The predictions and rankings below are from an email I received from Kyle Wright, author of the book The NBA from Top to Bottom, which undertakes the daunting task of ranking every single team in NBA history using a mathematical formula that has correctly predicted the champion 56% of the time. The 1970-71 Bucks are ranked No. 1 and the 1992-93 Mavericks are dead last.
(I'm not spoiling too much -- the interesting stuff is in the middle, such as his rankings of the most dominant teams never to win a title, the worst teams to ever stumble into a title, and, as our friends in Miami might be interested to learn about, the worst teams in NBA history to ever take the court.)
The book covers every NBA season through 2006-07, but Kyle updated his rankings to include this season below, as well as predict this season's eventual winner. His predictions for this year aren't all that encouraging for Pistons fans (his formula has the Pistons losing to the Celtics in the Conference Finals), but it's still food for thought, especially his updated rankings: he has Boston's run this year pegged as the seventh-most dominant season all-time, while Detroit's season ranks 63rd. Take it away, Kyle ...
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THE NBA FROM TOP TO BOTTOM’S 2007-08 PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
East first round: Boston over Atlanta; Detroit over Philadelphia; Orlando over Toronto; Cleveland over Washington
East semifinals: Boston over Cleveland; Detroit over Orlando
East finals: Boston over Detroit
West first round: Los Angeles Lakers over Denver; New Orleans over Dallas; Phoenix over San Antonio; Utah over Houston
West semifinals: Los Angeles Lakers over Utah; New Orleans over Phoenix
West finals: Los Angeles Lakers over New Orleans
NBA Finals: Boston over Los Angeles Lakers
THE NBA FROM TOP TO BOTTOM’S ALL-TIME RANKINGS FOR 2007-08 NBA TEAMS
All-time ranking (of 1,183) Team
7 Boston Celtics
44 Los Angeles Lakers
61 Utah Jazz
63 Detroit Pistons
124 New Orleans Hornets
142 Phoenix Suns
143 San Antonio Spurs
158 Orlando Magic
162 Houston Rockets
170 Dallas Mavericks
232 Denver Nuggets
339 Toronto Raptors
365 Golden State Warriors
580 Philadelphia 76ers
657 Cleveland Cavaliers
662 Washington Wizards
671 Portland Trail Blazers
799 Indiana Pacers
815 Sacramento Kings
834 Atlanta Hawks
912 Chicago Bulls
1000 Charlotte Bobcats
1031 New Jersey Nets
1069 Memphis Grizzlies
1092 Minnesota Timberwolves
1095 New York Knickerbockers
1104 Los Angeles Clippers
1109 Milwaukee Bucks
1141 Seattle Supersonics
1151 Miami Heat
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If you're interested in learning more about the book, visit iuniverse.com or sportsfromtoptobottom.com. And thank you to Kyle for the review copy as well as these updated rankings.