SLN Historical Division Performance

[Joe]

SLN Historical Division Performance

Currently stuck on plane to Jackson Hole with a broken TV in my seat, so figured I’d farm a little RP instead of rawdogging a 4 hour flight staring at the back of the seat in front of me (props to anyone who has successfully done this). Also, for all those (like @jwoo ) who were wondering what Calvin was up to these days, he’s with me on this plane, watching me copy and paste pages and pages of standings into Excel. Ugh.

Anyhoo, Nav recently mentioned to me that he’d won 5 of the last 6 Atlantic division titles in the context of a trade negotiation, and that a) ground my gears and b) gave me an article idea – how many division titles has each team won and how have the division competitions changed in composition over our 25 seasons? We’ve got some aggregate historical data on team performance through FBB and Jesse’s crude GM performance rankings, but this look should help us to see the ebbs and flows, tanks and title runs for each team over time. The charts are a little busy for sure, but if you look carefully at each team, it's kinda fun to think about how their trajectories have shifted from era to era.


Let’s start with the West for once:

The Midwest






Observations:

• I honestly thought the Jazz’s dominance would be a lot more apparent in the division title numbers than it is – only 8 years in first. The Grizz and Nugs have each had visible stretches at the top

• This division had crazy shakeups in the first two years of the league, due to the first few big trades among the Jazz, Spurs, Nuggets and Rockets – remind me who these players were in the comments!

The Pacific






Observations:

• The Warriors recent run of games to take control of the division have been more significant historically than many may have thought – Clinton could be on his way to bringing the franchise it’s first division win!

• The Dirk years in Seattle are highly visible in the chart – from 2000 to 2012, the Sonics finished fourth once, third once, and first or second the rest of the time

• The Clippers run of 5 straight last place finishes from 2007 to 2011 is the longest continuous stretch at the bottom of the division in league history – dark days

• The Kings are the owners of the best average division position in the league, thanks to their rare and short-lived tanks – they are the only team in the league who have never finished last in the division!

The Atlantic






Observations:

• The Atlantic is the most top-heavy division in terms of titles, with the Celtics and Knicks accounting for 19 of the 25 titles in our dataset; their respective tanking and competing windows are often mirror images in the graph, with only 4 years where they occupied the 1 and 2 spots at the same time

• The Celtics run of 6 straight division titles from 1999 to 2004 is the longest streak in league history

• The Heat are the only team in the league who have won an SLN title but not a division title

• The Nets have been perennial middle dwellers, with 19 finishes in spots 3 through 5 in the division

• While they still haven’t won the division yet, the change in the Magic’s Atlantic prospects from the Mitchell/ZW era to the Merv era has been a welcome sight to Orlando fans

The Central






Observations:

• Despite being #3 in aggregate GM/Team rankings, the Bulls trail the Raptors in division titles by 3, but have spent the most time in the top 2 spots in the Central and have finished with the best average position

• The Pistons have the fewest average season wins of any team in SLN - but let's chalk most of that up to Mikey and Avu's tumultuous tenures

• The Cavaliers are the only team in the league that have not earned a first or second place finish in their division – the Central is brutal!

If there's anything else you notice here, drop it in the comments - where big trades impacted team trajectories, etc!

[Merv]

Go Warriors

[Jesse]

Great article - very easy to visualize!

[Hoff]

Really puts into perspective the volatility

[Jordo]

its fun seeing a visual representation of when i turn into Boredo

[bobby]

whose bids do we need? oh just fuckin CALVIN'S?!

[bobby]

• The Clippers run of 5 straight last place finishes from 2007 to 2011 is the longest continuous stretch at the bottom of the division in league history – dark days

didn't need my spot blown up like this

[Tyler]

Joe and Nav collusion evidence

[pacers]

whose bids do we need? oh just fuckin CALVIN'S?!

is this the guy who dove the pacers in the gm rankings

[quady]

see if you can spot Jameer's career in the pacific graph