The 2015-16 NBA season is upon us, so it’s time to take a look at the updated rankings for all 30 active franchises. To see last year’s list click here, and to see all my fantastic sports rankings and lists, go here.

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) — 31.42 avg.

#2. Boston Celtics (#2) — 25.88 avg.

#3. San Antonio Spurs (#3) — 23.23 avg.

#4. Miami Heat (#4) — 15.89 avg.

#5. Chicago Bulls (#5) — 14.02 avg.

#6. Utah Jazz (#6) — 11.28 avg.

#7. Philadelphia 76ers (#7) — 10.92 avg.

#8. Oklahoma City Thunder (#9) — 9.10 avg.

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

#10. New York Knicks (#8) — 9.01 avg.

Both the Thunder and Trail Blazers moved up a spot this year, mainly due to the Knicks turning in the worst season they’ve had (17-65) in their nearly seven decades in the NBA. In fact, every team in the top 10 saw their point-per-season average drop from last year’s list. The Heat dropped the most (.68 points), due in no small part to the loss of LeBron James.

The Mediocre 10

#11. Houston Rockets (#12) — 8.93 avg.

#12. Detroit Pistons (#11) — 8.53 avg.

#13. Dallas Mavericks (#13) — 8.40 avg.

#14. Milwaukee Bucks (#15) — 7.81 avg.

#15. Phoenix Suns (#14) — 7.80 avg.

#16. Golden State Warriors (#18) — 6.41 avg.

#17. Atlanta Hawks (#17) — 5.96 avg.

#18. Orlando Magic (#16) — 5.79 avg.

#19. Indiana Pacers (#19) — 4.95 avg.

#20. Denver Nuggets (#20) — 4.39 avg.

Thanks to their fantastic run all the way to the NBA title, the Golden State Warriors moved up two spots and boosted their per-season average by more than a point. Meanwhile, the Rockets are less than a tenth of a point away from knocking the Knicks out of the top 10, and if I were a betting man I’d say they’ll do it this season.

The Bottom 10

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

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

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

#24. Brooklyn Nets (#24) — 2.77 avg.

#25. New Orleans Pelicans  (#25)— 0.42 avg.

#26. Charlotte Hornets (#30) — 0.43 avg.

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

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

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

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

Several teams in the bottom third of the countdown improved their lots last season, most notably the Cavaliers (+.81 points), Raptors (+.86 points) and Grizzlies (+1.07 points). And thanks to their miserable 16-66 season the Minnesota Timberwolves are now the worst franchise in NBA history.

When we talk about “cursed” sports towns, it’s almost always in the context of things like postseason or championship droughts, heartbreaking losses, or just general futility. In other words, Cleveland. I kid, I kid.

But to my way of thinking there’s something even worse than falling just short of ultimate glory over and over again, and that’s losing a pro franchise entirely. Whether it’s the result of a greedy owner or a lack of fan interest, the death of a sports team is always at least a little sad.

And so I set out to document just with cities and states have lost the most professional teams from the four major leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL). I could expand it to other leagues as well, but I’m not sure that cities mourn the loss of indoor soccer teams quite like they do baseball or football franchises.

A few caveats are necessary. In the early history of pro leagues team movement was fairly common and it can be hard to differentiate between teams folding altogether or simply taking on new identities. Also, I have taken the liberty of lumping some geographic areas together that may get me into hot water with locals. So all the boroughs of New York City are counted as the same, as are other cities located in the same metropolitan area.

If I’ve made any noticeable blunders please let me know in the comments. Publication images courtesy my companion site, SportsPaper.info.

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Which State Has Lost the Most Pro Sports Teams?

This one was closer than I thought it would be but indeed, Ohio can rightly be considered the unluckiest state when it comes to pro franchises folding or moving. To date the Buckeye State has lost 20 teams from the four major leagues.

It started with the Cincinnati Reds (or Red Stockings), one of the charter members of baseball’s National League, who were kicked out of the league in 1880 and subsequently dissolved. Since then two other baseball teams, the Cleveland Blues and Spiders (1884 and 1899 respectively) have vanished.

Ohio has also suffered the loss of two NBA franchises. The Cleveland Rebels were a charter BAA franchise in 1946-47 but went out of business after just one season. The Cincinnati Royals, themselves already relocated from Rochester in 1957, departed the Queen City for Kansas City/Omaha in 1972. The team now plays in Sacramento as the Kings.

But it’s the NFL where Ohio has lost the most, which makes sense given that the league was founded there and was heavily concentrated in the Midwest for its first few decades. A whopping total of 14 NFL franchises have either moved or gone belly up in Ohio, although to be fair most of that movement was done by the mid-1930s.

Of note, however, are some notable franchises that were lost. The Canton Bulldogs, one of the great teams from the NFL’s first decade, were kicked out after the 1926 season. In 1946 the Cleveland Rams moved west to Los Angeles. Of course I don’t think I need to get into what happened with the Cleveland Browns in 1996 — and if you think that doesn’t count because the city was awarded a new Browns franchise in 1999, ask local residents how they feel about that.

—

Coming in a surprisingly close second on this list is New York, which has seen 19 teams move or fold. Aside from the infamous moves of MLB’s New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, the Empire State has lost three NBA teams, one NHL team, and nine NFL teams. New York City’s five boroughs alone account for 10 teams on this list.

Here’s the full Top 10:

1. Ohio (20 teams)
2. New York (19)
3. Missouri (14)
4. Indiana (9)
5(t). California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin (8)
8. Illinois (7)
9(t). Maryland, Michigan (6)

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Which City Has Lost the Most Pro Sports Teams?

I guess I gave this one away already, but New York City has lost 10 pro sports teams in its history. Some people may take issue with lumping all five boroughs together, but this is my site so my rules.

The exodus began in 1876 when the New York Mutuals, a founding National League club, were expelled from the league as punishment for refusing to make a late-season road trip. Things remained calm for several decades, but the wild and woolly early NFL days brought a host of teams in and out of New York City.

Between 1921 and 1951 a total of six APFA/NFL teams vanished — the New York Brickley Giants (1921), Brooklyn Lions (1926), New York Yankees (1928), Staten Island Stapletons (1932), Brooklyn Dodgers/Tigers (1944), and finally the New York Bulldogs/Yanks (1951).

(See programs for more defunct NFL teams.)

—

Just behind New York City in the loss column are St. Louis and Cleveland, who have each seen nine teams go away. St. Louis most recently saw the NFL’s Cardinals move to Arizona in 1988 and the NBA’s Hawks fly to Atlanta in 1968. More recently, all signs point to the St. Louis Rams returning to their longtime home in Los Angeles soon, at which point the city will tie New York for this infamous honor.

In addition to the Browns’ move to Baltimore, Cleveland lost an entire league when the NHL’s Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars in 1978.

Here’s the full top 10:

1. New York City (10 teams)
2(t). Cleveland, St. Louis (9)
4(t). Baltimore, Detroit, Washington D.C. (6)
7(t). Kansas City, Milwaukee, Philadelphia (5)
10(t). Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis (4)

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What Team Name Has Been the Unluckiest?

Just for fun, I decided to look at what nickname has been associated with the most defunct/relocated franchises. For this exercise, I only counted the name of a team when it went away, even if was known by another name for a longer period. This part is more art than science, unfortunately.

With that said, history indicates that the nicknames that most often portend doom are Maroons, Senators, and Tigers. There have been five teams each that had this name and then were no more.

The most recent Maroons team is probably the most well known, the Montreal Maroons of the NHL (1924-38), winners of two Stanley Cups. Three NFL teams bore the moniker and were from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and Toledo, Ohio.

All but one of the Senators teams were based out of Washington D.C., the exception being the original Ottawa Senators of the NHL. Three separate MLB franchises used the name, folding or moving in 1899, 1961, and 1972. Only hardcore NFL history junkies would know about the Senators that played just one season in the APFA/NFL (1921).

As for the Tigers, the last of them to go extinct was the NFL squad known for most of its existence (1930-44) as the Brooklyn Dodgers. Three other NFL teams were known as the Tigers and were from Chicago, Detroit, and Columbus. The latter of these was also known as the Panhandles.

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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.

---

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.

Old sports magazine? Check. Cool set of vintage sports logos? Check. Prototypical post material? Double check.

This guide to the 1969-70 NBA season, published by The Sporting News, is a wonderful snapshot of an era of the league long past.

Of the 14 teams shown here via logos, five have since taken on a new location and/or identity. Gone are the Cincinnati Royals (Sacramento Kings), San Francisco Warriors (Golden State Warriors), Seattle Supersonics (Oklahoma City Thunder), Baltimore Bullets (Washington Wizards), and San Diego Rockets (Houston Rockets).

And of the nine teams that still go by the same name, only the Chicago Bulls have retained the exact same logo and colors. The rest have since been modified either slightly — Celtics, Lakers, and 76ers — or rather drastically. That Phoenix Suns logo, for instance, was retired after the 1991-92 season.

This week I started rolling out my newest and most ambitious project yet, and paradoxically the one I’ve spent the least time promoting — The Press Room. Basically, the Press Room is an extension of my popular and beloved gallery of American Football League covers but with one major difference.

Not content to waste dozens of hours scouring the internet for vintage AFL programs, I’ve decided to expand to all four of the major North American pro sports leagues — MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA. So I’ve begun the long, painstaking task of assembling a collection of images from those four leagues featuring game programs, media guides, yearbooks, and more. I’m hoping to be able to cover just about everything up until the early 1990s.

I use that as the cutoff point for no particular reason, other than I think that’s when pro sports started feeling way too corporate and homogenized for my liking. That could also have to do with my age as well, as I entered college at about the same time. Who knows. In any case, I have to put some kind of cutoff in or I’ll go nuts collecting this stuff.

In a perfect world I would have rolled this thing out fully formed. But it’s not a perfect world and I’m too damn impatient. So as of right now, all I have are a handful of NFL items for the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears. I am adding new teams and items as quickly as I can, which is one of the reasons the blog has been fairly quiet as of late.

I’m really excited about this project, as I’ve wanted to get it off the ground for some time. The response to my AFL site has been positive and I think you’ll love this one as well. Because the scope is so vast, I’m going to depend pretty heavily on user submissions to help. So if you want to provide me with any images for the Press Room, please read this.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this thing become more fully formed, and I hope you will dig it too. Don’t forget to spread the word via Twitter, StumbleUpon, and the usual social channels. I don’t make a dime off this stuff, but it’s nice to see it take off just the same.

I’ve gone through my logo rankings for the NFL and MLB, so now it’s time for the NBA! If you want to see which logos I picked as the best for those leagues, I’ve provided this handy reference page. Otherwise, let’s do some roundball logo reviews. I’m going to take this at an easier pace than I did with football and baseball, so this will be running throughout the NBA’s regular season.

In the last edition I covered the Northwest Division, so up next are the five teams of the Western Conference’s Pacific Division — the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and Sacramento Kings.  As always, most of these are sourced from Chris Creamer’s outstanding logo website.

Golden State Warriors

Best

Warriors fans might be surprised to find this logo over the classic “The City” one from the late ’60s. It was a hard choice for me, but at the end of the day I think the bridge design on this one is more dynamic and appealing than the original. Even if I take points away for the uninspired font choice (copperplate? really?), this is still the best logo in team history.

Worst

There could only be one… worst Golden State logo. The team gets kudos for at least trying to incorporate an actual warrior in the logo, but  not much else. He looks more like the most buff member of Blue Man Group ever.

Los Angeles Clippers

Best

I’m using my author’s privilege to once again reach deep into a franchise’s past for a cool logo. The Clippers spent their first eight years in the NBA as the Buffalo Braves, and this was their second primary logo. I dig the feather motif, and how it’s incorporated into the big B. This is similar to the sleeve logo the Atlanta Braves used in the ’70s, and I really like that too.

Worst

In 1978 the Braves left Buffalo and moved west. The team spent six unremarkable years in San Diego as the Clippers, and sported this rather bizarre logo. I get what they were going for here, but the execution is just a little sloppy. This would’ve been much cooler with the sail and sun elements rearranged a little bit.

Los Angeles Lakers

Best

Before the Lakers adopted their now iconic purple and gold color scheme, they wore the same blue as when they were based out of Minneapolis. Perhaps I’m just jaded after looking at their current logo for so long, but the blue variant just seems a little fresher to me. The design itself isn’t particularly inspired, though.

This was taken from the team’s 1966-67 media guide, by the way.

Worst

I’ve got no beef with either of the Lakers’ primary logos, but this alternate one has to go. The only thing it has going for it is restraint, which sort of works against it. Why not get a little creative with an alternate logo?

Phoenix Suns

Best

Faithful readers of this site will remember that this first Suns logo was featured as part of one of my billboard galleries. I really like the typeface used here, and the color scheme is great too. I also have a soft spot for the alternate logo from this period, as plain as it is.

Worst

It’s everything you love about the primary logo from the same period, but pointlessly stretched and distorted!

Sacramento Kings

Best

I understand why a logo like this would never fly in today’s edgy, way-too-serious pro sports world, but dammit I love this so much. This thing was probably outdated as soon as it was rolled out in 1957. It really looks more like something from the 1940s. It’s just so unapologetically cartoonish, you have to admire it. And hey, how come Cincy doesn’t have a pro team anymore?

Worst

This seemed pretty bold and strong when it was unveiled in the mid-’90s, but now it just looks cluttered and messy. So I guess in that respect it’s the perfect symbol for the franchise.

Still, at least it doesn’t have any of those godawful gradients.

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OK, I’ve ranked the 10 worst NBA franchises ever (as of 2013), so now it’s time to look at the best of the best. The formula is pretty simple. I’ve ranked all 30 NBA franchises according to a series of categories, each of which is assigned a point value. I then divided the total point value by the number of years each team has been in existence and ordered by that.

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.

That’s about it! Let’s get to the rankings, good through the end of the 2012-13 season.

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#1. Los Angeles Lakers (31.45 avg.)

I’m certainly willing to listen to arguments that the Celtics are a better franchise than the Lakers, but the math of my rankings says otherwise. Let’s look at some of those numbers:

• 16 NBA championships (2nd most ever)
• 31 conference titles (most ever)
• 60 playoff berths in 65 seasons (2nd most ever)
• 92 playoff series wins (31 more than the Celtics)
• 23 division titles (most ever)
• 53 winning seasons (most ever)
• 3 losing seasons since 1976-1977

Any questions?

#2. Boston Celtics (25.40 avg.)

If you were surprised that L.A. took the top spot on this list, then you shouldn’t be surprised to find the Celtics here. Until the team hit an uncharacteristic rough patch through most of the 1990s, they were the paragon of a great NBA franchise.

But even with that dry spell, Boston’s 17 NBA championships and 21 conference titles are a mightily impressive feat. The only question now is whether the rejuvenated C’s can maintain their lofty average in the post-Garnett/Pierce era.

#3. San Antonio Spurs (20.76 avg.)

San Antonio’s impressive point average would probably look even better if I counted their accomplishments from the ABA. As it is, they’ve been the NBA’s most consistent (and arguably best) team over the last 15 years.

The Spurs were already very good with David Robinson at center, but they finally took things to the next level after drafting future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan in 1997. Since then San Antonio has captured four NBA Finals victories, second only to the Lakers. They’ve also racked up five of their six 60-plus win regular seasons, and have not had consecutive losing seasons since the late ’80s. They may not be glamorous, but they’re indisputably great.

#4. Miami Heat (14.82 avg.)

By far the youngest franchise in the top 10, there’s no telling what the Heat and LeBron James could accomplish in years to come. Three straight NBA Finals appearances and two titles sure seem like the makings of a dynasty to me, but of course that’s why they play the games.

#5. Chicago Bulls (13.53 avg.)

It honestly seems like just yesterday that the Bulls were so dominant that it bordered on absurd. But in truth the last Chicago title came in 1998, and the closest the franchise has come to reclaiming glory was a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011.

I should point out that although the Bulls have six titles to their name, they also put some pretty bad teams on the court as well. They had six straight losing seasons after Michael Jordan left for good, including four consecutive years with a sub-.300 winning percentage. But they have turned in two dominant regular seasons in a row, so I expect they could hold onto the #5 spot for at least a few more years.

#6. Utah Jazz (11.95 avg.)

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the Jazz are the greatest team to never win the NBA Finals, especially since they’re the highest-ranked team (by a healthy margin) with that distinction.

Under head coaches Frank Layden, Jerry Sloan, and now Tyrone Corbin, Utah has been insanely consistent since the early 1980s. Since 1983-84 they’ve had just two losing seasons, have qualified for the playoffs in every year but five, and won the Western Conference twice. The team hasn’t been what I’d consider excellent in about six years, but they haven’t been bad either.

#7. Philadelphia 76ers (11.17 avg.)

The former Syracuse Nationals haven’t won the NBA Finals since the days of Dr. J, and haven’t been consistently good since Allen “Practice?” Iverson was at his peak.  So how are they the seventh highest-ranked franchise ever?

Well, the team has had two distinct periods of excellence. The Nationals of the early ’50s won the NBA Finals once and appeared in it two other times, while the Sixers of the mid-to-late ’70s acquired Julius Erving and made several deep playoff runs, culminating in four Finals appearances and a title in 1983.

The last great 76ers squad took the court in 2000-01, won 56 games, and made it to the Finals before getting pasted by the Lakers in five games.

#8. New York Knicks (9.22 avg.)

Little did Knick fans realize how good they had it in the ’90s, even as the team lost two NBA Finals and was continually stymied by the Bulls in the playoffs. In retrospect, that was the most successful period in franchise history since the early 1970s, when the team won their only two titles to date.

The Knicks appear to be waking up from a decade of incompetence, however, and last season won their first playoff series since 1999-2000.

#9. Portland Trail Blazers (8.88 avg.)

Aside from a mini-resurgence about five years ago, Portland hasn’t been a team of much consequence in the NBA since the new century began. What keeps them afloat in the top 10 is a roughly 25-year run of good to excellent play starting in 1976-77, the year they won their lone NBA championship.

During that run the Blazers suffered just three losing seasons and missed the playoffs once (1981-82). They also returned to the Finals twice, losing to the Pistons in 1990 and the Bulls in 1992.

#10. Oklahoma City Thunder (8.65 avg.)

I may hate their logo, but when you’re good you’re good. And more often than not the Thunder/Sonics are good. While the franchise is currently in the midst of their best run in more than a decade, their golden age was undoubtedly in the 1990s. That’s when the Seattle SuperSonics posted seven straight winning seasons and were mainstays in the Western Conference playoffs.

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The Mediocre 5

#11. Detroit Pistons (8.65 avg.)

Note: The Thunder’s average of 8.652 gives them the edge over the Pistons at 8.646.

#12. Dallas Mavericks (8.44 avg.)

#13. Houston Rockets (8.14 avg.)

#14. Milwaukee Bucks (8.12 avg.)

#15. Phoenix Suns (7.98 avg.)

The 2013-14 NBA season tips off in just a few weeks — October 29 to be precise — so it’s time for me to continue my series of recaps looking at the best and worst franchises in each of the four major American sports leagues. Today I look at the rankings for the 10 worst NBA franchises ever.

As with the NHL best/worst and NFL best lists I’ve already done, the formula is pretty simple. I’ve ranked all 30 NBA franchises according to a series of categories, each of which is assigned a point value. I then divided the total point value by the number of years each team has been in existence and ordered by that.

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.

That’s about it! Let’s get to the rankings, good through the end of the 2012-13 season.

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#1. Charlotte Bobcats (-10.22 avg.)

I certainly get no enjoyment out of writing about a team this absolutely terrible. Since the city of Charlotte got a pro team back after the Hornets left for New Orleans, it has been nothing but misery.

Nine years have brought just one winning season and one playoff appearance. And to cap it off, the Bobcats achieved infamy in 2011-12 when they set a league record for the worst regular-season winning percentage, winning just seven games in the lockout-shortened campaign for a .106 percentage.

Charlotte’s franchise win percentage of .344 is the worst of any franchise still in existence.

#2. Memphis Grizzlies (-2.67 avg.)

The Grizzlies have actually improved tremendously over the last four years, but they are still climbing out of a rather large hole to begin with. It took five years for the then-Vancouver Grizzlies to win at least 20 games, and it took an additional four years for the team to post a winning season.

Things are looking up, however. Last year’s team won 56 games and made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals. A few more seasons like that and the Grizzlies’ point average will actually be above zero.

#3. Toronto Raptors (-2.61 avg.)

Other than a few very good years with Vince Carter at shooting guard, Toronto fans haven’t had much reason for excitement. The Raptors haven’t made the playoffs in six years, and haven’t won a series in 13.

The team has increased its win total for the past two seasons after just 22 in 2010-11, but as it stands they’re still yearly candidates for the Atlantic Division basement.

#4. Los Angeles Clippers (-1.90 avg.)

The Clippers have long been synonymous with losing in pro sports, and the only reason they aren’t #1 on this list is that they have managed to log a handful of good seasons in among the crap ones. But the fact that the Clips have only been out-stunk by some expansion teams should tell you something. To be fair, L.A. now boasts Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and has made the playoffs two years in a row. But as a franchise, the Clippers are still nearly 900 games under .500 since they came into the NBA in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves. That’s just math, people.

#5. Minnesota Timberwolves (-1.50 avg.)

They say that you can tell a lot about the success of a team based on how many head coaches they’ve had. Now there’s a chicken and egg aspect to that, but let’s look at the T’Wolves as an example. 24 seasons, 10 coaches. And that doesn’t include Kevin McHale returning for a second stint partly through 2008-09. Only one of those coaches — Flip Saunders — has a winning record.

Need I say more?

#6. New Orleans Pelicans (2.42 avg.)

Finally, a team that at least has a positive lifetime average. The former Charlotte Hornets were actually decent for much of their time in North Carolina, but ultimately left due to plummeting attendance.

Things have gone less smoothly in New Orleans. The newly renamed Pelicans have just four winning seasons since moving to the Big Easy in 2002, and have just one playoff series win to their credit over the same period. It’s entirely possible that with a new identity, the Pelicans will find some sustained success, but I wouldn’t count on it just yet.

#7. Brooklyn Nets (2.54 avg.)

There are four American Basketball Association refugees in the NBA, and the Nets have consistently been the worst of the bunch. The Nets enjoyed a great run with Jason Kidd at point guard from 2001-2008, a run that was only bested by their ABA days, and reached the NBA Finals twice. That was, sadly, an oasis in the middle of a huge desert. From 1976-77, the Nets’ first season in the NBA, through 2000-01, the team won one playoff series. That’s one in a quarter century.

A relocation to Brooklyn last year brought the team’s first winning record since 2005-06, but still no playoff series win. Jason Kidd returns to the franchise, this time as head coach, and will try to get recreate some of the magic he brought as a player.

#8. Sacramento Kings (3.37 avg.)

For as unstable as this franchise has been since it came into the league more than six decades ago, I’m surprised they’re not lower on this list. The main thing keeping them afloat, point-wise, is that they have qualified for the playoffs about once every two years on average, and the fact that they have had three distinct periods of good play.

The most recent of these was started in 1998-99, when they had eight consecutive winning seasons and made the playoffs in each of them. They haven’t broken .500 in the seven years since that run ended.

#9. Cleveland Cavaliers (3.42 avg.)

Looking at a chart of the Cavs’ seasons is like looking at the EKG of someone with a really slow heartbeat. Crap seasons — good period — crap seasons — good period — crap seasons. And so on. Cleveland’s accomplishments weren’t all because of LeBron James, but a lot of them were.

Still, it would be folly to overlook the good Cavaliers teams of the late ’80s to late ’90s, led by the core group of  Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper and Larry Nance. A case could be made the the only thing standing between Cleveland and a few potential NBA titles was Michael Jordan and the Bulls.

#10. Washington Wizards (3.99 avg.)

Since joining the NBA as the league’s first expansion team on the modern era in 1961 (as the Chicago Packers), the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards have generally been mediocre at best. Pretty much everything notably good about the team occurred during the Wes Unseld era (1968-81), when the Bullets notched 10 winning seasons, a playoff appearance in all but one of those years, four Eastern Conference titles, and one NBA title.

After Unseld? 32 seasons, 11 playoff appearances, two series wins, and just eight winning campaigns.

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The Mediocre 5

#11. Indiana Pacers (4.51 avg.)

#12. Denver Nuggets (4.73 avg.)

#13. Golden State Warriors (5.08 avg.)

#14. Atlanta Hawks (5.82 avg.)

#15. Orlando Magic (6.56 avg.)

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"Hercules free-tv-video-online me", "Youre the Worst free-tv-video-online me"

For this, the second volume featuring photographs of vintage billboard ads, I’m tightening the focus a bit. This group of billboards was displayed in the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1969 and advertised the new Phoenix Suns basketball team.

The 1969-70 season was the franchise’s second in the NBA, and it was the year they made a dramatic turnaround from 7th place to 3rd. This was thanks in large part to the addition of Connie Hawkins (#42, who appears in a few of the ads), who came from the ABA and went on to the Hall of Fame. Hawkins led the Suns to a 39-43 record, and they nearly won their first-ever playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers until they lost three straight games.

All images courtesy Duke University’s Digital Collections site. Click for a larger version.