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The Final NBA Team Rankings For The 2008-09 Season
24th April, 2009 - 3:02 pm

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By Christopher Reina

Certainly by now most of you are already familiar with my Floor Impact Counter and Reina Value. (Please click here to familiarize yourself with the systems.)

I also use the FIC to calculate team totals, both by game and for the season.

In order to determine my team rankings, I have calculated the difference between a team's own FIC per game and their opponents' FIC for the entire season.

Team: 08-09 FIC Differential (Difference from last season)

1. Cleveland Cavaliers : 16.8 (+16.2)

The gigantic leap in the improvement of the Cavaliers from 07-08 to this season, as they went from 20th in offensive efficiency and 11th in defense jumped up to 4th and 3rd respectively. The impact and elevation of LeBron James' defensive game was infectious and seeped into the entire culture of their club.

2. Boston Celtics : 15.7 (-4.0)

The Celtics didn't have the same kind of wire-to-wire intensity as they did a season ago, which was as much related to age and injury as pure desire. They regressed defensively, but improved slightly on the offensive end and much of that is due to the emergence of Rajon Rondo.

3. L.A. Lakers : 13.1 (-1.3)

On the NBA's deepest teams, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom had seasons in which they forced us to look at their games through an entirely new prism.

4. Orlando Magic 13.0 (+6.0)

Dwight Howard became the most consistently impactful defensive player in the league this season.

5. Portland TrailBlazers: 11.6 (+12.5)

While playing the slowest pace in the NBA, Portland also had the best offensive rating, with 113.9 points scored per 100 possessions.

6. Utah Jazz : 9.2 (-6.9)

Though they finished as the eighth seed in the Western Conference, Utah had a better per game point differential than Dallas and New Orleans.

7. Dallas Mavericks : 7.1 (-2.2)

Jason Terry had an excellent season off the bench, while Dirk Nowitzki quietly had an excellent second half.

8. San Antonio Spurs : 7.1 (-1.7)

As the torch begins to come out of Tim Duncan's hands and into Tony Parker's, the point guard easily had his best offensive season, carrying a huge load as both a scoring creator and passing creator.

9. Denver Nuggets 7.1: (-0.8)

The influx of Chauncey Billups, Chris Andersen and healthy seasons from Nene and Kenyon Martin gave Denver a tie with the 87-88 team for their best regular season record ever.

10. Houston Rockets : 6.4 (-4.3)

Even though his commitment to the defensive end is up for much debate, Ron Artest helped maintain the Rockets high level of defensive efficiency again this season.

11. Phoenix Suns : 5.4 (-10.8)

While the Suns' pace and offensive efficiency ended up being just about the same as last season, they dropped to 26th in defensive rating from 16th.

12. New Orleans Hornets : 3.8 (-5.3)

Tyson Chandler went from +18 in overall efficiency in 07-08 to just +6 this season, David West's dropped from +5 to +2, but Chris Paul's stayed steady at +21.

13. Miami Heat : 2.6 (+18.2)

Despite the way they stress the defensive end of floor and quick perimeter defenders, Miami yielded a 38.9% from beyond the arc, which was third worst in the NBA and the worst mark for any team that made the playoffs.

14. Atlanta Hawks : 2.0 (+3.1)

With almost no exception, Atlanta was a much better club with Flip Murray on the floor, which really helped offset the loss of Josh Childress.

15. Philadelphia 76ers : 1.0 (+0.5)

At the age of 32, Andre Miller had his most efficient offensive season since his 2001-02 with Cleveland, which made the Clippers trade the draft rights to Darius Miles for him.

16. Detroit Pistons : 0.3 (-15.4)

Once a strength, the Pistons were considerably weaker up front than they have been over the past few seasons.

17. Chicago Bulls : -0.8 (+3.8)

Despite the excellent rookie season and the budding of the game's next great point guard, Derrick Rose had the worst defensive rating on the club.

18. Charlotte Bobcats : -1.6 (+6.8)

D.J. Augustin was +5 in overall efficiency, while rival Raymond Felton was -6 with his play on the offensive end being the principal difference-maker.

19. Milwaukee Bucks : -2.7 (+9.7)

The Bucks went from dead last in defense to 15th, which was a big factor in why Scott Skiles helped the club to a solid turnaround despite the injuries to Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd.

20. Indiana Pacers : -3.2 (+0.6)

Troy Murphy had a statistically impressive season and was +14 in overall efficiency, but it is hard to see how his rebounding total was inflated due to how ineffective he was on the offensive glass, even with how far from the basket he plays.

21. Toronto Raptors : -4.0 (-9.7)

From 82games.com, the five-man units of Bosh, Bargnani, Parker, Calderon plus Marion/Moon were a combined -88 for the season, which can't bode well under any circumstance when your most heavily used set of players are routinely outplayed.

22. New Jersey Nets : -6.6 (-0.6)

Devin Harris became a more talked about player this season simply because of his usage increase, as he arguably was a better offensive player (and clearly more effective defensively) in Dallas.

23. Golden State Warriors : -8.2 (-8.4)

The Warriors, decimated by injuries, didn't have a single unit play more than 85 minutes together this season, while most other clubs had at least one with 200 minutes and some (Charlotte and Philadelphia) had upwards of 800 minutes.

24. Oklahoma City Thunder: -10.2 (+6.0)

Improving his eFG% from .451 to .510, Kevin Durant's offensive rating went from 100 points per 100 possessions to 111 this season.

25. New York Knicks : -10.4 (+6.3)

Only Utah played fewer games decided by three or fewer points than the Knicks, who were 1-4 in said contests.

26. Memphis Grizzlies : -11.6 (+4.1)

The Grizzlies won just one game against the Northwest Division, a division which included the very beatable Wolves and Thunder.

27. Minnesota Timberwolves : -12.1 (+5.0)

Kevin Love had an incredibly productive season on the glass, but in terms of +/- contributions, he was a net on/off -2.8, while Al Jefferson, Randy Foye, and Sebastian Telfair each had positive numbers.

28. WashingtonWizards -16.0 (-12.8)

Opposing teams had an eFG% of .533 against Washington, which was dead last in the NBA.

29. L.A. Clippers -16.2 (-4.7)

Baron Davis turned 30 just as the season was ending and we'll see if he can bounce back from a season in which he had a 97 in points per 100 possessions after his career high of 111.

30. Sacramento Kings : -18.8 (-10.4)

Even though the Kings were 1-29 against the Eastern Conference, the Kings were a very respectable 7-9 within their own division.
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