Category: Ranking

The most star-studded teams ever in NBA history

Using combined All-Star and All-NBA appearances, HoopsHype ranks the 40 most star-studded teams in NBA history.

Using combined All-Star appearances and All-NBA selections, we have ranked the Top 40 most star-studded teams in NBA history.

And guess what?

Simply putting together a roster full of stars historically hasn’t been a great way to win a championship, which is probably because due to the salary cap, a lot of those stars were past their primes at that point and playing on minimum deals. After all, how else could a team playing in a salary-capped league have so many stars on a single roster? So you end up with a lot of older stars past their primes on those star-studded teams, which can hurt team chemistry and lower the level of defending on the team.

The most star-studded team in NBA history, for example, the 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers, had 63 combined All-Star selections and 53 All-NBA selections on its roster, outrageously high marks.

The Lakers went 33-49 that year and missed the playoffs.

Out of the 40 most star-studded teams in NBA history, only 14 went on to win NBA championships. That’s 35 percent. And out of the Top 10 most star-studded teams in NBA history, only the ’73 Celtics and ’13 Heat, the latter led by three in-prime stars – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh – won the title.

For what it’s worth, and you can certainly use this in future GOAT debates if you want, not a single Michael Jordan team made the cut on this list, meaning Jordan never played on a team among the 40-most star-studded in NBA history.

Check out the complete list down below.

Where did the GOATs rank statistically during their time in the NBA?

HoopsHype presents where the greatest players of all time, like LeBron, Michael Jordan, Kobe and more, ranked in all statistical categories.

How dominant were NBA superstars during their years in the league? To shed some light on that, we put together a list of players showing where they ranked in the major statistical categories – points, rebounds and assists, as well as blocks and steals when possible – during their days in the NBA.

For example, during Wilt Chamberlain’s time in the NBA, he ranked first in points and rebounds. LeBron James? He ranks Top 2 in four different categories – the only player to accomplish that feat.

In this exercise, we only count the seasons in which these players competed. If they were retired (Michael Jordan), in the military (Paul Arizin), in the ABA or some other league (Rick Barry or George Gervin), or injured for a full season (say Kevin Durant in 2019-20), the seasons missed by those players were not factored in.

We went with the members of the HoopsHype78 list for this project. Check out our findings below.

NBA Power Rankings: Rampaging Cavs + X-Factors for each team

Welcome back to another installment of HoopsHype’s power rankings. Last time, we made New Year’s resolutions for each team . This week, we’ll look at an X-Factor for each team, someone or something that will have a disproportionate impact on their …

Welcome back to another installment of HoopsHype’s power rankings. Last time, we made New Year’s resolutions for each team. This week, we’ll look at an X-Factor for each team, someone or something that will have a disproportionate impact on their future success.

I take into account record, net rating, advanced metrics, a dash of recency bias, injuries, a little haruspicy, and common sense when doing these rankings, which is how I manage to make them objectively correct every time. I’m sure no one would disagree.

The trade deadline is less than a month away, so things might look different next time we do this.

The All-Stars that got away for each NBA team

HoopsHype ranks every single NBA team by the number of All-Stars each team has lost in its history, ranking from most to least.

At one time or another, every single NBA team has experienced heartbreak when a losing star player, or losing a player who ended up becoming a star somewhere else.

But that happens more often in some places than others.

To find out which team has lost the most star power in league history, we looked up every All-Star player ever, found the sum of All-Star appearances those players made after leaving their previous team, and divided that by the number of seasons each team has existed, to find the ratio of All-Star seasons lost per year for each team.

We then ranked every team by that number to find out which teams have lost the most All-Star seasons by former players ever.

Ranking: The Top 25 NBA players under 25 in 2024-25

HoopsHype ranks the Top 25 NBA players under the age of 25 nearing the halfway mark of the 2024-25 NBA season.

For a few years, NBA-related rankings tiering the Top 25 players under the age of 25 were a little uninteresting considering it was very obvious who was going to finish first every time, with that being Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic.

But with Doncic now over the age limit and out of the running to win the exercise this time around, the torch will have to be passed to someone else as far as who the best young player in the league is.

Below, check out our ranking of the Top 25 NBA players under the age of 25 for the 2024-25 season, at least how we see it.

Ranking: The youngest cores to win an NBA title

Sometimes young stars had talent so massive that more experienced squads couldn’t do anything to stop them from getting their hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy. Young cores like in 2001 when Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant steamrolled 50-plus teams …

Sometimes young stars had talent so massive that more experienced squads couldn’t do anything to stop them from getting their hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy. Young cores like in 2001 when Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant steamrolled 50-plus teams like the Duncan‘s Spurs and Webber‘s Kings, or Stephen Curry starting the Warriors’ dynasty in 2015 with the help of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Check out the ranking with the youngest championship cores down below.

(To select each team’s core, we went with the three players with the biggest statistical output during their championship runs in the playoffs).

Ranking: The players with the most games per season in NBA history

HoopsHype ranks the players who averaged the most games played per season in NBA history, playoffs included, to rank NBAs top iron men ever.

In this NBA era plagued by load management and resting during the regular season, it’s doubtful we’re going to see very many Iron Men. For instance, a player who played in 1,192 consecutive games appears on this list, and it’s hard to envision a modern player doing that.

Regardless, there is one active player – a star, at that – who finishes in the Top 10 of this ranking, who you’ll see just below.

Today, we added up games played between the regular season and playoffs to rank the players who appeared in the most games per season in NBA history.

Ranking: The oldest cores to win an NBA title

There’s an old saying: If you want to win the NBA championship, you need experience. Well, here are the teams who claimed the Larry O’Brien trophy having the oldest cores running the show. (To select each team’s core, we went with the three players …

There’s an old saying: If you want to win the NBA championship, you need experience. Well, here are the teams who claimed the Larry O’Brien trophy having the oldest cores running the show.

(To select each team’s core, we went with the three players who had the biggest statistical output during their championship runs in the playoffs).

Ranking: The Top 16 ‘What If’ players in NBA history

From Ralph Sampson to Drazen Petrovic to Derrick Rose, HoopsHype ranks the 15 biggest what-ifs in NBA history.

What if the youngest league MVP in NBA history never blew out his knee?

What if the No. 1 pick in the 2002 NBA draft, an international superstar from another major global market, didn’t see his prime end by the time he was 28?

What if the Boston Celtics dynasty of the ’80s had extended into the ’90s thanks to the No. 2 pick in the 1986 NBA draft?

What if the one-time all-time leading scorer in basketball had joined the NBA rather than spend his entire career playing at lower levels overseas?

The landscape of the NBA today could be so much different. It’s time we look at the biggest what-ifs in NBA history.

On Player of the Week awards, LeBron James is the GOAT by far

Since Julius Erving won the first NBA Player of the Week award back in 1979, many basketball greats have collected a huge number of weekly accolades from the league. But really, it’s not that close at No. 1. In his 22 seasons as a pro, LeBron James …

Since Julius Erving won the first NBA Player of the Week award back in 1979, many basketball greats have collected a huge number of weekly accolades from the league. But really, it’s not that close at No. 1.

In his 22 seasons as a pro, LeBron James has won the award an NBA record 68 times – which is more than No. 2 and No. 3 in the list combined. The league started naming one Player of the Week for each conference in 2001-02, which helps LeBron here. Then again, his numbers are staggering.

You can check the full ranking below…