeful performance against the previously winless Manawatu Jets on Saturday night.
Between the two teams, they had a total of 21 losses without a win.
But the Nuggets are now the undisputed worst team in the league following their 89-68 loss.
And, unfortunately, the 21-point shellacking came in front of the biggest crowd of the year.
Hats off to the administration, which lured 2030 people to the venue with the promise of free entry.
The marketing ploy proved popular - it raised $3500, above expectations - and Basketball Otago is considering doing something similar for a game in every future season.
Here is hoping a wealthy philanthropist was in the crowd taking pity because the Nuggets could use a few extra dollars to beef up the payroll.
The Nuggets simply do not have enough talent on the court to be competitive in the National Basketball League.
And what is worse, the team looks to have gone backwards in recent weeks.
The defence, which has made steady strides this season, looked fractured and clumsy, and the offence was its usual shambles.
"It is quite simple, really. We tend to settle for the three-point shot a lot instead of making the extra pass and working a little bit harder," Nuggets coach Alf Arlidge explained.
"And I think we let them get too many lay-ups. We were very soft in our interior defence.
"It's a step backwards. We trained really well all week but I think the Jets played really well tonight. They executed really well.
"I'm very disappointed for the franchise and for the players.
"I suppose, from here, we have to go back to the drawing board as a franchise and decide what we want to do in the future."
Arlidge questioned the commitment of some his players following last week's 95-62 loss to the Waikato Pistons and asked for a bigger effort this week, especially from his imports.
There was little evidence of any improvement, with American forwards Tyler Amaya and John Barber jun struggling to find their range.
Amaya had the ball in his hands a lot but did very little with it.
In a scratchy performance he landed just three of 13 attempts from the floor, one of seven from the three-point line and four from eight free throws.
His 11-point haul had more to do with opportunity than skill, although he did do some good work on defence with 11 boards.
Aside from one hot quarter, when he scored 20 points, Barber has been consistently disappointing since replacing the injured Antoine Tisby.
He scored 11 points and took six rebounds but did not stick out from the crowd.
That is not what you want from an import.
In contrast, the Jets' imports led the way.
Forward Richard Jeter had barely made a ripple on the league but almost single-handedly won the game for the visitors with an outstanding game.
With little effort he was able to force his way inside and also shot extremely well from the outside (six from nine).
The Nuggets were not able to put any pressure on him and he was free to dictate terms, scoring 34 points.
Fellow American Darryl Hudson was the perfect foil with 20 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
There were some positive signs for the home side.
Point guard James Ross continued his development, top-scoring for the Nuggets with 18 points, and captain Sam To'omata gave it his all.
The Nuggets started well, winning the first quarter 23-21.
But the Jets went on a damaging 18-3 run in the second quarter and never surrendered the momentum.
The Nuggets faltered and only managed to score nine points in a calamitous third quarter.
NBL
The scores
Manawatu Jets 89
- Richard Jeter 34, Darryl Hudson 20
Otago Nuggets 68
- James Ross 18, Sam To'omata 13
Quarter 21-23, halftime 42-37, third quarter 65-46
