The 2014-15 NBA season is officially underway, so I’m just a little bit late with my updated rankings of all 30 franchises. So let’s get started.

If you want to check out my other pro sports rankings — and I know you do — you can find them on this handy page.

The Criteria

The categories and point values are as follows:

• 30 points for a league championship, and 15 points for a Finals loss.
• 2 points for a playoff berth.
• 5 points for each playoff round win (does not include a win in the Finals).
• 4 points for a division title (starting in 1970-71).
• 1 point for a winning season, -1 point for a losing season.
• 3 points for a regular-season winning percentage better than .730 (60 wins with the current schedule), -3 points for a regular-season winning percentage worse than .270 (20 wins with the current schedule).
• Consecutive winning regular seasons are worth 2 points starting with the second, 3 points for the third, 4 points for the fourth, and so on. The counter is reset after any non-winning season. So if a team has three winning seasons in a row, they get a total of 5 points.

While I may tweak the formula in future years, I think this accomplishes my two most important objectives — to reward consistently good play in the regular season, and to not give older franchises too much of an advantage just by virtue of being around for so many years. I’ve always felt that using NBA titles alone to measure a franchise’s greatness (or badness) is taking too narrow a view.

One final note — as with the NBA, these rankings to not reflect records for teams while in the ABA or NBL.

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The Top 10

#1. Los Angeles Lakers (#1 last year) — 32.00 avg.

#2. Boston Celtics (#2) — 26.25 avg.

#3. San Antonio Spurs (#3) — 23.26 avg.

#4. Miami Heat (#4) — 16.57 avg.

#5. Chicago Bulls (#5) — 14.03 avg.

#6. Utah Jazz (#6) — 11.61 avg.

#7. Philadelphia 76ers (#7) — 11.19 avg.

#8. New York Knicks (#8) — 9.23 avg.

#9. Oklahoma City Thunder (#10) — 9.14 avg.

#10. Portland Trail Blazers (#9) — 9.05 avg.

Despite an off year for the Lakers, they are still comfortably in the top spot on this list. Elsewhere there wasn’t much movement in the top 10, although the Thunder and Blazers swapped spots. Should Oklahoma City continue their great run, they could very well pass the Knicks by next year.

The Mediocre 10

#11. Detroit Pistons (#11) — 8.68 avg.

#12. Houston Rockets (#13) — 8.53 avg.

#13. Dallas Mavericks (#12) — 8.46 avg.

#14. Phoenix Suns (#15) — 8.01 avg.

#15. Milwaukee Bucks (#14) — 7.94 avg.

#16. Orlando Magic (#16) — 6.21 avg.

#17. Atlanta Hawks (#17) — 5.71 avg.

#18. Golden State Warriors (#18) — 5.32 avg.

#19. Indiana Pacers (#20) — 5.12 avg.

#20. Denver Nuggets (#19) — 4.57 avg.

Several teams in this group moved up or down one spot this year. The biggest gain in franchise point average was turned in by the Pacers, who moved up by almost half a point thanks to a fantastic regular season and a run all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. They also now boast a streak of three straight winning regular seasons.

The Bottom 10

#21. Washington Wizards (#21) — 4.20 avg.

#22. Sacramento Kings (#23) — 3.44 avg.

#23. Cleveland Cavaliers (#22) — 3.31 avg.

#24. Brooklyn Nets (#24) — 2.77 avg.

#25. Charlotte Hornets — 0.43 avg.

#26. New Orleans Pelicans — 0.42 avg.

#27. Minnesota Timberwolves (#26) — -1.37 avg.

#28. Los Angeles Clippers (#27) — -1.40 avg.

#29. Toronto Raptors (#28) — -1.54 avg.

#30. Memphis Grizzlies (#29) — -1.85 avg.

The big shakeup this year had more to do with behind-the-scenes changes than with on-the-court action. The newly rechristened Charlotte Hornets have taken back their franchise records from the New Orleans Pelicans, and by sheer coincidence the two teams now sit next to each other in the bottom 10.

With San Francisco’s thrilling victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLCS, we now await the start of the 2014 World Series. The Giants are back to their third Fall Classic in five years, while the Kansas City Royals are in it for only the third time ever — and the first time since 1985.

And so as I did for the four teams in the league championship series, I now present a gallery of selected vintage Giants and Royals World Series program covers, up through 1989. These are, as always, courtesy of the Press Room.

Kansas City Royals

San Francisco (New York) Giants

The other day I shared a gallery of ALCS program covers for this  year’s teams, the Royals and Orioles. Now it’s the National League’s turn.

Including this season, the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals have combined for 20 NLCS appearances since the format was established in 1969 (including the 1987 season, when the two teams faced each other). The Cards hold the record for most NLCS appearances (13), while the Giants are now tied with the New York Mets with seven.

Here is a gallery of selected Giants and Cardinals NLCS game programs through the 1980s, courtesy the Press Room.

San Francisco Giants

St. Louis Cardinals

The 2014 American League Championship Series kicks off Friday night as the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles face each other in the MLB postseason for the first time.

Including this season, the two franchises have combined for 17 ALCS appearances since the format was established in 1969. Only four franchises — the Tigers, Red Sox, A’s, and Yankees — have appeared in at least as many.

Here is a gallery of selected program/scorecard covers for each Royals & Orioles ALCS series up through the ’80s, as provided by my latest project, the Press Room. For some reason the Royals programs from 1984 and ’85 have eluded me, so if someone can provide a scan please let me know.

Baltimore Orioles

Kansas City Royals