NBA Season 2025-26

[slamtheking]

60 wins for the Detroit Pistons

The Bad Boy Pistons with Zeke only won 60+ games once. They had 63 wins in 1989 and 59 wins in 1990. Their two best records.

The Wallace Bros & Chauncey and Rip had a 64 win season in 2006. The best record in franchise history. Also had a 59 win season in 2008.

Those 4 years are the only seasons in Detroit Pistons franchise history (78 years) that they have won more than 55 games. Only 4 times in team history. Only twice in franchise history have they won more than 60 games.

This team just achieved the 3rd best record in franchise history. Heck of an achievement.

The 2 Zeke teams won the title. The 2 Chauncey teams lost in the ECF (after winning a title in 2004 and finishing runner up in 2005). This team needs a title to be put alongside them ... but still, what an achievement by this Detroit Pistons group.

but not before the C's hang #19 (through #22 at least)

[Moranis]

Luka scored the most total points and had the second most total points/rebounds/assists combined (Jokic).  He played the 37th most minutes.

Luka had more minutes, more points, more rebounds, more assists, and more steals than SGA, yet SGA is going to win MVP and be on the 1st team, while Luka is ineligible. 

What a stupid rule. 

[Vermont Green]

Luka scored the most total points and had the second most total points/rebounds/assists combined (Jokic).  He played the 37th most minutes.

Luka had more minutes, more points, more rebounds, more assists, and more steals than SGA, yet SGA is going to win MVP and be on the 1st team, while Luka is ineligible. 

What a stupid rule.

Interesting.  I have always questioned why the NBA is focused on per game stats vs. total stats.  In baseball, it is a mix, some stats are just naturally going to be averages (such as FG%) but in baseball, it is who hit the most HR or had the most RBI.  Why not look at who had the most points and rebounds in the NBA?  Or consider both.  To me, the scoring title at least should be based on most points, not highest average points.

In this case though, I am fine with SGA winning MVP.  You could argue for Luka or Jokic or Wemby or even Cade.  There are arguments for any of them.  But I don't like the rule either.  Just let voters decide considering all factors, including games played and minutes

[Who]

Luka scored the most total points and had the second most total points/rebounds/assists combined (Jokic).  He played the 37th most minutes.

Luka had more minutes, more points, more rebounds, more assists, and more steals than SGA, yet SGA is going to win MVP and be on the 1st team, while Luka is ineligible. 

What a stupid rule.

Interesting.  I have always questioned why the NBA is focused on per game stats vs. total stats.  In baseball, it is a mix, some stats are just naturally going to be averages (such as FG%) but in baseball, it is who hit the most HR or had the most RBI.  Why not look at who had the most points and rebounds in the NBA?  Or consider both.  To me, the scoring title at least should be based on most points, not highest average points.

In this case though, I am fine with SGA winning MVP.  You could argue for Luka or Jokic or Wemby or even Cade.  There are arguments for any of them.  But I don't like the rule either.  Just let voters decide considering all factors, including games played and minutes

I always think of Kevin Garnett leading the league in most points scored in 2004. He was #1 with 1987 points and Peja was #2 with 1964. They both averaged 24.2ppg but Peja only played 81 games while KG played the full 82 games.

T-Mac got the scoring title with 28.0ppg but he played only 67 games so finished more than a hundred points behind KG with 1878.

Interestingly, Paul Pierce was 4th with 1836 points and 5th in points per game at 22.9ppg.

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Another one I think of is Wilt Chamberlain leading the league in assists. In 1968. He led the league with 702 assists. Lenny Wilkens was 2nd with 679 assists and Oscar Robertson was 3rd with 633 assists.

Oscar was #1 in assists per game though with 9.7 to Wilt's 8.6 assists per game [Lenny 8.3apg]. However, Oscar played only 65 games that season so Wilt beat him on total assists.

[Who]

3 - 60 win teams - OKC, SAS, DET

4 - 50 win teams in the East - DET, BOS, NY, CLE
5 - 50 win teams in the West - OKC, SAS, DEN, HOU, LAL + one 49 win team (MIN). 6 teams with near 50+ wins.

10 teams in the East with above .500 records
7 teams in the West with above .500 records + 2 teams with 42 wins / 40 losses. Slightly above .500 but 42 wins is more of a .500 team to me.

11 teams with sub .500 records. 5 in the East. 6 in the West.

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2 teams with under 20 wins. WAS 17 wins. IND 19 wins.
3 teams with 20-22 wins - BKN, UTA, SAC.
3 teams with 25-27 wins - MEM, DAL, NOP

2 teams low 30s wins - CHI 31 wins. MIL 32 wins.
1 team high 30s wins - GSW with 37 wins.

[Vermont Green]

3 - 60 win teams - OKC, SAS, DET

4 - 50 win teams in the East - DET, BOS, NY, CLE
5 - 50 win teams in the West - OKC, SAS, DEN, HOU, LAL + one 49 win team (MIN). 6 teams with near 50+ wins.

10 teams in the East with above .500 records
7 teams in the West with above .500 records + 2 teams with 42 wins / 40 losses. Slightly above .500 but 42 wins is more of a .500 team to me.

11 teams with sub .500 records. 5 in the East. 6 in the West.

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2 teams with under 20 wins. WAS 17 wins. IND 19 wins.
3 teams with 20-22 wins - BKN, UTA, SAC.
3 teams with 25-27 wins - MEM, DAL, NOP

2 teams low 30s wins - CHI 31 wins. MIL 32 wins.
1 team high 30s wins - GSW with 37 wins.

Yeah, I was looking at this and I look at it a little differently, but leading, I think, to the same conclusion.  In the East, there are 10 teams with 43 wins or more, the teams that actually tried.  MIA is 10th with the 43 wins.  The the 11th best team (MIL) only has 32 wins.  11 wins separates the teams that tried from the teams that tanked.

In the west it is similar but GSW are kind of an exception.  They tried, but were legitimately decimated by injuries.  Excluding GSW (37 wins), there were 9 teams with 42 wins or more and then it drops to NOP with only 26 wins.  So 16 wins separating the teams that tried from the teams that didn't.

I don't know how to fix this.  I don't think changing the lottery will change anything.  The three best teams currently (by wins), all got there by tanking and drafting (OKC, SAS, and DET).  The only team that has a case that they are not tanking is NOP.  NOP inexplicably traded their pick away so there is no benefit to them to tank.  Yet they still only managed 26 wins.

[Moranis]

In the expansion thread I proposed a schedule that I think would help some with the last couple of weeks of the season.  This would work when Seattle and Las Vegas join the league taking the NBA to 32 teams.

So you have 2 conferences, no divisions.

So each conference plays 2 games against each of the other conference - so 32 games

Every team plays the other 15 teams in their conference 3 games - 45 games

So every team in the conference plays the same schedule.  Nobody gets to prey on weaker teams.  This also sets up well for what I'd do with the 5 additional games.  My proposal was to essentially flex the last 5 games into something like this.

You lock all teams into the following 5 tiers.  Teams cannot change tiers. 

1-6 in each conference are together in 2 conference specific tiers.  You play each of the other 5 teams in your tier. the 5 games are added to your record for seeding. As indicated above, no team can fall out of this tier, but they can move up or down.

7-12 in each conference are together in 2 conference specific tiers.  You play each of the other 5 teams in your tier.  Here I might tinker with the seeding some to ensure that all 6 teams in each tier can make at least the play in (like if the 12 seed goes 5-0, they should get a shot at the play in even if their record wouldn't dictate they should).

13-16 from each conference are in an 8-team tier.  You would play 5 random teams from the tier.  I'd make it so all 8 teams in the tier have the same lottery odds and thus the organization has no incentive to lose more games.  Perhaps you give the players on the top 2 teams from this some sort of bonus compensation to further incentivize them to try.

I think doing that would add some excitement to the last couple weeks of the season and would essentially have teams playing each other that are roughly the same skill level and goals for the season.

[Goldstar88]

 

Davis reiterated Monday that he wants to have in-depth conversations with Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins over the next few months to learn whether team officials have a concrete plan to compete for a championship either next season or during the 2027-28 season.
New York Times

[Phantom255x]

 

Davis reiterated Monday that he wants to have in-depth conversations with Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins over the next few months to learn whether team officials have a concrete plan to compete for a championship either next season or during the 2027-28 season.
New York Times

I mean, if they say no is he gonna demand a trade? He's literally in Washington because no one realistically wanted him and his contract due to his injury history 

Unless they find a disgruntled star on another team that could be dealt (similar to the Trae Young situation) but again, guys like Ja Morant and Zion come to mind. Those teams contending? Nope.

[Who]

Top 5 finishes in offensive efficiency & defensive efficiency

BOS = 2nd in offense, 4th in defense
SAS = 5th in offense, 3rd in defense

Top 10 finishes in off eff & def eff

OKC = 7th in off, 1st in def
DET = 10th in off, 2nd in def
NYK = 3rd in off, 8th in def

The top 5 & top 10 ratings for off & def are good predictors of title winners. The article says 70% of title winners since 1980 have had these indicators.

Net Rating

Those 5 teams are also the top 5 in net rating

#1 OKC +11.2
#2 SAS + 8.3
#3 DET +8.2
#4 BOS +8.1
#5 NYK +6.5

Interesting, the 3 teams in the middle all packed together. No real difference between them. OKC way out in front. NYK trailing the pack.

#6 HOU +5.4
#7 DEN +5.2
#8 CHA +5.0
#9 CLE +4.1
10 MIN +3.3

I am surprised Minnesota and Cleveland are so low. Well maybe not CLE. They have had a rough season. Played well below expectations. I still see them as the most dangerous team in the East outside of Boston. I trust Charlotte more than NY. I have CHA as the 4th best team in the East.

Also interesting to see the top 3 teams there - HOU, DEN, CHA - all clumped together. I see them as on the same level as NYK in 5th place. Those 4 teams as a tier. DEN are artificially low due to injuries. They would rank higher otherwise alongside the SAS, BOS, DET tier.

Next 5 teams - TOR, ATL, MIA, LAL, PHX.

That has got to hurt Miami. 12th in net rating. Still only 10th in the East. In the play-in. They did finish ahead of 3 teams in the West play-in for W-L with a 43-39 record. Still, only 17th in the league in W-L relative to 12th in net rating. TOR, ATL, MIA were +2.9, +2.4, +2.2.

2 more teams had a positive net rating - LAC & ORL. They had a +1.2 and +0.6 net rating respectively. LAL, PHX, LAC are all close together. +1.8, 1.5, +1.2 respectively. ORL further back from the pack.

The 3 other play-in teams had a negative net rating - PHI, POR, GSW. Only slight negative though at -0.1, -0.3, -0.6 respectively.

Tankers

Huge drop-off after that.

21 NOP -4.5
22 CHI -5.1
23 DAL -5.3
24 MEM -5.9
25 MIL -6.4

26 IND -7.9
27 UTA -8.2

28 SAC -10.1
29 BKN -10.3
30 WAS -11.7

Interesting IND is 5th worse in net rating but 1 of only 2 teams to finish with sub 20 wins. They had a lot of bad luck in close games early in the season before they gave up on the year entirely.

I also find it interesting that Utah is so low despite having Markkanen and Keyonte George. That doesn't make sense to me. The rest of their rotation must be filled with garbage. I'll have to take a closer look at that. They could be a situation like DET 2 years who lost 60 games because their team's rotation was packed with 3rd stringers / non-NBAers. Once they replaced them with legit rotation caliber talent, DET were a ~45 win team. UTA could see a similar bounce. I don't know. Need to check. Just a hunch at this point.

[Celtics2021]

 

Davis reiterated Monday that he wants to have in-depth conversations with Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins over the next few months to learn whether team officials have a concrete plan to compete for a championship either next season or during the 2027-28 season.
New York Times

Does Davis have a concrete plan to remain healthy from October to June?

[Moranis]

Cleveland has played 0 games this year with their full rotation available, but they are tracking to have everyone available for game 1 on Saturday. They also have a top ten defensive and offensive rating against the 10 best teams this year.  They coasted more against the middle and bottom of the league bringing their overall rating down. 

So if they are truly healthy and they do stay focused, they should at least make the ECF as they have a deeper team than the Pistons and way more talent than the Raptors or whoever the 8 seed ends up as.  I don't think they are a good matchup for Boston though. I'd expect Boston to win that series if they do end up playing in the ECF, but anyone else Cleveland should be favored. 

[Who]

Cleveland has played 0 games this year with their full rotation available, but they are tracking to have everyone available for game 1 on Saturday. They also have a top ten defensive and offensive rating against the 10 best teams this year.  They coasted more against the middle and bottom of the league bringing their overall rating down. 

So if they are truly healthy and they do stay focused, they should at least make the ECF as they have a deeper team than the Pistons and way more talent than the Raptors or whoever the 8 seed ends up as.  I don't think they are a good matchup for Boston though. I'd expect Boston to win that series if they do end up playing in the ECF, but anyone else Cleveland should be favored.

Why do you think that?

I am having trouble telling who should be favoured in a Celtics vs Cavs matchup. I see them as the 2 top teams by far in the East.

[Donoghus]

It's a little wild that the Raptors & Cavs played each other 3 times this season but their last game was on November 24th.  That was before Thanksgiving.

[Roy H.]

Cleveland has played 0 games this year with their full rotation available, but they are tracking to have everyone available for game 1 on Saturday. They also have a top ten defensive and offensive rating against the 10 best teams this year.  They coasted more against the middle and bottom of the league bringing their overall rating down. 

So if they are truly healthy and they do stay focused, they should at least make the ECF as they have a deeper team than the Pistons and way more talent than the Raptors or whoever the 8 seed ends up as.  I don't think they are a good matchup for Boston though. I'd expect Boston to win that series if they do end up playing in the ECF, but anyone else Cleveland should be favored.

Why do you think that?

I am having trouble telling who should be favoured in a Celtics vs Cavs matchup. I see them as the 2 top teams by far in the East.

Based upon how Harden played against us in 2023 in the playoffs, I'm not all that worried about Cleveland.  Maybe I'm whistling past the graveyard here, but he had games where he was 2-for-14, 3-for-14, 4-for-16 and 3-for-11.  He had two good games, out of seven.

Mitchell scares me more, but we match up with them very well.