Objectively Ranking the Most Successful NBA Franchises

TOP 5 MOST SUCCESSFUL NBA FRANCHISES

1. Los Angeles Lakers – 430 pts.
The Lakers have won the NBA finals a 16 times, with the most recent coming in 2010. The team won 5 championships in both the 1980’s with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and in the 2000’s with Kobe Bryant. However, since 2013, the team has not even made the playoffs.

2. Boston Celtics – 392 pts.
The Celtics have won the NBA finals a record 17 times, with the nine of them coming in the 1960’s. However, the team has only been to the NBA finals 21 times, with the most recent coming in 2010. The Celtics have also qualified for the playoffs in the last five consecutive years.

3. Philadelphia 76ers – 184 pts.
The 76ers have only won three NBA finals, two in Philadelphia and one in Syracuse. However the team went to six other NBA finals, most recently in 2010. The franchise was especially successful early in its history, making the playoffs in every year before 1970.

4. Golden State Warriors – 175 pts.
The Warriors have won six NBA finals, with three coming recently in 2015, 2016, and 2018. The team also went to the NBA finals five other times. However, for long stretches of the franchise’s history the team didn’t even make the playoffs.

5. San Antonio Spurs – 156 pts.
Most of San Antonio’s success has come recently, since 1999, the team has went to six NBA finals, winning five of them with forward Tim Duncan. The franchise has been consistently good, missing the playoffs only five times in its history. In fact, the last time the team missed the playoffs was in 1997.

FULL LIST

1	Los Angeles Lakers	430
2	Boston Celtics	392
3	Philadelphia 76ers	184
4	Golden State Warriors	175
5	San Antonio Spurs	156
6	Detroit Pistons	156
7	Chicago Bulls	150
8	New York Knicks	138
9	Atlanta Hawks	126
10	Houston Rockets	98
11	Miami Heat	88
12	Washington Wizards	82
13	Milwaukee Bucks	82
14	Portland Trailblazers	81
15	Cleveland Cavaliers	78
16	Sacramento Kings	75
17	Phoenix Suns	72
18	Seattle Sonics	68
19	Utah Jazz	65
20	Indiana Pacers	64
21	Dallas Mavericks	55
22	Denver Nuggets	40
23	Brooklyn Nets	39
24	Orlando Magic	37
25	Toronto Raptors	32
26	Oklahoma City Thunder	26
27	Los Angeles Clippers	21
28	Memphis Grizzlies	15
29	Charlotte Hornets	14
30	Minnesota Timberwolves	12
31	New Orleans Pelicans	9

Updated as of 09/27/2019

POINTS RUBRIC

16 pts – NBA Champions
8 pts – Conference Champions
4 pts – Appearance in Conference Championship
2 pts – Appearance in Conference Semi-Finals
1 pts – Appearance in the First Round of the playoffs