RealGM All-Time Greatest NBA/ABA Franchises Ranked - #19

[trex_8063]

1. Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers
2. Boston Celtics
3. Dallas Chaparrals, San Antonio Spurs
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers
6. Philly/SF/Golden State Warriors
7. Miami Heat
8. Fort Wayne/Detroit Pistons
9. Houston Rockets
10. New York Knicks
11. Indiana Pacers
12. Seattle Supersonics/OKC Thunder
13. Portland Trailblazers
14. New Orleans/Utah Jazz
15. Phoenix Suns
16. Milwaukee Bucks
17. Dallas Mavericks
18. Cleveland Cavaliers

.....

26. Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies
27. New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans
28. Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets
29. Buffalo Braves/(San Diego)/Los Angeles Clippers
30. Minnesota Timberwolves

[Dr Positivity]

Looking at Hawks and Wizards here, both have a title and other finals, with periods of ineptitude. The Raptors have a title but sucked up until 5 years ago. The Nuggets have decent regular season record but almost never a contender. I think I would put them below the Hawks since the in Nique and Mutombo era they had some decent Nuggets like periods of non contention, but with the Pettit card before then. The Magic and Nets have a couple finals and ABA success for the latter, but periods of sucking.

Vote St Louis etc./Atlanta Hawks. The Wizards have 35 years+ of Dolan Knicks level of shame. They won their title in more recent era than the Hawks, but still a long time ago.

[trex_8063]

Some of the usual categories I've been providing the info for; including any team that could even remotely be a candidate here (I think).

*For the Hawks I've included a split of ONLY their last 50 years (to be compared to the similar(ish) time-frame that is the existence of most of the other teams). Bear in mind their first 20 seasons (for whatever that time-period means to you) would have to be categorized as "above average", though probably not "elite" or "great".

**For the Nuggets and Nets, I've included (parenthetical) ABA/NBA splits.


rs Win%
Nuggets - .501 (.490 in NBA, .555 in ABA)
Hawks - .495
"last 50 yrs Hawks" - .494
Raptors - .470
Wizards - .453
Nets - .432 (.417 in NBA, .503 in ABA)

% of Seasons in the Playoffs
Hawks - .657
Nuggets - .654 (.581 in NBA, 1.000 in ABA)
"last 50 yrs Hawks" - .640
Nets - .519 (.465 in NBA, .778 in ABA)
Wizards - .500
Raptors - .458

% of Seasons going as far as Conference Finals
Hawks - .186
Nuggets - .115 (.070 in NBA, .333 in ABA)
Nets - .096 (.047 in NBA, .333 in ABA)
Wizards - .086
Raptors - .083
"last 50 yrs Hawks" - .040

Playoff Series Win%
Raptors - .474
Nets - .429 (.367 in NBA, .583 in ABA)
Wizards - .378
Hawks - .366
"last 50 yrs Hawks" - .319
Nuggets - .277 (.286 in NBA, .250 in ABA)

% of Seasons going to Finals
Nets - .096 (.047 in NBA, .333 in ABA)
Wizards - .069
Hawks - .057
Raptors - .042
Nuggets - .019 (n/a in NBA, .111 in ABA)
"last 50 yrs Hawks" - n/a

% of Seasons Winning Title
Raptors - .042
Nets - .038 (n/a in NBA, .222 in ABA)
Wizards - .017
Hawks - .014
Nuggets - n/a
"last 50 yrs Hawks" - n/a

[trex_8063]

I think I too am going to vote for the St. Louis, etc/Atlanta (Black)Hawks.

*They have the best NBA rs win% of any team left (even if combining NBA and ABA, only the Nuggets have [barely] a better rs win%). That is true even if we isolate on ONLY the last 50 [mostly post-merger] years, too.

**They are the best of the remaining teams in terms of consistently making the NBA playoffs (same is true even if we remove those first 20 seasons).

***They are the best of any team remaining as far as making it as far as the CF, although admittedly this category is HEAVILY dependent on those first 20 years in a very small league.

Given they don't rate poorly in any other category (generally around the middle of the group in playoff series win%, finals appearance frequency, and as champions), I can't isolate a particularly good reason to bump them any further, especially given their history is over a longer stretch of time.


Next up for me will be difficult. I think the next three for me are probably going to be the Nuggets, Raptors, and Wizards.....in what order I don't know.
The Nets NBA history is just SO bad, that I think it's going to bump them beneath these teams [for me] just slightly.

[penbeast0]

Voted for Hawks last time, repeating it here although it is very tempting to vote for Denver as they have always been a fun franchise in my memory but just too much playoff failure . . . and I say this as a Wizards fan.

VOTE: HAWKS

[trex_8063]

Not a good turnout, but based on prior threads I don't think we'd get enough more to overturn the result as it stands:

Hawks - 3
....nothing for anyone else.

So I'll call it, and we'll move on.