BS Reference: Who are the best teams in the league?

I thought we needed a nice reference of a definitive list of these things. So after 41 games here they are. Easy to find for reference in our NBA discussions.

NBA.com Sortable Team Stats:
http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_ ... 00002.html

Team Rankings:

Rank. Team Name (Last Year)

Offense
A ranking of the scoring ability of teams...
1. Sacramento Kings (8th)
2. Dallas Mavericks (1st)
3. Minnesota Timberwolves (5th)
4. Los Angeles Lakers (4th)
5. Seattle SuperSonics (17th)
6. Memphis Grizzlies (16th)
7. Portland Trail Blazers (7th)
8. Milwaukee Bucks (2nd)
9. Utah Jazz (9th)
10. Denver Nuggets (29th)
11. Los Angeles Clippers (23rd)
12. Golden State Warriors (3rd)
13. Boston Celtics (24th)
14. Detroit Pistons (13th)
15. Orlando Magic (10th)
16. Indiana Pacers (12th)
17. New Orleans Hornets (18th)
18. Phoenix Suns (19th)
19. New York Knicks (15th)
20. Houston Rockets (14th)
21. Philadelphia 76ers (11th)
22. San Antonio Spurs (6th)
23. Cleveland Cavaliers (28th)
24. New Jersey Nets (21st)
25. Miami Heat (27th)
26. Toronto Raptors (25th)
27. Atlanta Hawks (22nd)
28. Chicago Bulls (26th)
29. Washington Wizards (20th)

Defense
A ranking of defensive ability of teams...
1. San Antonio Spurs (3rd)
2. Houston Rockets (11th)
3. Indiana Pacers (5th)
4. Detroit Pistons (4th)
5. New Jersey Nets (1st)
6. Toronto Raptors (26th)
7. Minnesota Timberwolves (16th)
8. Philadelphia 76ers (15th)
9. New Orleans Hornets (7th)
10. Los Angeles Lakers (19th)
11. Denver Nuggets (6th)
12. Boston Celtics (8th)
13. Milwaukee Bucks (28th)
14. Washington Wizards (18th)
15. New York Knicks (24th)
16. Cleveland Cavaliers (23rd)
17. Memphis Grizzlies (27th)
18. Miami Heat (14th)
19. Utah Jazz (13th)
20. Sacramento Kings (2nd)
21. Chicago Bulls (22nd)
22. Phoenix Suns (10th)
23. Atlanta Hawks (21st)
24. Golden State Warriors (29th)
25. Seattle SuperSonics (17th)
26. Dallas Mavericks (9th)
27. Los Angeles Clippers (25th)
28. Portland Trail Blazers (12th)
29. Orlando Magic (20th)

Difference Between Offense and Defense
A ranking of who's the best in the league...
1. Sacramento Kings (3rd)
2. San Antonio Spurs (2nd)
3. Minnesota Timberwolves (9th)
4. Indiana Pacers (6th)
5. Detroit Pistons (5th)
6. Houston Rockets (13th)
7. Los Angeles Lakers (11th)
8. Dallas Mavericks (1st)
9. Denver Nuggets (28th)
10. Milwaukee Bucks (15th)
11. Memphis Grizzlies (23rd)
12. Boston Celtics (17th)
13. New Orleans Hornets (10th)
14. New Jersey Nets (4th)
15. Philadelphia 76ers (12th)
16. Utah Jazz (8th)
17. Seattle SuperSonics (18th)
18. New York Knicks (21st)
19. Golden State Warriors (20th)
20. Toronto Raptors (27th)
21. Phoenix Suns (14th)
22. Cleveland Cavaliers (29th)
23. Los Angeles Clippers (24th)
24. Portland Trail Blazers (7th)
25. Miami Heat (26th)
26. Washington Wizards (19th)
27. Chicago Bulls (25th)
28. Orlando Magic (16th)
29. Atlanta Hawks (22nd)

Pace
A ranking of the pace teams play at
1. Denver Nuggets (19th)
2. Los Angeles Lakers (8th)
3. Sacramento Kings (1st)
4. Dallas Mavericks (9th)
5. Phoenix Suns (13th)
6. Boston Celtics (18th)
7. Seattle SuperSonics (2nd)
8. Memphis Grizzlies (7th)
9. Washington Wizards (27th)
10. Chicago Bulls (5th)
11. Los Angeles Clippers (14th)
12. Milwaukee Bucks (20th)
13. Cleveland Cavaliers (4th)
14. Orlando Magic (6th)
15. New York Knicks (17th)
16. Atlanta Hawks (16th)
17. Golden State Warriors (3rd)
18. San Antonio Spurs (21st)
19. New Orleans Hornets (23rd)
20. New Jersey Nets (11th)
21. Minnesota Timberwolves (10th)
22. Philadelphia 76ers (15th)
23. Utah Jazz (25th)
24. Detroit Pistons (29th)
25. Indiana Pacers (12th)
26. Miami Heat (28th)
27. Houston Rockets (26th)
28. Portland Trail Blazers (24th)
29. Toronto Raptors (22nd)

Comment: This one I find interesting. Rick Carlisle's Pistons last year were the slowest team since Fratello's Cavaliers. Carlisle moves to Indy and they drop 13 spots and Carlisle's assistant Kevin O'Neill heads to Toronto and they drop to the bottom and set the new lowest since Fratello's Cavaliers.

I think wins and losses play a small factor in how good teams are as well

Not necessarily. Wins are directly related to the difference between your scoring and your opponents scoring. The win-loss record is reflective of this (especially if we use the Pythagorean or Correlated Gaussian methods), luck and schedule strength. A good team that plays mostly lottery teams will have a better record than one that plays mostly good teams. By the end of the season this tends to even out to within 2-3 games of their expected wins (which I didn't post here, but did in another thread and I can copy over if requested) either way.

Yea the difference is pretty accurate at relating to a teams position at the end of the season, but still off by very little amounts.

Last year in the East. Detroit was the first place team and had a diff of (3.7), New Jersey the second place team had a diff of (5.2). They were only one game away in the standings though.

Boston (-0.4) was sixth in the East but had a lower difference than 7th place Milwakuee (0.2) and 8th place Orlando (0.1).



On the Western Side, 3rd Sacremento had a difference of (6.5), which surpassed 1st San Antonio's (5.4). Dallas (7.8) also beat San Antonio, but they had the same record

Minnesota, 4th had a difference of (2.1) and were beaten by 5th Lakers (2.3), 6th Portland (2.6) and 7th Utah (2.4). Still not big differences, but any slight amount is still a difference.

It's the luck factor. Teams do get lucky.

Last year in the East. Detroit was the first place team and had a diff of (3.7), New Jersey the second place team had a diff of (5.2). They were only one game away in the standings though.

New Jersey just was unlucky during the regular season and so they finished six games lower than they should've. Look how they tore apart the East in the playoffs though, so I think the point difference was pretty accurate.

In my opinion, the difference between offense and defense is better than just point difference because that was a more accurate representation of the teams standings last year. Especially if you use the correlated gaussian method. But what I do is use that, the pythagorean method and the simple method then take the average to find a prediction on terms of wins-losses.