Which NBA Teams Have Been The Most Successful Since 2000?
A lot has happened since the year 2000 and while this may seem like yesterday for some, the NBA has changed drastically since then.
Ten different teams have won at least one championship in the last 23 seasons, fifteen different players have won at least one MVP award and we have seen new generations of talent enter the NBA and change the way the game is played.
Success is a hard thing to come by in the NBA… at least for those teams not named the San Antonio Spurs.
Look, I know they have missed the playoffs the last three seasons and they are a shell of what they used to be, but what they used to be from 2000-2019 was remarkable and this stretch of dominance is why they are the most successful NBA franchise since 2000.
Want further proof of this? Just check out ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry’s awesome analytical chart below that outlines the win percentages of every single NBA franchise over the last 23 seasons.
The Spurs have won just about 66.7% of the games they have played in this span and when you think about this in a big picture sense, this means that over the last 23 seasons, the Spurs have averaged a record over the course of a single season of about 54-28, 55-27 if you want to round up.
From 1998-2019, the Spurs did not miss a single postseason and during this run, they ended up winning five championships. One of the greatest dynasties and runs we will ever see in professional sports history, it is not surprising to see San Antonio listed as No. 1 on this chart outlining the most successful teams in the NBA since 2000 based on win percentage.
Going down the list, the Dallas Mavericks come in at No. 2 with a 59.6% win percentage, the Miami Heat come in at No. 3 with a 55.9% win percentage, the Utah Jazz come in at No. 4 with a 55.6% win percentage and the Boston Celtics round out the Top-5 with a 55.2% win percentage.
One other team posted a win percentage since 2000 that was above 55% and that was the Los Angeles Lakers, who come in at No. 6 on this list with a 55.2% win percentage.
None of these teams should really be surprises to anyone simply because all of them minus the Utah Jazz have won a championship since 2000. Not to mention, all of them have made the playoffs at least 15 times in this span.
Recency bias tends to play a major role in the minds of NBA fans, as they may see the Spurs as a rebuilding franchise right now and a team like the Jazz on the decline, but when you look at their numbers in the span outlined by this chart, it is clear to see that they have been some of the most dominant franchises in the league over the last 20-plus years!
I mean, we all consider the Golden State Warriors the greatest dynasty in sports right now after they just claimed their fourth championship in the last eight seasons, but since 2000, they have won just 50.5% of the games they have played.
Recency bias… it is a real thing that is the main reason why you may be confused seeing some of these teams where they are.
While the Warriors are still “in the green” in terms of being above a .500 win percentage, championship contenders like the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76es have only recently found success after years of struggles.
It is also worth mentioning that of all of the teams to have won a championships since 2000, only two of them have posted a win percentage in the red during this span. Those two teams are the Cleveland Cavaliers (2016) and the Toronto Raptors (2019) with both of their NBA Finals victories coming over the Golden State Warriors.
As much as it is interesting to look at the top teams since 2000, it is also interesting to evaluate those who have not been as successful and have really struggled to put together wins.
The fifth-worst team in the NBA based on win percentage since 2000 is the Atlanta Hawks, followed by the Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats being the fourth-worst, the Minnesota Timberwolves being the third-worst and the Washington Wizards being the second-worst.
Now, for the moment you all have been waiting for, even though you probably already saw it above, the New York Knicks are your worst team in the NBA over the last two decades.
Posting a win percentage of 41.8%, the Knicks have made the playoffs just 7 times in the last 23 seasons and they have posted a winning record just six different times.
The biggest thing one should take away from these numbers is not necessarily that the Spurs have reigned supreme and the Knicks have been “bottom-feeders” in the NBA, but that being a big market team does not necessarily equate to success.
The Spurs, Mavericks and Jazz are three of the Top-5 teams in the league since 2000, yet they are considered to be three smaller market teams compared to the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, all of which are in the red and below a .500 win percentage in this span.
New champions and contenders arise every single NBA season, but the one thing that remains constant for organizations is success and failure, two things you can see very clearly from Goldsberry’s chart.
