← NBA seasons

1974-75 NBA season

18 teams · 32 weeks · through 1975-05-25 · Elo from the project workbook

Golden State Warriors won the title. The season's highest rating belonged to Boston Celtics, at 1629.

Jump to any season1946-472026-27

The race

Elo rating by week. Higher is stronger; 1500 is average.

How this is measured

Elo moves after every game by how surprising the result was and by how big the margin was, damped so a blowout by a heavy favourite counts for less than the same blowout by an underdog. One pool per season, so the ratings are comparable across the whole league but not across eras.

Week 0 is the preseason seed, carried over from the previous season and adjusted by hand for the roster as it stands. It is an input to the season, not a result of it.

full season
CelticsBulletsWarriorsBulls18 of 18 shown · tap or drag any point for that week · tap a line to lock it

Tap or drag on the chart: the nearest team's rating that week.

The table

Where every team stood, scrubbed to the week above.

How this is measured

Three records, because they are three different things. Regular season is the 82-game year and is what the seeding comes from. Playoffs is the postseason run, blank for a team that did not make it, which is not the same as 0-0. Total is the two added together. The Elo column keeps moving through the postseason, so a team can climb after its regular season has finished.

1
Boston CelticsConf. Finals
60-22 +6-5 · Atlantic · seed 1
1629
+2 yr
2
60-22 +8-9 · Central · seed 2
1621
+84 yr
3
48-34 +12-5 · Pacific · seed 1
1572
+50 yr
4
Chicago BullsConf. Finals
47-35 +7-6 · Midwest · seed 2
1548
-7 yr
5
49-33 +3-4 · Atlantic · seed 3
1539
+49 yr
6
38-44 · Midwest
1511
-140 yr
7
41-41 +3-5 · Central · seed 4
1492
+39 yr
8
44-38 +2-4 · Midwest · seed 3
1481
+46 yr
9
38-44 · Pacific
1478
+120 yr
10
43-39 +4-5 · Pacific · seed 4
1477
+39 yr
11
40-42 +1-2 · Atlantic · seed 5
1471
-52 yr
12
40-42 +1-2 · Midwest · seed 5
1461
-113 yr
Show all 18 teams
13
40-42 · Central
1448
+58 yr
14
32-50 · Pacific
1407
-11 yr
15
31-51 · Central
1401
-27 yr
16
34-48 · Atlantic
1401
+71 yr
17
30-52 · Pacific
1400
-129 yr
18
23-59 · Central
1324

The postseason

Every series, round by round, with the seeds that met.

How this is measured

Rounds run left to right in the order they were played. The field, the number of rounds and the series length have all changed repeatedly, so the shape here is whatever that season actually had rather than a modern bracket imposed on it. From 2020 the play-in sits below the bracket: those games decided who entered, so a team beaten there did not have a playoff run.

Warriors won the 1975 title.

The honours

Who won what, and who was picked.

How this is measured

Every other section on this page is a club. These are the people: the individual awards, the All-NBA teams and the All-Star selections, all as the workbook records them. A player’s All-Star entry carries which appearance it was for them, so a seventh selection reads differently from a first.

Awards

All-NBA

1st Team All NBA
2nd Team All NBA

All-Star game

Arizona Veteran's Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix · MVP Walt Frazier

Walt FrazierMVPKnicks · #6
Artis GilmoreColonels · #4
Billy PaultzNets · #3
Bob McAdooBraves · #2
Brian TaylorNets · #1
Dan IsselColonels · #5
Dave CowensCeltics · #4
Dave TwardzikSquires · #1
Show all 45 selections
Earl MonroeKnicks · #3
Elvin HayesBullets · #7
Freddie LewisSpirits · #4
Jo Jo WhiteCeltics · #5
John HavlicekCeltics · #10
Julius ErvingNets · #4
Larry KenonNets · #2
Louie DampierColonels · #7
Marvin BarnesSpirits · #1
Paul SilasCeltics · #2
Phil ChenierBullets · #2
Rudy TomjanovichRockets · #2
Steve Mix76ers · #1
Stew JohnsonSounds · #3
Wes UnseldBullets · #5
Bob DandridgeBucks · #2
Bob LanierPistons · #4
Caldwell JonesConquistadors · #1
Charlie ScottSuns · #5
Dave BingPistons · #6
Gail GoodrichLakers · #5
George GervinSpurs · #2
George McGinnisPacers · #3
James SilasSpurs · #1
Jim PriceBucks · #1
Kareem Abdul-JabbarBucks · #6
Mack CalvinNuggets · #5
Mike GreenNuggets · #1
Moses MaloneStars · #1
Ralph SimpsonNuggets · #4
Rick BarryWarriors · #9
Ron BooneStars · #3
Sam LaceyKings · #1
Spencer HaywoodSupersonics · #5
Swen NaterSpurs · #2
Tiny ArchibaldKings · #2

The best games

The 20 highest-rated games of the season, best first.

How this is measured

Game Score is a composite rating of how good a game was to watch, built from how close it finished, how much the result went against the odds, how far the ratings moved, what was at stake and how highly rated both sides were. It is roughly zero-centred, so an average game sits near zero and anything past two is rare. It is the same metric the all-time and by-decade boards use, so a game keeps the same score wherever it appears.

1
25 May 75 · NBA Finals
96-95
1.96
2
9 May 75 · Conf. Finals
103-99
1.77
3
11 May 75 · Conf. Finals
98-92
1.77
4
14 May 75 · Conf. Finals
83-79
1.65
5
18 May 75 · NBA Finals
101-95
1.63
6
27 Apr 75 · Conf. Finals
100-95
1.57
7
20 May 75 · NBA Finals
92-91
1.57
8
23 Apr 75 · Semifinals
102-96
1.45
9
23 May 75 · NBA Finals
109-101
1.42
10
6 May 75 · Conf. Finals
111-106
1.24
Show all 20 games
11
7 May 75 · Conf. Finals
119-108
1.21
12
22 Apr 75 · Semifinals
122-117
1.14
13
30 Apr 75 · Conf. Finals
90-89
1.13
14
18 Apr 75 · Semifinals
108-102
1.12
15
20 Apr 75 · Semifinals
97-93
1.12
16
121-115OT
1.08
17
3 May 75 · Conf. Finals
101-90
1.07
18
11 May 75 · Conf. Finals
86-72
1.07
19
4 May 75 · Conf. Finals
108-101
1.06
20
8 May 75 · Conf. Finals
89-79
1.03

Sources

Weekly Elo ratings and records are maintained in the project's NBA workbook and refreshed when it is updated. Season results and honours come from the same workbook. Basketball-Reference, 1974-75.