Every year, ESPN runs a segment called “NBA Rank,” where they rank the top 500 players in the NBA.  They are in the midst of this process right now, and before the final results are divulged, I thought it might be a good time to take a peek at last year’s results and see if there are any patterns that emerged.

In 2012, 104 voters from various media outlets ranked each player on a scale of 1 to 10, and the players were assorted based on their average score.  I compiled the data from each team into a painfully big spreadsheet and listed the top 12 ranked players on each team (besides Phoenix, who only had 11 listed players).

There were trades that happened at various times during the season, but in the interest of time and my sanity, I decided not to obsess over changing the information. I did alter Houston and Oklahoma City’s numbers by switching James Harden, Jeremy Lamb, and Kevin Martin to their proper teams (the ones they played with during the season).

The table reads fairly easily.  Atlanta’s top-ranked player from 2012 was Al Horford, who was ranked 30th.  Their next highest, Josh Smith, was 31st. Etc, etc.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Atlanta	30	31	88	108	109	186	196	223	319	397	398	457
Boston	12	21	29	81	97	106	116	172	247	300	340	389
Brooklyn	10	33	60	70	84	148	230	237	249	254	415	417
Charlotte	128	146	154	184	199	222	253	260	283	317	416	440
Chicago	5	36	37	67	82	187	188	225	276	302	329	356
Cleveland	22	74	200	208	250	255	271	293	299	345	363	385
Dallas	11	85	90	92	98	113	159	185	204	212	301	339
Denver	28	48	54	71	77	93	94	203	220	269	274	337
Detroit	49	103	144	177	206	221	241	244	245	262	277	407
Golden State	40	45	59	124	135	161	179	180	181	284	334	370
Houston	26	78	99	152	175	231	280	290	311	318	321	324
Indiana	35	39	56	75	87	147	174	246	251	275	405	408
L.A. Clippers	4	14	86	110	111	114	122	126	130	308	316	346
L.A. Lakers	3	6	15	19	137	156	219	239	248	350	351	358
Memphis	24	32	34	65	66	168	195	197	314	315	344	359
Miami	1	8	18	64	104	107	129	209	236	252	256	257
Milwaukee	46	61	72	136	153	166	213	226	227	273	295	333
Minnesota	7	47	79	105	133	134	139	145	194	270	298	353
New Orleans	38	50	62	169	224	258	261	272	285	328	425	452
New York	17	23	43	127	132	138	157	167	173	176	325	437
Oklahoma City	2	9	41	76	100	117	120	190	267	286	306	343
Orlando	80	102	115	141	143	192	214	259	282	304	365	378
Philadelphia	13	73	91	118	119	121	165	182	232	332	375	400
Phoenix	57	68	83	140	158	191	235	238	296	322	369
Portland	20	63	109	202	211	268	330	338	357	373	401	409
Sacramento	42	69	131	150	178	189	215	228	263	264	305	313
San Antonio	16	25	27	95	149	151	155	160	162	171	198	309
Toronto	51	58	96	112	164	207	217	233	234	278	307	376
Utah	44	53	89	123	125	163	201	205	242	310	323	380
Washington	52	55	101	142	170	218	266	279	281	292	360	384

My interest in making this table was seeing if there were any trends involving playoff teams. The Pelicans have made it very clear that the playoffs are their goal this season, and the majority of my analysis this offseason has been geared towards figuring out if there is any evidence supporting the idea that they can make it.  As of now, 5 of the top Pelican players have yet to be ranked, and before these players’ ranks are revealed, I thought it’d be good to develop an understanding of good patterns to look for.  Here is what I found.

Trend 1: Having a top 10 player

Qualifiers: Miami, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota, Brooklyn, Chicago, and the Los Angeles Lakers

Success rate: 85.7% (or 83.3% if you exclude the Bulls)

6 of the 7 NBA teams with a top 10 player made the playoffs. The exception? The injury-riddled Timberwolves, whose best player, Kevin Love, missed almost the entire season.  It is also notable that Chicago’s only top 10 player, Derrick Rose, missed the entire season.

Trend 2: Having 3 players in the top 50

Qualifiers: San Antonio, New York, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Miami, Boston, Chicago, and the Los Angeles Lakers

Success rate: 100%

Each of these teams made the playoffs.

Memphis traded one of its top 50 players, Rudy Gay, roughly halfway through the season.  Take that for what you will.

Trend 3: Having 4 players in the top 100

Qualifiers: San Antonio, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Miami, Indiana, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Brooklyn, and Boston

Success rate: 90%

The only qualifier in this category that didn’t make the playoffs was Dallas, whose best player, Dirk Nowitzki, missed 29 games (noticing a trend here?) and was working himself back into form much of the season.  Dallas missed the playoffs by 4 games.

Visual Aid

It is a lot easier to see the trends with some visual aid, and here is the picture that I used to help me out. The numbers are a little harder to see here than they are in the table above, but the colors are easy to pick out.

Color keys:

Green: Players 1-10
Blue: Players 11-50
Yellow: Players 51-100

Conclusion

These trends are not meant to give exact percentages of what to expect with NBA rank. Rankings are subjective and the NBA is a fluid league, and I’m not trying to say that any of these trends are an absolute, end-all-be-all indicator of who is making the playoffs and who isn’t. There are plenty of factors in play, such as coaching, chemistry, health, etc.  Ranking the top 500 players is anything but an exact science, and the parameters that I defined (top 10, 50, 100) are, well, arbitrary. But these patterns were very clear from the data and are at least another set of lenses with which we can view this upcoming season.

I realize that the correlation of teams with better players (in this case, higher-ranked) and success is obvious.  But the NBA is a star-driven league, and role players tend to be somewhat interchangeable.  This is why I was more concerned with the organization of the top players from each team than, for instance, the team with the lowest sum from its top 12 players’ ranks. If anything, this is just a fun look at an exercise that generates a lot of interest from fan bases across the nation.