All-Time NBA Franchise Rankings, 2014 Edition

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

Boston Celtics#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

Indiana Pacers#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

New Jersey Nets#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.