All the teams in the тиф

The Hornets were supposed to be the Spirit, while the Grizzlies were almost named the Mounties. Why is a team in Los Angeles nicknamed the Lakers, and what's a team called the Jazz doing in Utah? Here's the story behind the nicknames of all 30 teams.

In 1948, the cities of Moline and Rock Island, IL, and Davenport, IA—collectively known as the Tri-Cities at the time—were awarded a team in the National Basketball League. The team was nicknamed the Blackhawks, who, like Chicago's hockey team, were named after the Sauk Indian Chief Black Hawk. When the team moved to Milwaukee in 1951, the nickname was shortened to Hawks. The franchise retained the shortened moniker for subsequent moves to St. Louis and finally Atlanta in 1968.

Team owner Walter Brown personally chose Celtics over Whirlwinds, Olympians, and Unicorns (yes, Unicorns) as the nickname for Boston's Basketball Association of America team in 1946. Despite the warnings of one of his publicity staffers, who told Brown, "No team with an Irish name has ever won a damned thing in Boston," Brown liked the winning tradition of the nickname; the New York Celtics were a successful franchise during the 1920s.

The New Jersey Americans joined the American Basketball Association in 1967 and moved to New York the following season. The team was renamed the New York Nets, which conveniently rhymed with Jets and Mets, two of the Big Apple's other professional franchises. Before the 1977-78 season, the team returned to New Jersey but kept its nickname. In 1994, the Nets were reportedly considering changing their nickname to the Swamp Dragons to boost its marketing efforts. The franchise relocated to Brooklyn in 2012.

The three finalists in the name-the-team contest for Charlotte's 2004 expansion franchise were Bobcats, Dragons, and Flight. Owner Bob Johnson was fond of BOBcats, but some of the league's players were less than impressed. "It sounds like a girls' softball team to me," Steve Kerr told reporters at the time. "I guess it shows there aren't many good nicknames left to be had." Perhaps Kerr was right. Bobcats became the Charlotte Hornets in 2014, reuniting the city with its previous NBA franchise's original nickname.

Where did Hornets come from? In 1987, George Shinn and his ownership group announced that Spirit would be the nickname of Charlotte's prospective expansion franchise. Fans voiced their displeasure, and it didn't help that some fans associated the nickname with the PTL Club, a Charlotte-based evangelical Christian television program that was the subject of an investigative report by the Charlotte Observer for its fundraising activities. Shinn decided to sponsor a name-the-team contest and had fans vote on six finalists. More than 9000 ballots were cast and Hornets won by a landslide, beating out Knights, Cougars, Spirit, Crowns, and Stars. Afterwards, Shinn noted that the nickname had some historical significance; during the Revolutionary War, a British commander reportedly referred to the area around Charlotte as a "hornet’s nest of rebellion."

The NBA has become a year round sport, as even the offseason is very entertaining as stars continue to shift from city to city at a more frequent rate. NBA starting lineups are tracked in real-time and scrutinized more than we've seen before. The combination of super teams form, or we see small market teams try and solidify what they have been building more carefully through the draft and smarter deals. Rosters consist of 15 players, but that can go up to 20 during the offseason, which some teams will cut down using their G-League contracts. This landing spot is where you can see each team’s roster build, which is updated with each move.

NBA Soft Cap System & Free Agency

The construction of NBA rosters differs across past champions. If you look at teams of the past, there are instances that feature a barrage of defensive talent or a deep bench filled with shooters. Combining the two forces is usually the most effective in roster construction, but the proof to a perfect answer is far from solidified. The current pace and performance of the league's talent pool is also something to take into consideration. The current NBA is more skill-based than it is fundamental. Players stuff the highlight reels and are limited to offensive play sets. They continue to run base offensive sets, but who needs defined play-calling when you have the likes of LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis in the league? There is only so much preparation and counter to a player's skill set in today's league, making roster construction a telling piece of longevity of a franchise.

A team is allotted the maximum of 15 players on the active roster. 1 of these players must be inactive, meaning he cannot play during a game on any given night, unless activated 24 hours prior to a contest. These slots are usually filled by players recovering from injury or veteran players who have run their course in the league. A good practice of depth is to roster at least one back-up for each position to feature the desired rotation of players. The remaining 5 spots can be filled with areas of weakness or counters to opposing competition. The Detroit Pistons of the past used their role spots to add players that weren't afraid to get physical or spark the team via vocal means. This is subjective across each team. The Miami Heat team that utilized most of their cap room to sign LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh filled their roster with league minimum, shooters. To each their own as they would say.

Speaking to the salary cap of the NBA, a differing breakdown is utilized when compared to other professional sports. The NBA operates on a soft cap, meaning they set a level that teams are allowed to exceed. For the 2018-19 NBA season, teams were capped at just under $102 million, a couple million higher than last year’s average. This amount is forwarded throughout every organization. Any amount the team spends over the cap is known as the luxury tax. Luxury tax affordances are different for each team. For example, a team spending $90 million on roster construction would have just over $30 million leftover for contract renewals and in-season signings. The NBA Roster salary cap for the 2019-20 season is $109 million and tax level of $132 million. Teams that exceed the luxury tax, take the New Orleans Pelicans at $117 million as example, will be afforded an additional amount of cap space. The team possesses homegrown talent in Anthony Davis, which can be used to increase the amount the team has to spend thanks to set ruling within salary affordances. A second influencer to going above and beyond this yearly amount is the deep pockets of ownership.

The collective bargaining agreement does keep teams within regulations, preventing super teams from building on a contractual basis. This has been stunted by teams who have found players willing to take salary cuts to play with guys they think can help win that team a championship. It is hard to regulate a league that revolves around one thing: winning a championship. There are many other complexities mixed into the NBA salary cap, such as an obligation to keep your fan base happy with local talent signings, signing veteran players, and other such stipulations. The cap is allowed to be broken in the NBA, leading to roster construction that allows teams to build around the mold they are looking for to define their franchise.

NBA Free Agency has become one of the more exciting parts of the NBA season, even though it comes right after the Finals. Each year on July 1st at midnight, the NBA Free Agency kicks off. The NBA has a salary cap, which is the same as the rest of the US major sports, outside of baseball. The reason this was set in place was that so teams wouldn’t just outspend every other team and this was supposed to create a more level playing field. Each year a salary cap is set in place which is based on the income of the league. This ranges from things like broadcast rights to concession sales. This gives a team a set amount of money to aim to stay under, and their current roster’s salaries will dictate how much they can spend in free agency. However, they go over

resulting in a luxury tax.

Now teams can start recruiting players to verbal agreements before the July 1st date, and the grey area of tampering is not followed that closely these days. A player can reach a verbal agreement with a team before the July date, and then officially sign when that date comes about. We have seen some chaos in the past during the month prior where a player has verbally agreed, and then backed out.

If you are an unrestricted free agent, this means you have the rights to sign anywhere without a team being able to match and retain your services. Becoming a restricted free agent usually happens when a first round pick is about to enter his fifth overall year. A non first round player who has been in the league for three years and then receives a qualifying offer at 125% or higher than his previous year’s salary will make him a restricted free agent. Now these restricted player’s teams will have a chance to work out a deal internally, or be able to match any team’s offer.

Now there is a thing called “Bird Rights” which stems from Larry Bird staying in Boston, which his contract exceeded the salary cap which was then allowed instead of having made Boston rework their entire roster to make it work. A player can make more money staying with a team, because there is an increase in his pay. This also encourages players staying with a small market team instead of moving to the larger markets.

There are also contracts that work like veteran minimums, where we see usually super teams fill out their roster with cheap names because they have devoted most of their salary cap to just a few players.

The salary grab has been rapidly growing with the rest of the league, and franchises are worth more now than they aver were before. You might be wondering how positions are paid, especially as we move into an era where guards are more important than ever. That is shown in how salary has been distributed. Point guards on average have taken up about 23% of team’s salaries. Shooting guards are at 21%, and small forwards are at 22%. Both power forwards and centers are below the 18% mark. This may not have been the case in the past, but it is now. However, it is worth noting that the average salary is higher for centers because the depth of them on a roster is not as high.

Some teams are devoting much more of their salary cap to the point guard position than others. Of course we look at Stephen Curry in Golden State, who is one of the higher paid point guards in the league. A James Harden in Houston is taking up over 40% of the salary cap on his own. If you are a star center, then you are getting paid, but only a few are making big enough money to make a dent in the salary cap. They are also being paid to suck up a majority of the minutes and not paying the backups much money.

If you are wondering what determines how a market is referenced as big or small, it has a lot to do with their market. Ticket sales, broadcast sales, and other various factors go into determining these labels. Looking at the smaller markets, we point to Memphis, New Orleans, Milwaukee, and Utah as some of the more popular smaller markets. We have seen them have success, but championships have largely been dominated by bigger markets. A team like Utah has a slight advantage over some of the others because they don’t have any other professional team to compete with. New Orleans has the Saints and a passionate following for their college football team, LSU. Memphis still has NFL at least nearby and a growing hockey fanbase as well within Nashville.

Hitting on draft picks becomes more important for small market teams, as that will give them control of their guys for the next four-five years before the chance of them parting ways occurs. This tends to happen more often, as the lure of a Los Angeles or Miami is always more lucrative for them. We saw this with Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans. Instead of letting him walkaway for free, the Pelicans shopped him around for the best possible return they could get. This is another way of staying competitive if you have a general manager who knows what he is doing.

Small market teams are at a disadvantage when it comes to free agency. The chances of landing that superstar are slim to none. You think Kevin Durant was going to sign with a Utah or Memphis? No, he ended up going to New York, although not the team all the Knicks fans believed he was going to. LeBron James moving to the Lakers and Heat in his free agency terms were partly because they could deploy a strong roster around him, but his image is too big for a smaller market team.

Landing those tier two and tier three free agents is a crucial part of a small market team having a chance of competing. Utah has been able to land a few free agents and have drafted well. They may not be the most notable names, but being competitive, Utah has done that of late. It makes you think if these teams like Memphis and Utah had the big market appeal, what they could do. Being well-coached and having savvy general managers who make it work with a little is quite impressive in comparison to just landing the superstars and filling out rosters with veteran minimums.

Correspondent II September 28, 2011 Comments Comment Bubble Icon

The sweetest and most triumphant moment for any NBA team is when a championship is won.

In the league’s 65-year history, 65 teams have had the honor of calling themselves the ultimate basketball winners of the world.

Whether it’s the ’65 Boston Celtics, ’87 Los Angeles Lakers or ’97 Chicago Bulls, there is no doubt that every championship-winning team embodied greatness.

However, how do the championship teams in the league’s history compare to one another? The thought is quite intriguing.

That’s why I compiled a list of the greatest teams in NBA history.

The list was difficult to create, and it’s more relative than absolute.

It was based largely on each team’s dominance in its particular year, rather than on the "which team would win" question.

Enjoy, and let your opinions be heard!

These teams were all great, but they barely missed the cut.

1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers

Led by Wilt Chamberlain, the Philadelphia 76ers won a league-high 68 games in the regular season before defeating the San Francisco Warriors in the NBA Finals.

2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were an unstoppable duo in the 2001-02 season. The pair led the Los Angeles Lakers to 58 wins before sweeping the New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals.

2007-08 Boston Celtics

The Big Three’s first year was an absolute success. After winning a league-high 66 games, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett won their first NBA championship, beating Kobe Bryant’s Lakers in the finals.

1972-73 New York Knicks

The 1972-73 New York Knicks were the embodiment of an absolute team. Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe and a series of role players were successful in the regular season, as they won 57 games. They then shocked the world by defeating the 68-win Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals before beating the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA championship.

Record: 62-18

The Boston Celtics are the greatest franchise in NBA history, largely because of the team’s display of sheer dominance in the 1960s.

The Celtics especially epitomized greatness in the 1964-65 NBA season.

Led by head coach Red Auerbach, legendary center Bill Russell (who averaged an astounding 24.1 RPG), shooting guard Sam Jones (who averaged team-high 25.9 PPG) and a young John Havlicek (who averaged 18.3 PPG), the Celtics finished the regular season with a 62-18 record—their record was not only the best in the league, but also the best in the team’s history up to that point.

The Celtics' regular season success translated into the playoffs, as they defeated Wilt Chamberlain’s Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division finals and Elgin Baylor and Jerry West’s Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

Many undermine the Celtics’ success because of the league’s lack of talent at the time. This is both unfair and unfortunate.

It’s vital to understand that winning a championship is difficult, no matter the competition, and the fact that Boston Celtics were able to win on such a consistent basis validates their place on this list.

Record: 67-15

Let me tell you now, this will not be the first time you’ll see a '90s Chicago Bulls team on this list.

Immediately after winning the franchise’s first title the year before, coach Phil Jackson’s Bulls cruised through the 1991-92 regular season, winning 67 games.

What’s even more significant, however, is how the Bulls played seamlessly as a unit.

Although Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen scored a majority of the points (51.1 PPG combined), both gave in to the triangle offense and worked to get other teammates involved.

In addition, each player on the roster knew his role and embraced it—Horace Grant was a rebounding machine, B.J. Armstrong, Craig Hodges and John Paxson were three-point specialists and Stacey King and Will Perdue provided a low-post presence, while Bill Cartwright provided veteran leadership.

The Chicago Bulls were truly dominant in the playoffs, sweeping the Miami Heat in the first round, battling the New York Knicks in the second round in one of the greatest playoff series in NBA history, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals and then repeating as world champions after defeating Clyde Drexler’s Portland Trail Blazers in the 1992 NBA Finals.

Record: 65-17

Julius Erving entered the 1982-83 NBA season as a 32-year-old veteran at the tail end of his career and without a NBA championship.

Erving was finally able to successfully climb the proverbial mountain, as he and the Philadelphia 76ers won the 1983 NBA championship.

Erving, however, didn’t do it alone—the team had a variety of productive players that contributed to success.

While Julius Erving, who averaged 21.4 PPG, and guard Andrew Toney, who averaged 19.7 PPG, provided offense, point guard Maurice Cheeks distributed the basketball.

Moses Malone was an offensive and defensive threat—not only did he grab 15 rebounds per game and block two shots per game, but he also scored 24 points per game.

The 76ers’ group of threats vanquished their opponents in the playoffs, sweeping the New York Knicks in the first round before beating the Milwaukee Bucks in five games. The team then impressively swept Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Los Angeles Lakers to take the title.

Record: 66-16

Oscar Robertson was near the end of his career entering 1970, and he still hadn’t achieved ultimate glory: an NBA championship.

The 1970-71 season marked a new beginning for Robertson, as he became a part of a young Milwaukee Bucks team.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Bucks’ superstar, established himself as a dominant force in the NBA in his rookie season.

The 1970-71 season was no different, as he continued to impose his will on all opponents, averaging 31.7 PPG and 16.0 RPG.

Robertson, the aging, walking triple-double, infused himself as a part of the team, as he masterfully distributed the ball to his teammates.

In addition, a young Bob Dandridge contributed 18.4 PPG and 8.0 RPG.

In the end, the Milwaukee Bucks proved to be too overwhelming for opposing teams, as they won 66 games.

The team had an equally impressive playoff run, as it defeated Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West’s Lakers in the Western Conference finals before sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals.

Finally, with the help of great players, Robertson was able to win a title.

Record: 69-13

The Chicago Bulls were most definitely the team of the '90s, and the 1996-97 squad attests to that.

Led by coach Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc, Luc Longley, Dennis Rodman and co. continued dominating opponents with their transcendent display of teamwork.

Jordan and Pippen continued to score in high volumes, while distributing the ball. Kukoc provided a unique threat as a tall jump-shooter. In addition, Rodman rebounded the ball with ease.

The team finished the regular season with 69 wins and went on to defeat Karl Malone and John Stockton’s Utah Jazz in one of the most memorable NBA Finals in history.

Record: 63-19

The 1988-89 Detroit Pistons are one of the most hated teams in NBA history because of their physical style of play.

However, there is no doubt that the Pistons were dominant—that surely cannot be taken away from them.

The Pistons were defensively adept—and that’s an understatement. They really epitomized defensive intensity.

Dennis Rodman, John Salley and Bill Laimbeer provided a strong defensive presence in the low post; they didn’t allow anyone to drive freely to the basket.

Meanwhile, Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars were great perimeter defenders. In fact, Dumars was widely known as one of the only players to give Jordan trouble on the offensive end.

The Pistons had multiple offensive threats too.

Thomas was a great penetrator and passer. Dumars was an excellent clutch and perimeter scorer. Laimbeer was an excellent three-point shooter, while Mark Aguirre also contributed a fair number of points.

The Pistons ended the '88-89 season with 63 wins and went on to defeat Larry Bird’s Celtics and Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the Eastern Conference playoffs before sweeping Magic Johnson’s Lakers in the finals.

Record: 69-13

When you look at the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers roster, you can understand why they were a great team.

Despite being loaded with transcendent offensive threats such as Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Gail Goodrich and Happy Hairston, the Lakers were able to successfully distribute the ball to each other.

As a result, the team dominated opponents and even won 33 games in a row from November to January, a record that still stands today.

The Lakers ended the season with a league-high 69 wins and later defeated the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.

Record: 67-15

Now we enter the top three greatest teams in NBA history.

The order of the top three was extremely difficult to decide, but in the end, I decided to place the 1985-86 Boston Celtics at the third spot—the list would surely be incomplete without them.

Let’s delve deeper into the Celtics’ terrific '85-86 season.

The season prior, the Celtics fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Thus, Larry Bird and the team were as motivated as ever to take the world title away from their hated enemy.

The regular season was full of success for the Celtics. Bird, who averaged 25.8 PPG, and Kevin McHale, who averaged 21.3 PPG, continued to embarrass defenders with their vast array of offensive moves.

Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge brought intensity to the team’s backcourt, while Robert Parish acted as a defensive machine.

The Celtics went on to win 67 games in the regular season before dominating the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Then the Celtics beat Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals to bring the title back to Beantown.

Record: 65-17

The Los Angeles Lakers’ 1985-86 season was a failure. After a successful 62-win regular season, they failed to make it to the NBA Finals, as they lost to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference finals.

Even worse, the Boston Celtics were the new champions of the world.

Thus, it’s easy to say that the Lakers desperately wanted to reclaim their throne.

The year prior, the Lakers had a great regular season in which they won 65 games. Magic Johnson led the team in scoring with 23.9 PPG and in assists with 12.2 APG. James Worthy began to embrace a larger role on the team, averaging 19.4 PPG. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar continued to show flashes of inside dominance, while Byron Scott, A.C. Green, Michael Cooper, Mychal Thompson and Kurt Rambis fulfilled their tasks as terrific role players.

The Lakers easily made it into the NBA Finals, where they played no other than the champions of the previous year, the Boston Celtics.

After a historic six-game battle, the Lakers were triumphant—they were champions yet again.

Record: 72-10

Here we have it. The greatest team in NBA history: the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.

The Chicago Bulls reached the epitome of their greatness, and really the epitome of greatness in general, in the 1995-96 NBA season.

In the 1994-95 season, the Chicago Bulls did not play to expectations, especially because Michael Jordan was off playing baseball. However, later in the season, Jordan made a surprise comeback.

However, his comeback didn’t significantly help the team’s fortunes, as they lost to the Orlando Magic in the second round of the playoffs.

Thus, entering the 1995-96 season, there was no doubt that Jordan and the Bulls were ready to bring a title back to the Windy City.

The Bulls continued to play as a team like in years past. Jordan carried the team in close games, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot.

In the end, the relentless Bulls finished the regular season with an NBA-record 72 wins.

The team cruised through the playoffs and beat Gary Payton’s Seattle SuperSonics to win another NBA title.

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