RealGM

03-08’ Pistons
06-11’ Mavs
08-13’ Celtics
12-17’ Spurs
19-24’ Bucks

You may not consider any of them disappointing but for the exercise how would you rank them?

I mean I was personally most disappointed with the little Mavs, but that's because I'm a fan. Pretty hard to find much fault with a 5 year run that starts with 60 wins and 2 wins from a title, a 67 win team(after starting 0-4, so a 70 win pace for 78 games), and a championship.

Pistons were in the ECF every single year, no?

Celtics were hurt with untimely injuries repeatedly and oh yeah this guy named Lebron for the back half of that

Spurs, WCF loss, Finals loss(in a bit of a miracle), title(in one of the most dominant runs ever once they faded the upset in round 1), ends with a 67 win season (Duncan and Manu both on the doorstep of 40)

By no reasonable measures are these disappointing. Bucks had major injuries as well...

Wilt 65-69 (if we can look at player, not team).
Kareem with Milwaukee.
Artis in Kentucky
Moses in Philly.

Most talented (or close to it) players in the game with strong teams around them should win multiple titles.

2006 Heat have this handily for somewhat modern teams.

One_and_Done wrote:2006 Heat have this handily for somewhat modern teams.

They were only good for two years which is why I didn’t include them.

One way to try to look at this is to quantify it by adding up the accumulated title odds each team had in those years, to get a sense of who had the biggest expectations (with the idea being that the ones with the biggest expectations were the most disappointing). We can do this by using pre-season odds, as well as by using pre-playoffs odds—not clear to me which one is the better way to look at it for this particular inquiry. Here’s what we get:

Accumulated Title Odds - Using Preseason Odds

2003-2008 Pistons: +2000; +1500; +900; +1000; +800; +1200 = 0.49 expected titles
2006-2011 Mavericks: +1300; +400; +450; +2000; +2500; +2000 = 0.59 expected titles
2008-2013 Celtics: +1000; +350; +450; +1000; +1600; +2500 = 0.61 expected titles
2012-2017 Spurs: +3300; +1600; +1200; +350; +500; +925 = 0.65 expected titles
2019-2024 Bucks: +10000; +550; +550; +900; +650; +400 = 0.75 expected titles

Accumulated Title Odds - Using Pre-Playoffs Odds

2003-2008 Pistons: +2200; +700; +600; +100; +700; +700 = 1.06 expected titles
2006-2011 Mavericks:+700; +200; 2000; +3000; +1200; +1800 = 0.67 expected titles
2008-2013 Celtics: +180; +700; +1200; +550; +2000; +6600 = 0.78 expected titles
2012-2017 Spurs: +450; +650; +330; +350; +398; +1050 = 1.06 expected titles
2019-2024 Bucks: +625; +330; +850; +500; +275; +1400 = 0.98 expected titles

So basically, they actually all exceeded their accumulated pre-season expectations by even getting 1 title. The Pistons exceeded it the most, while the Bucks exceeded it the least. Meanwhile, the Mavs and Celtics also exceeded their pre-playoffs expectations by getting one title. The other three basically matched their pre-playoffs expectations by getting one title, with the Bucks very slightly outdoing expectations and the Pistons and Spurs very slightly undershooting expectations.

Overall, based on all of these numbers, I’d say the Bucks overall did the least well compared to expectations, with the Spurs being up there with them. If we took an average of these two numbers for each team and considered that average to be a proxy for overall expectations in the era, the teams ordered from most to least expectations are: (1) the Bucks (0.87); (2) the Spurs (0.86); (3) the Pistons (0.78); (4) the Celtics (0.70); and (5) the Mavericks (0.63). All that said, I think this exercise probably highlights that none of these teams were actually particularly disappointing.

Hook_Em wrote:03-08’ Pistons
06-11’ Mavs
08-13’ Celtics
12-17’ Spurs
19-24’ Bucks

You may not consider any of them disappointing but for the exercise how would you rank them?

First 3 I wouldn't consider disappointing. Maybe fans wanted more title but they were excellent runs.

1.12-17 Spurs: avg 61 wins (pro-rated lockout), 8 Playoff Series won in non-title years, lost in G7 of Finals.
2. 03-08 Pistons: Avg 56 Wins, 11 Playoff series won in non-title years, lost in G7 of Finals.
3. 08-13 Celtics: Avg 54 wins, 7 playoff series won in non-title years, lost in G7 of Finals.

These 2 I think fans probably could have hoped for more post-season success.
4. 6-11 Mavs: Avg 57 wins, 4 playoff series won in non-title yrs, lost in game 6 of Finals.
5. 19-24 Bucks: Avg 56 wins (pro-rated), 4 playoff series won in non-title yrs, lost in g6 of ECF

Other ones this century
15-20 Raptors: avg 55 wins, 5 playoff series wins non-title yrs, Lost in G6 of ECF
20-24 Lakers (not counting 25 since Luka trade changed their core): avg 46 wins (pro-rated), 2 playoff series wins non-title yrs, Lost in G4 of CF, 1 missed playoffs
05-10 Heat: Avg 43 wins, 2 playoff series wins 1 missed playoffs

Only counting 4 yrs for the Cavs
15-18: avg 53 wins, 9 series wins in non-title yrs, 3 finals losses