#1 Offenses in the League Since 1955

[Djoker]

This list contains the #1 offense (by rORtg) of every season since the shot clock so 1955.

Year - Team (rORtg) -- Best Offensive Player/Key Supporting Players

1955 -- Boston Celtics (+3.2) -- Bob Cousy
1956 -- Philadelphia Warriors (+4.3) -- Paul Arizin
1957 -- Philadelphia Warriors (+3.5) -- Paul Arizin
1958 -- New York Knicks (+2.9) -- Richie Guerin
1959 -- St. Louis Hawks (+3.1) -- Bob Pettit
1960 -- St. Louis Hawks (+2.9) -- Bob Pettit
1961 -- Cincinnati Royals (+3.5) -- Oscar Robertson
1962 -- Cincinnati Royals (+4.7) -- Oscar Robertson
1963 -- Cincinnati Royals (+3.5) -- Oscar Robertson
1964 -- Cincinnati Royals (+4.3) -- Oscar Robertson
1965 -- Cincinnati Royals (+4.4) -- Oscar Robertson
1966 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+3.4) -- Jerry West
1967 -- Philadelphia 76ers (+5.4) -- Wilt Chamberlain
1968 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+4.9) -- Jerry West
1969 -- Cincinnati Royals (+4.7) -- Oscar Robertson
1970 -- Atlanta Hawks (+3.3) -- Lou Hudson
1971 -- Milwaukee Bucks (+6.7) -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Oscar Robertson
1972 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+5.2) -- Jerry West
1973 -- Kansas City Kings (+2.9) -- Tiny Archibald
1974 -- Milwaukee Bucks (+3.5) -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1975 -- Golden State Warriors (+2.7) -- Rick Barry
1976 -- Houston Rockets (+2.8) -- Calvin Murphy/Rudy Tomjanovich
1977 -- Houston Rockets (+5.0) -- Calvin Murphy/Rudy Tomjanovich/Moses Malone
1978 -- Philadelphia 76ers (+4.1) -- Julius Erving
1979 -- Houston Rockets (+4.9) -- Moses Malone
1980 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+4.2) -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Magic Johnson
1981 -- Denver Nuggets (+3.9) -- Alex English/David Thompson
1982 -- Denver Nuggets (+7.4) -- Alex English
1983 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+5.8) -- Magic Johnson
1984 -- Detroit Pistons (+3.9) -- Isiah Thomas
1985 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+6.2) -- Magic Johnson
1986 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+6.1) -- Magic Johnson
1987 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+7.3) -- Magic Johnson
1988 -- Boston Celtics (+7.3) -- Larry Bird
1989 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+6.0) -- Magic Johnson
1990 -- Los Angeles Lakers (+5.9) -- Magic Johnson
1991 -- Chicago Bulls (+6.7) -- Michael Jordan
1992 -- Chicago Bulls (+7.3) -- Michael Jordan
1993 -- Phoenix Suns (+5.3) -- Charles Barkley
1994 -- Phoenix Suns (+5.4) -- Charles Barkley
1995 -- Orlando Magic (+6.9) -- Shaquille O'Neal
1996 -- Chicago Bulls (+7.5) -- Michael Jordan
1997 -- Chicago Bulls (+7.7) -- Michael Jordan
1998 -- Utah Jazz (+7.6) -- Karl Malone
1999 -- Indiana Pacers (+6.5) -- Reggie Miller
2000 -- Indiana Pacers (+4.4) -- Reggie Miller
2001 -- Milwaukee Bucks (+5.8) -- Ray Allen
2002 -- Dallas Mavericks (+7.7) -- Dirk Nowitzki/Steve Nash
2003 -- Dallas Mavericks (+7.1) -- Dirk Nowitzki/Steve Nash
2004 -- Dallas Mavericks (+9.2) -- Dirk Nowitzki/Steve Nash
2005 -- Phoenix Suns (+8.4) -- Steve Nash
2006 -- Dallas Mavericks (+5.6) -- Dirk Nowitzki
2007 -- Phoenix Suns (+7.5) -- Steve Nash
2008 -- Utah Jazz (+6.3) -- Deron Williams
2009 -- Portland Trail Blazers (+5.6) -- Brandon Roy
2010 -- Phoenix Suns (+7.7) -- Steve Nash
2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony
2012 -- San Antonio Spurs (+6.3) -- Tim Duncan/Tony Parker
2013 -- Oklahoma City Thunder (+6.6) -- Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook
2014 -- Los Angeles Clippers (+5.4) -- Chris Paul
2015 -- Los Angeles Clippers (+6.8) -- Chris Paul
2016 -- Golden State Warriors (+8.1) -- Stephen Curry
2017 -- Golden State Warriors (+6.8) -- Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant
2018 -- Houston Rockets (+6.1) -- James Harden
2019 -- Golden State Warriors (+5.5) -- Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant
2020 -- Dallas Mavericks (+6.1) -- Luka Doncic
2021 -- Brooklyn Nets (+5.9) -- Kevin Durant/James Harden
2022 -- Utah Jazz (+4.7) -- Donovan Mitchell
2023 -- Sacramento Kings (+4.6) -- De'Aaron Fox/Domantas Sabonis
2024 -- Boston Celtics (+7.9) -- Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown

[Onlytimewilltel]

Lots of Steve Nash led offenses. Very smart of Mark Cuban to let him walk to Phoenix.

[Special_Puppy]

Should try to combine regular season rOTG with playoff rOTG to get a more complete measurement

[Ice Man]

Fox/Sabonis, Brandon Roy, and Deron Williams are the three outliers. Although yeah I know, injuries with Roy. Had he stayed healthy, maybe he would have had an HOF career like the rest of those guys on the list.

It's also worth noting that there are a LOT of famous names missing, for example -

LeBron (!!!!)
Kobe
Hakeem
Giannis
Jokic

[cpower]

2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony


That is Billups offense

[bledredwine]

2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony


That is Billups offense

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

[ballzboyee]

Magic = GOAT.

[Ice Man]

Magic = GOAT.

Well, he had a lot of help. In the '86 season, for example, Magic was 3rd in the MVP voting, Kareem was 5th, and Worthy was 12th. It's not as if Giannis or Jokic, to cite two examples, ever had teammates at the level.

[cpower]

2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony


That is Billups offense

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

does not matter, no amount of clutch basket can save his iso ball style. In 2011 he was -1.2 Ortg in RS and -26 Ortg in PS.singlehandily suffocated the offense.

[dhsilv2]

2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony


That is Billups offense

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

Yeah 2009 was most certainly Billups as the best offensive player. There's more to offense than scoring yourself.

[Djoker]

Should try to combine regular season rOTG with playoff rOTG to get a more complete measurement

I did combine rORtg for RS and PS (as well as rDRtg) when I made my greatest teams of all time list. I realized that a rough 50:50 weighing of RS and PS works pretty well. Still it's arbitrary which I don't like but for that list at least, almost all teams were making deep playoff runs but the one in the OP has a lot of teams losing in the 1st round. Would need to think about how to handle that.

PS data is also tough to compare in general because not only are samples small and very prone to noise but every team plays different opponents. It's relative offense so it corrects for opponent defense but matchups can still factor heavily. With RS data, samples are bigger and more representative in terms of opposition as well. I think with PS, you are much better off looking at multiyear stretches.

[UcanUwill]

not sure what that (+xx) mean, above league average? but anyhow, Nash Dirks team dominant at that. Wild to remember that team had Nash and Dirk to spam pick and rolls, at a time, we didn't knew what we had in Nash yet.

[og15]

In terms of the Nuggets, neither Billups or Carmelo should really be cited for 2011. They both got traded after 57 games.

Nuggets Ortg game 1-57: 112.5 Ortg
Nuggets Ortg games 58-82: 111.9 Ortg

There was barely any difference there after trading them. They had their two point guard offense with Lawson and Felton, Gallo only played 14 games then was out, and it was Afflalo, JR, Chandler, Nene, etc along with the PG's doing the work.

In 2009, Billups was definitely the main engine of the offense, but of course it is both in that case. Billups couldn't carry the scoring, but Carmelo can't be your primary playmaker and create for others.

[LockoutSeason]

No Lebron-led offenses. Goes to show you how loaded his era was.

[bledredwine]

2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony


That is Billups offense

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

Yeah 2009 was most certainly Billups as the best offensive player. There's more to offense than scoring yourself.

Absolutely not.

[cupcakesnake]

Should try to combine regular season rOTG with playoff rOTG to get a more complete measurement

playoff rOtg is a little more complicated because you play only 1-4 opponents.

Let's say we have 2 all-time great offenses in different years. They both make at least the conference finals.
Team 1 plays multiple elite defenses, and has their offense stress tested to the max.
Team 2 plays strong offensive teams, out gunning them in a fire fight.

Team 1's relative offensive rating will look worse by this metric, just because of the style of opponent they faced.

I know some people make a different relative offensive/defensive rating where they try to compare it opponent by opponent (your offensive rating vs. opponent expected defensive rating). In general, the playoffs are so short and these numbers are designed to tell us about large samples. In small samples, it's even more important to know what actually happened. 3-point variance, a shooter going cold, an injury to someone playing a key role is going to massively impact these numbers, so it feels not great to use a playoff relative rating as evidence that an offense wasn't as legit in the playoffs.

[dhsilv2]

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

Yeah 2009 was most certainly Billups as the best offensive player. There's more to offense than scoring yourself.

Absolutely not.

The nuggets needed both as OG15 said above, but yes Billups was the more important offensive player for that team. There's a reason their offense improved so much from the AI trade for Billups.

Even in that Laker's series you cited, the won game 4 on Billups play and won game 2 because both had excellent games.

[bledredwine]

2011 -- Denver Nuggets (+5.1) -- Carmelo Anthony


That is Billups offense

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

does not matter, no amount of clutch basket can save his iso ball style. In 2011 he was -1.2 Ortg in RS and -26 Ortg in PS.singlehandily suffocated the offense.

2008-09 playoffs

Melo - 24.3 PER

Chauncey - 22.0

Melo was the more dominant player and really showed up. He also did a fantastic job
guarding Kobe after not being much of a defender.

[bledredwine]

Yeah 2009 was most certainly Billups as the best offensive player. There's more to offense than scoring yourself.

Absolutely not.

The nuggets needed both as OG15 said above, but yes Billups was the more important offensive player for that team. There's a reason their offense improved so much from the AI trade for Billups.

Even in that Laker's series you cited, the won game 4 on Billups play and won game 2 because both had excellent games.

For you as well-

2008-09 playoffs

Melo - 24.3 PER

Chauncey - 22.0

Melo was the more dominant player and really showed up. He also did a fantastic job
guarding Kobe after not being much of a defender.

[cupcakesnake]

Maybe, but not in the year they nearly beat LAL to go to the finals. I was a big fan of that team. Melo was on fire and also crushed it in the playoffs, nearly beating LA. No question he was their best player that year. 2009? I forgot.

He was also the most clutch player that year by a significant margin. I'm not saying you're wrong about that particular year... but we've got to put respect on prime Melo's name.

Yeah 2009 was most certainly Billups as the best offensive player. There's more to offense than scoring yourself.

Absolutely not.

No real statistical argument for Melo being better offensively than Billups in 2009. You'd have to make a case. (Please don't make the case based on PPG or vibes.)

Billups was a pretty transformational floor general in his late prime.