Much was made about Golden State Warriors winning the championship while having the biggest payroll in the NBA this year, but it’s actually only the fifth time since 1990 that the team with the highest payroll won the championship that same year, per our research. The other highest-spending champions since 1990 were the Bulls (1997 and 1998), Lakers (2010) and Cavaliers (2016).
At the same time, there’s no denying big spenders tend to have more on-court success than teams with low-spending owners.
But to what extent?
For that purpose, we compiled data on where teams ranked in player salaries each year since 1990 and how well they performed on the court.
We awarded every team an NBA rank for each season based on how far they made it to the playoffs and their regular-season record. A champion obviously gets first place while the runner-up gets second. No. 3 goes to the loser of the Conference Finals who had the best regular-season record and No. 5 to the second-round loser with the best regular-season record – and so on.
We averaged out the numbers and ranked the teams by who had the best bang for their buck. Unsurprisingly, franchises with reputations for being well-managed rank in the Top 3 while turmoil-ridden clubs who have often spent frivolously and without a plan rank near the bottom.
Fine, we’ll just come right out and say it: The New York Knicks finished last in these rankings. Anyone shocked?
Check out the rest of the results below.