Celtics or Lakers: Who Tops B/R’s All-Time NBA Franchise Rankings?

The Boston Celtics just snagged their 18th NBA title in franchise history. That puts them one championship ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers in the decades-long battle for organizational supremacy.

L.A. certainly still has an argument for the crown, but Boston now has the lead in the most important category. To see who lands in the top spot, you’ll have to scroll below.

Before you get there, though, the rest of the league’s franchises are ranked, too.

It would be nice to have a criticism-proof, scientific method for sorting all 30 of the NBA’s franchises, but there really isn’t one.

Some analysts may put more weight on championships than others. Winning percentage, longevity, playoff wins and Hall of Famers could be other factors to consider. And again, each of those could be leaned on more heavily than others. There are arguments to go a bunch of different directions.

Here, just to get a baseline ranking, we took all 30 active teams and sorted them by the average of their ranks in:

• Championships won
• Winning percentage
• Simple Rating System (SRS is a combination of point differential and strength of schedule)
• Playoff wins
• Playoff winning percentage

We gave a little extra credit to that first category. Consider us among the camp that considers that the most important consideration.

That alone didn’t give us the final order, though. As is the case with our weekly power rankings, there’s a dash of subjectivity here. And in the case of this exercise, that subjectivity is influenced by all-time individual talents in the franchise’s history books and recent organizational stability (or instability).

One other note is that some of the histories are a little confusing based on location or team name changes, as well as league changes. For example, the Philadelphia 76ers get credit for a Syracuse Nationals championship from the 1950s. Ditto for the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Seattle SuperSonics’ championship in 1979. As for league changes, teams such as the Indiana Pacers don’t credit for the ABA years. This is strictly about NBA performance.

Finally, the Charlotte Hornets’ history is a unique situation. They get 1989 through 2002, with a brief pause until 2004, when they came back as the Charlotte Bobcats. The stretch from 2004-05 to now is also theirs, in spite of another name change (back to the Hornets) in 2014.

The 2002-03 season through today belongs to the New Orleans Hornets, Oklahoma City Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans.

If that all seems a little too confusing, check out the organizational timelines for yourself at those hyperlinks.

With all that in mind, scroll through the list below for a taste of the analytical stew that was cooked up just for you.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Kemba Walker, Gerald Wallace, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and Dell Curry

Peak Season: 1997-98 (51 wins, lost in the Conference Semifinals)

The most notable thing in the Charlotte Hornets’ history may well be their iconic teal, purple, white and sometimes pinstriped jerseys from the 1990s. They were awesome, and some really exciting players wore them.

Fans of the era probably still remember Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues playing pretty well in those threads.

More recently, the equipment wasn’t as snazzy, but the team had some fun runs with Kemba Walker, who averaged 19.8 points and 5.5 assists with the franchise.

For our purposes, though, much of that is secondary to the fact that Charlotte is in the bottom five in winning percentage, SRS, playoff wins and playoff winning percentage. The entire bottom third of the league is tied for fewest championships, and the Hornets are dead-last in both SRS and playoff winning percentage.

Despite some cool memories and throwback jerseys, Charlotte starts us off at No. 30.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Kevin Garnett, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Love, Wally Szczerbiak and Sam Mitchell

Peak Season: 2003-04 (58 wins, lost in the Conference Finals)

The Minnesota Timberwolves appear headed in the right direction with Anthony Edwards.

They had the best defense in the NBA last season, knocked off the reigning champion Denver Nuggets and made it to the conference finals, all with Edwards just 22 years old.

But the history between this year and the last conference finals is pretty atrocious. From 2004-05 through 2022-23, the Timberwolves are dead last in winning percentage (and by a pretty wide margin).

For the entire sample used in this exercise, they’re dead-last in that category. And, of course, they don’t have a title or a ton of playoff success to offset that.

However, they do have an iconic forward who spent well over half his Hall of Fame career there: Kevin Garnett. From 1998-99 through 2006-07, he averaged 22.4 points, 12.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.4 steals for the Wolves.

And now, they have another potential all-timer developing there in Edwards.

That’s enough to nudge them past the Hornets.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, David West, P.J. Brown and Jrue Holiday

Peak Season: 2007-08 (56 wins, lost in the Conference Semifinals)

The New Orleans Pelicans could have been a few spots higher based on the numbers only. They’re 19th in SRS and 21st in regular-season winning percentage.

However, since they’ve only been around since 2002-03, they don’t get as many of the more subjective legacy points that a few of the teams ahead of them do.

And despite an OK track record of making the playoffs in nine of the 22 seasons in which they’ve existed, these Pelicans/Hornets were eliminated in the first round of seven of those runs. They’ve never been further than the second round.

Despite some individual superstars who’ll one day be in the Hall of Fame, such as Chris Paul and Anthony Davis, they don’t have the postseason success necessary to get much higher than this.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Pau Gasol, Zach Randolph and Shane Battier

Peak Season: 2012-13 (56 wins, lost in the Conference Finals)

The Memphis Grizzlies’ spot is a little surprising. They haven’t been around long, but they already have three distinct eras in which they were pretty good.

You’d think the Pau Gasol years, the Grit-n-Grind era and the current Ja Morant-led squad would take up the bulk of the history.

But they’re 27th in winning percentage, thanks in large part to winning only 33.7 percent of their games from their inception in 1995-96 through 2009-10. They’ve never made it to the NBA Finals. And they’re 27th in playoff wins.

Of course, the relatively young age of the franchise makes it difficult to rise much higher in that last category, but for our purposes, that’s fine. There should be an element of longevity or importance to the league as a whole involved here.

And the Grizzlies just haven’t been around long enough to fully check that box.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Buck Williams, Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, Brook Lopez and Kerry Kittles

Peak Season: 2001-02 (52 wins, lost in the Finals)

The Brooklyn Nets (formerly of New Jersey) are the first team in this exercise with a pretty robust ABA history. As the New York Nets, Julius “Dr. J” Erving led them to two ABA titles, but we’re not folding those years into this analysis.

And since the leagues merged, it’s been a pretty rough go for the Nets.

They made back-to-back Finals in the early 2000s with Jason Kidd, but the East was even weaker in the post-Michael Jordan vacuum than it is now. And Brooklyn went 2-8 in those series against the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.

That era was fun, though, especially when Kidd had good finishers to distribute to like Kenyon Martin, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson.

It just wasn’t enough fun to overcome being 28th in both winning percentage and SRS.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, Elton Brand, Blake Griffin and Bob McAdoo

Peak Season: 2013-14 (57 wins, lost in the Conference Semifinals)

In recent history, the LA Clippers have had some of the league’s most exciting and explosive rosters. The Lob City Clippers, led by Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, are now the subject of a TV miniseries (or at least the background of a series about former team owner Donald Sterling).

And not long after that group was broken up, they assembled the Kawhi Leonard- and Paul George-led squad that reached the franchise’s only conference finals in 2021.

But prior to the stability of the last decade and a half or so, the Clippers were one of the league’s longest-running and most consistent disasters.

Beyond the controversy and eventual ousting of Sterling, from their first season as the Buffalo Braves in 1970-71 through 2009-10 (the last without Griffin in action), this franchise won just 36.2 percent of its games (ahead of only the Grizzlies over that stretch). It made the playoffs just seven times in those nearly four decades.

If anything, subjectivity and recency bias may be doing a little too much heavy lifting on this one.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Dwight Howard, Nick Anderson, Nikola Vučević, Shaquille O’Neal and Tracy McGrady

Peak Season: 2008-09 (59 wins, lost in the Finals)

The Orlando Magic’s team history is highlighted by two very high points: a 1995 trip to the NBA Finals with Shaquille O’Neal, and then a 2009 trip to the Finals with Dwight Howard and a supporting cast loaded with outside shooting.

Both teams were a blast. The latter was a pioneer for today’s skill- and shooting-heavy game. But in both cases, the MVP-candidate big man at the center of the success left shortly after making the Finals. And both times, those departures cost the team plenty of wins.

That’s a big part of why Orlando is in the bottom 10 in all but one of the categories listed above, with the exception of playoff winning percentage, where it’s 19th.

On the bright side, with Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and a ton of cap flexibility in the near future, another high point could be on the way.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Walt Bellamy, Bradley Beal and Greg Ballard

Peak Season: 1978-79 (44 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

The Washington Wizards (or Bullets) have topped that 44-win total 11 times, but the only championship-winning campaign has to get the “Peak Season” honor by default.

And that particular version of the Bullets has the added credibility that comes from rostering multiple legends.

Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld and Bob Dandridge are all in the Hall of Fame. Hayes was a truly dominant interior player with this franchise, where he averaged 21.3 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. Unseld was a dominant rebounder and one of the game’s early point centers. He spent his entire career with Washington (previously Baltimore) and averaged 14.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists. And he won Finals MVP in 1978.

Since that era with Hayes and Unseld ended, though, Washington has been one of the worst franchises in the league. From the organization’s first season in 1961-62 through its Finals loss in 1979, it was eighth (out of 22 teams) in winning percentage. Since then, the Wizards (and Bullets) are 29th in that category.

They don’t have a single 50-win season during that stretch. And over the last 16 seasons, they’ve only made the playoffs five times.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Reggie Miller, Dale Davis, Rik Smits, Vern Fleming and Danny Granger

Peak Season: 1999-00 (56 wins, lost in the Finals)

The Indiana Pacers have yet to win a championship since joining the NBA, but they’ve won just under half of their games and have an SRS above zero in the league.

They’re also a shining example of a mid-market team that has generally stayed competitive without any all-out tank jobs. And they have one of the greatest shooters of all time to thank for that (at least in large part).

Since the start of Reggie Miller’s career in 1987-88, the Pacers are 10th in the league in winning percentage. In 2000, they made the Finals with Larry Bird coaching and Miller averaging 24.0 points and 2.6 threes in the playoffs.

Postseason appearances have been a bit less consistent since Miller’s retirement, but they’ve still generally been solid, behind players such as Jermaine O’Neal, Paul George and now Tyrese Haliburton.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Oscar Robertson, Jack Twyman, Bobby Wanzer, Peja Stojaković and Jerry Lucas

Peak Season: 2001-02 (61 wins, lost in the Conference Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

When younger NBA fans think of the Sacramento Kings’ history, they probably zero in on the last couple of decades, when they were consistently one of the worst teams in the NBA.

From 2006-07 through 2021-22, the Kings had exactly zero playoff appearances and the second-worst winning percentage in the league.

Immediately before that woeful run, though, Sacramento enjoyed a few years as a borderline powerhouse in the West, with coach Rick Adelman and multiple stars, including Chris Webber, Peja Stojaković, Vlade Divac and Mike Bibby.

None of those players made it to the mountaintop with Sacramento, but its high-octane offense pushed Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers about as far as possible without actually winning a series.

And if you travel back a few more decades, you’ll find the organization’s Cincinnati Royals era, in which Oscar Robertson averaged 29.3 points, 10.3 assists and 8.5 rebounds.

We’re looking at the NBA’s entire history in this exercise. And though things have been pretty rough for the Kings for most of the last two decades, their previous iteration (the Royals) was a significant piece of the historical puzzle.

In 1951, when the team was in Rochester, it even won a championship (though that campaign’s not the “Peak Season,” in part because there were only 11 teams in the league back then).

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Bob Pettit, Dominique Wilkins, Cliff Hagan, Lou Hudson and Al Horford

Peak Season: 2014-15 (60 wins, lost in the Conference Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

Like Sacramento, the Atlanta Hawks have a title from the 1950s and while representing a different city in their history. In 1958, when they were the St. Louis Hawks, Bob Pettit led them to the championship in a campaign that included the Nationals’ Dolph Schayes and the Celtics’ Bill Russell.

Since they came to Atlanta for the 1968-69 season, the Hawks haven’t been quite as successful, but they’re still middle of the pack in winning percentage at 2,229-2,290.

They had some strong teams with Dominique Wilkins that ran into powerhouse versions of the Celtics. The 60-win squad with Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver ran into LeBron James.

Yes, there were some playoff droughts here and there, but the Hawks have generally been competitive, even if they were never truly dangerous title threats (kind of like the current version of the team).

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Kyle Lowry, Chris Bosh, DeMar DeRozan, Vince Carter and Pascal Siakam

Peak Season: 2018-19 (58 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

In the “Methodology” slide, you were warned that recency bias could play a factor. To be frank, it’s why the Toronto Raptors are ahead of the Hawks.

The latter has slight edges in regular-season win percentage and SRS. Atlanta has the longer history, too. But Toronto has a higher winning percentage in the playoffs and just won a title in 2019, in a 30-team league drawing from a deeper and better-developed talent pool than the NBA had in earlier eras.

And even before Kawhi Leonard’s lone, championship-winning season in Toronto, the Raptors had established themselves as a consistent competitor in the Eastern Conference.

With a solid, well-balanced roster led by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, Toronto was fourth in the league and first in the East in winning percentage over the five seasons immediately preceding the title.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Karl Malone, John Stockton, Rudy Gobert, Adrian Dantley and Andrei Kirilenko

Peak Season: 1996-97 (64 wins, lost in the Finals)

The Utah Jazz are barely (and I do mean barely) on the wrong end of a fun debate within this debate: What’s the best NBA organization without a title?

The Jazz are fourth in the entire exercise in regular-season winning percentage, but they’re behind the next team on the list in SRS, playoff wins and playoff win percentage.

Even without the championship, it’s hard to argue against the merits of this team. Utah has 17 50-win campaigns since coming to the NBA.

The Jazz have been to the Finals twice, where they lost to the greatest player of all time on both occasions. They’ve been to the conference finals four times. In 1983-84, they started a streak of 20 straight postseason appearances. Since that same season, they’ve made the playoffs in 31 out of 41 years.

John Stockton, the NBA’s all-time leader in both total assists and total steals, played his entire career for Utah. Karl Malone, who is third on the all-time scoring list, played all but one year there.

If the Jazz had just broken through and won it all once, they’d be much, much higher on this list.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Shawn Marion, Kevin Johnson, Steve Nash, Alvan Adams and Amar’e Stoudemire

Peak Season: 2004-05 (62 wins, lost in the Conference Finals)

With Utah off the board, the Phoenix Suns are the only team without a championship. And there are reasonable arguments to have them even higher up the list.

The franchise is fourth in SRS, fifth in regular-season winning percentage, 12th in playoff wins and 12th in playoff winning percentage. And it’s made it all the way to the Finals in three different eras.

In 1975-76, a team led by Paul Westphal and Alvan Adams came up short against Dave Cowens’ Celtics. In 1992-93, Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson lost to Michael Jordan. And just three years ago, Devin Booker and Chris Paul lost to Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Even those three teams weren’t quite good (or cool) enough to snag “Peak Season.” That distinction goes to the 2004-05 squad that helped revolutionize basketball with its “seven seconds or less” approach to offense.

With Steve Nash orchestrating and Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson finishing, the Suns had the second-greatest offense of all time by relative offensive rating (a team’s points per 100 possessions minus the league average for that season).

Top Five Players by Win Shares: LeBron James, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Hot Rod Williams

Peak Season: 2015-16 (57 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

If you carve out LeBron James’ 11 seasons from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ history, their winning percentage plummets from 46.7 to 42.7. Their lone title is gone. And so are four other conference finals appearances.

Without all of that, there’s no way this team’s history would threaten for a spot in the top half of the league.

But that’s obviously not the point of this exercise. Almost every organization’s history is heavily dependent on the performance and accomplishments of its best players. LeBron’s impact just happens to be bigger than most, which shouldn’t be surprising from the second-greatest player of all time.

This slide isn’t meant as a total slight to the rest of the team’s history, either. Mark Price is one of the greatest shooters of all time. The elder Larry Nance was one of the game’s best defenders while he was in Cleveland. And the current roster has an intriguing young core that includes Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Nikola Jokić, Alex English, Dan Issel, Carmelo Anthony and Nenê

Peak Season: 2022-23 (53 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

There may be a little more recency bias at play here, but the Denver Nuggets’ 2022-23 title isn’t the only reason they cracked the top 15. They’re also ranked in the top half in regular-season winning percentage and SRS.

And since Carmelo Anthony’s arrival in 2003-04, the organization has been among the league’s most consistent and has boasted multiple future Hall of Famers in Carmelo Anthony and Nikola Jokić.

Over those two decades, the Nuggets trail only the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics in winning percentage.

Of course, while there isn’t a ton of projection involved here, having the best player in the world on the roster means Denver probably isn’t done adding to this organizational resume.

Jokić is only 29 years old, has won three of the last four MVP awards and has one of the league’s best starting fives around him.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Dirk Nowitzki, Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, Jason Terry and Michael Finley

Peak Season: 2010-11 (57 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

The Dallas Mavericks got off to a rocky start. For the first 20 years of their existence, they won 40.0 percent of their games, a mark that ranked 24th in the league over that span.

Since then, they have been one of the NBA’s most consistently successful organizations.

Dirk Nowitzki being drafted in 1998 obviously had a lot to do with that. Mark Cuban buying the team in 2000 and pouring plenty of resources into it helped, too.

And since the start of the 2000-01 season, Dallas has won 59.6 percent of its games (a number that trails only the San Antonio Spurs during that stretch), made three Finals and won the 2011 championship against the Miami Heat’s newly formed superteam.

That much success for over half of the organization’s existence and the fact that the Mavericks are the only team Nowitzki and Luka Dončić have played for is enough to put them in the top half of this exercise, despite their relatively short history.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Clyde Drexler, Damian Lillard, Terry Porter, LaMarcus Aldridge and Rasheed Wallace

Peak Season: 1976-77 (49 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

The Portland Trail Blazers have been around for 54 seasons, and they’ve made the playoffs in all but 17 of them. From 1977 through 2003, they only missed the postseason once.

Their first six years and a recent downturn aside, they have been one of the league’s steadiest and most consistent franchises. And they’ve given us multiple iconic players.

Clyde Drexler, Damian Lillard and Bill Walton were all in the NBA’s top 75 players of all time. And had he not battled so many injuries, Walton may have gone down as one of the top 15-20 players ever.

In one of his only healthy playoff runs, he averaged 18.2 points, 15.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 3.4 blocks and 1.1 steals on the way to the 1977 title.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Gary Payton, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jack Sikma and Shawn Kemp

Peak Season: 1978-79 (52 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 1

The numbers suggest Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly Seattle SuperSonics) should be even higher.

They are sixth in winning percentage, seventh in SRS, ninth in playoff wins and 10th in playoff winning percentage. Having a title helps a lot in the previously discussed formula to arrive at a baseline order.

But that championship came in the 1970s, just before Larry Bird and Magic Johnson revived a league dealing with major struggles.

Since then, the Sonics and Thunder have been close plenty of times, but they haven’t quite broken through. That’s about as nitpicky as we can be, though.

This organization has had several title-contending iterations. Jack Sikma made it to the Finals twice. Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp got there in the 1990s when they ran into MJ and the Chicago Bulls. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden then lost in the Finals to LeBron in 2012.

And there are six other conference finals appearances over the course of this team’s history.

Titles are always the ultimate goal, but the Sonics and Thunder are a good example of how success takes on other forms.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Harry Gallatin and Charles Oakley

Peak Season: 1969-70 (60 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 2

The New York Knicks’ recent history is grim. From 2001-02 through 2021-22, they had the worst winning percentage in the league. Even when you throw in their last two seasons, both of which ended in playoff appearances, they only move up to 29th.

But there’s a reason the Knicks are one of the most famous franchises in the history of professional sports, and it goes beyond geography (though that helps).

From the start of the league through 2000-01, New York had the fourth most total wins in the league, trailing only the Lakers, Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers.

That stretch included championships in 1970 and 1973 with Walt Frazier and Willis Reed, two Finals appearances in the 1990s with Patrick Ewing and multiple Finals appearances in the 1950s with Harry Gallatin.

Wins, legendary players and Madison Square Garden are a heck of a mix, and the current iteration of the Knicks should be able to add to this resume.

With Jalen Brunson leading the charge, New York has made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, and he’s just getting started as a No. 1.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Hakeem Olajuwon, James Harden, Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich and Moses Malone

Peak Season: 1993-94 (58 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 2

Prior to their back-to-back championships in the 1990s, the Houston Rockets knocked on the door of a title a couple of times.

They made the Finals with Moses Malone in 1981, but they fell short against the Celtics, who were on their way to dynasty status. In 1986, they faced Boston again, this time with a young Hakeem Olajuwon, but that Celtics group is in the conversation for greatest team of all time.

Some may try to slap some caveats on the title-winning teams, but they’re probably not fair. It’s hard to imagine a modern team winning eight titles in a row. The Bulls’ break from Jordan may have served as a bit of a recharge, and he was back for the 1995 playoffs. Houston won that year anyway.

Since then, the Rockets have had multiple good-to-great teams, including ones with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Of course, the teams led by James Harden and Chris Paul gave the peak Golden State Warriors a real run, too.

In other words, over the course of several decades, Houston has managed to remake itself over and over, and its two championships are enough to push it into the top 10.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Bill Laimbeer, Bob Lanier, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas and Chauncey Billups

Peak Season: 1988-89 (63 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 3

The Detroit Pistons are 20th in winning percentage and 21st in SRS. That obviously doesn’t scream top-10 organization, but they boast two iconic teams.

The one led by a starting five of Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince pulled off one of the biggest upsets of all time in the 2004 Finals. And in 1989 and 1990, the Bad Boys, led by Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, won back-to-back titles against Magic Johnson and the Lakers and Clyde Drexler and the Blazers.

Those triumphs and top-10 rankings in both playoff wins and playoff win percentage are enough to move the Pistons to this point in the countdown.

And if you’re willing to look past the last couple of decades, you might be able to argue for having them even higher.

From 1983-84 through 2008-09, Detroit won 58.0 percent of its games (good for fifth over that span) and made five conference finals (including five straight from 1987 to 1991 and another six straight from 2003 to 2008).

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Sidney Moncrief, Marques Johnson and Bob Dandridge

Peak Season: 1970-71 (66 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 2

That “Peak Season” isn’t just the best for the Milwaukee Bucks. That team is in the conversation for best ever.

It’s average point differential of plus-12.26 is the second-best of all time, just two one-hundredths of a point behind the 1971-72 Lakers. That number was the product of monster seasons from both Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (31.7 points, 16.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists) and Oscar Robertson (19.4 points, 8.2 assists and 5.7 rebounds). And the campaign ended with a title.

It took five decades for Milwaukee to win another championship, but it finally broke through again in 2021, behind another eye-popping performance from another all-time great big man. In those Finals, Giannis Antetokounmpo averaged 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.2 steals.

And it’s not like the Bucks were some doormat in the years between the titles. They’re seventh among teams in this exercise in regular-season winning percentage and sixth in SRS. They’ve boasted several elite players, including Kareem, Giannis, Robertson, Sidney Moncrief, Marques Johnson, Michael Redd, Khris Middleton and Ray Allen.

And with Giannis still in his prime, it’s fair to expect more years as a title contender.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Alonzo Mourning, Udonis Haslem and Bam Adebayo

Peak Season: 2012-13 (66 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 3

It may feel a little premature to put a team that started in 1988 all the way up in seventh spot, but the Miami Heat have been so consistently solid that we really don’t have a choice.

Miami is third in playoff winning percentage, sixth in championships, eighth in regular-season winning percentage and 11th in both SRS and total playoff wins.

Given the relative youth of the organization, that last rank might be the most impressive. Miami has had 4.5 playoff wins per year since its inception.

And despite being around for less than 40 years, the Heat have already put together several bona fide title contenders. There were the teams with Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. They won the Finals in 2006 with Shaquille and Dwyane Wade.

Of course, the 2010s featured the “Heatles,” with LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh. And not long after that brief run, Jimmy Butler joined the team and led it to two Finals appearances in four years.

With Pat Riley either coaching or in the front office, Miami has been a near-constant in the playoffs, and it has a young core that should keep it competitive beyond the Butler era.

The Heat are a model of sustainability.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Dolph Schayes, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, Hal Greer and Maurice Cheeks

Peak Season: 1966-67 (68 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 3

One of the Philadelphia 76ers’ three titles came in 1955, when the team was the Syracuse Nationals and the league had just nine organizations, but the championships aren’t the only reason they’re this high.

Philadelphia is third in playoff wins, eighth in playoff winning percentage and 10th in both regular-season winning percentage and SRS. They’ve had five different players win the MVP award (Wilt Chamberlain, Joel Embiid, Julius Erving, Allen Iverson and Moses Malone).

In 1967, at the height of the Celtics’ Bill Russell-led dynasty, Wilt and the Sixers cut off a streak of eight straight Boston championships to win their second. In 1983, they went 12-1 on the way to a championship with Malone and Erving.

Nearly two decades later, Philadelphia gave us the bulk of AI’s iconic career. And now, the Sixers have one of the most prolific scorers of all time in Embiid.

This organization’s imprint on the league’s history is big enough to warrant top-five consideration.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Stephen Curry, Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Arizin, Neil Johnston and Rick Barry

Peak Season: 2016-17 (67 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 7

The Golden State Warriors went through a long, painful drought from 1977-78 through 2011-12. In those three-plus decades, they won just 41.4 percent of their games, which put them in 26th place over that stretch. Their regular-season winning percentage for the entire exercise ranks 18th.

But that rough patch is bookended by all-time great runs led by all-time great players. They won the first NBA title ever in 1947 (when the league was actually known as the BAA). Neil Johnston won a championship for the then-Philadelphia Warriors in 1956. Nearly two decades later, Rick Barry took the team all the way, averaging 29.5 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 steals in the 1975 Finals. And of course, Golden State was the team of the 2010s behind Stephen Curry.

From 2012-13 through 2021-22, the Warriors won four championships and won a league-best 66.5 percent of their games. During that stretch, Curry won back-to-back MVPs, including the only unanimous MVP in NBA history.

He played with several future Hall of Famers, including Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. The teams with KD, when healthy, felt as inevitable as anything we’ve seen since Jordan’s Bulls.

And though the run is likely over (at least in terms of winning titles), there may be one “Last Dance”-style season between now and the end of Curry’s career.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Chet Walker, Artis Gilmore and Horace Grant

Peak Season: 1995-96 (72 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 6

The Chicago Bulls had stretches both before and after Michael Jordan in which they were plenty competitive.

From 1971 through 1975, the Bulls won 63.4 percent of their games (only the Bucks and Celtics were better).

Then, from 2009 through 2015, they made the postseason seven straight times in a stretch that included an MVP nod for Derrick Rose. Had his career not been derailed by injuries, those teams with Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng may have competed for a title.

But let’s face it, Chicago is here because of Jordan, Scottie Pippen and one of the most dominant eight-year stretches in NBA history.

The Bulls won three straight titles from 1991 through 1993. Then, Jordan missed a season and a half pursuing a baseball career in the middle of his prime. Almost immediately after returning, the next three-peat went from 1996 through 1998.

And that 1995-96 squad may be the greatest of all time. Its single-season record for wins stood until the Warriors got 73 in 2015-16, but of course, that team didn’t win the title. The Bulls not only capped off that absurd campaign with a championship, they went 15-3 in the playoffs.

At the peak of its powers, Chicago likely could have gone toe-to-toe with any team in league history.

Top Five Players by Win Shares: Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili and George Gervin

Peak Season: 2013-14 (62 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 5

Like the Bulls, the San Antonio Spurs are mostly here on the back of one stretch, but in this case, it’s a long one. And it’s not like they were bad before Tim Duncan showed up.

After coming over from the ABA, the Spurs made the playoffs in 17 of their first 20 NBA seasons. The legendary Iceman, George Gervin, was a huge part of that success, with averages of 27.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists from 1976-77 through 1984-85.

And after just one gap year that helped the team land Duncan with the No. 1 pick in 1997, the truly dominant stretch began.

From his rookie campaign in 1997-98 through 2018-19 (just a few years after he retired), San Antonio won a whopping 69.9 percent of its games. Dallas was second in that stretch at 57.3 percent. And the distance between those two marks was about the same as the distance between second and 24th.

The Spurs were seemingly in the mix for every championship during those two-plus decades, and they won five of them with multiple different versions of the team. First, the Twin Towers of Duncan and David Robinson won two together. Then, Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili were nearly ubiquitous through the 2000s. And in 2014, with an up-and-coming Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio had one of the best revenge campaigns in league history.

A year after Ray Allen ripped their hearts out with his game-tying three in Game 6, the Spurs annihilated the Heat in 2014, registering the highest point differential of all time for an entire Finals at plus-70.

Thanks to the organization’s dominance during Duncan’s career, San Antonio leads this entire exercise in regular-season winning percentage and SRS, while coming in fourth in playoff wins and fifth in playoff winning percentage and championships.

They’re in a rebuilding phase now, but with Victor Wembanyama on the roster, the Spurs may not be done adding to their resume. Given the ones in front of them, though, third might be as high as they can possibly climb.

Top 20 Players by Win Shares: Kobe Bryant, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, George Mikan, Elgin Baylor, Shaquille O’Neal, Vern Mikkelsen, James Worthy, Byron Scott, A.C. Green, Wilt Chamberlain, Pau Gasol, Gail Goodrich, Lamar Odom, Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes, Rudy LaRusso, Derek Fisher and Happy Hairston

Peak Season: 1999-00 (67 wins, won the Finals)

NBA Championships: 17

With apologies to Lakers fans, when it’s this close, total championships is a worthy tiebreaker. And in 2024, Boston took the lead with its 18th banner. But we’ll talk more about the Celtics on their slide.

L.A. won five of the six NBA titles from 1949 through 1954. There weren’t many teams in the BAA and NBA in those days, but titles are titles. And there’s something cool about being an integral part of the league’s formative years.

Of course, that isn’t the end of the story.

Jerry West is among the greatest individual players of all time, and after repeatedly falling short against the Boston Celtics, he won a title in 1972.

In the 1980s, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar helped the Lakers win five championships and more than earned the Showtime brand.

A couple decades later, Kobe and Shaq paired up to create perhaps the best duo in league history and won three straight titles together. Then, in 2009 and 2010, Kobe secured another repeat with Pau Gasol.

And finally, just four years ago, LeBron and Anthony Davis won the 2020 championship in the bubble.

Through it all, L.A. is first in this exercise in playoff wins, first in playoff winning percentage, second in titles, third in regular-season winning percentage and third in SRS.

Top 20 Players by Win Shares: Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, John Havlicek, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Sam Jones, Bob Cousy, Dave Cowens, Bill Sharman, Ed Macauley, Don Nelson, Cedric Maxwell, Tom Heinsohn, Tom Sanders, Jayson Tatum, Jo Jo White, Frank Ramsey, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo

Peak Season: 1985-86 (67 wins, won Finals)

NBA Championships: 18

It’s neck and neck between the Celtics and Lakers, even after Boston took the slight edge in titles. L.A. has more playoff wins and a better playoff winning percentage, but the Celtics have the lead in regular-season winning percentage, SRS and obviously championships.

And if the trophies weren’t enough of a tiebreaker, let’s spend just a moment on the last decade and change.

Since these two teams met in the Finals in 2010, Boston has won 59.6 percent of its games (good for third in the league), while L.A.’s won just 47.1 percent (good for 19th). The Eastern Conference is comfortably worse than the West, but the Celtics have made five conference finals in the seven seasons since Jayson Tatum entered the league.

There’s no doubt Boston has been better of late, and the 2024 championship is a good exclamation point on that.

But history has been good to the Celtics, too.

Bill Russell has 11 titles. Dave Cowens, John Havlicek and Jo Jo White added to the total in the 1970s. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish did in the ’80s, and their 1985-86 squad has an argument for best in NBA history.

There was a long drought from that Finals to 2008, but they’ve now been in the mix for titles for close to a decade. And with Tatum and Jaylen Brown in their primes, Boston might be adding to its lead in titles over the next few years.