Best Starting Lineups

Since starting lineups generally offer a team's best configuration of players (unless you are San Antonio) and get to play against the opponent's best players (at least for the first part of any game), I thought it would be a good idea to examine each NBA team's starting lineup. These rankings are based on the difference between offensive and defensive efficiency while a team's starting lineups are in the game. Without further ado, a ranking of the best NBA starting lineups:

Boston Celtics.............19.47
Los Angeles Lakers.........15.84
Golden State Warriors......14.60
Phoenix Suns...............12.63
Detroit Pistons............11.94
New Orleans Hornets........11.02
Dallas Mavericks...........10.88
Toronto Raptors............10.45
Houston Rockets.............5.97
San Antonio Spurs...........5.31
Chicago Bulls...............5.29
Sacramento Kings............4.85
Utah Jazz...................4.60
Cleveland Cavaliers.........3.38
Denver Nuggets..............2.68
LEAGUE AVERAGE..............2.65
Orlando Magic...............2.40
Washington Wizards..........2.07
Portland Trailblazers.......2.00
Atlanta Hawks...............0.46
Philadelphia 76ers.........-0.27
Minnesota Timberwolves.....-0.99
Indiana Pacers.............-1.90
New Jersey Nets............-2.08
Los Angeles Clippers.......-3.00
Charlotte Bobcats..........-3.93
Milwaukee Bucks............-4.82
Miami Heat.................-5.50
Seattle Supersonics........-9.16
Memphis Grizzlies.........-13.34
New Yorks Knicks..........-21.20

There are some interesting things to note about these numbers.

The two best starting lineups in the league also were the two teams that made it into the NBA finals. There was, however, a difference in how the two top teams used their starting lineups -- Boston's starting five played together for 2043 offensive possessions over the course of the season while the Lakers starting lineup (both the lineup used before and after the Gasol Heist) only played together for 1320 possessions.

The Nuggets have a league average starting lineup. There is nothing wrong with a league average starting lineup if your desire is to finish 41-41. A league average starting lineup does not hurt you (if you purport to be a "championship level" team) if you do not use that lineup for very long and you have a tremendous bench. The Nuggets use their starting lineup way too often for how poorly it performed. Their starting lineup played together for 1919 possessions, 23% of the Nuggets total possessions. The Nuggets other lineup formulations had a rating of +3.65, almost a full point better than their starting lineup. This suggests that the Nuggets had better lineup formulations on which to use such a high percentage of their possessions.

For instance, if the Nuggets had switched Eduardo Najera and J.R. Smith in for K-Mart and AC, that lineup's rating is +18.29 (remember, though, that this was probably achieved against lesser lineups). If you give this new starting lineup (Melo, AI, Camby, JR and Eddie Energy) the 1919 possessions used by the actual starting lineup and give the actual starting lineup the minutes used by what we are now calling our starting lineup, the Nuggets have a point differential of +6.77 per game. This is equivalent to that of a 57-58 win team (enough to win the Western Conference this year). Obviously, this is a little over-simplified, but it does demonstrate that use of a high percentage of possessions on a worthless lineup is a bad idea and can cost a team essential wins.

For those who supported eiher the Jason Kidd trade or the Shaq trade, I can only let you know that the trades were horrible for the Suns and the Mavericks (although you probably didn't need me to tell you that). The Mavericks' pre-Kidd starting lineup rating was +14.63 and after the trade it was +7.82. For the Suns, the pre Shaq rating was a whopping +16.71 and after the trade it was +6.70. As a Nuggets fans, this is encouraging because both of these teams figure to be significantly worse next year (and the Nuggets, presumably, won't waste 4100 possessions on AC at point guard).