← NBA seasons

2015-16 NBA season

30 teams · 34 weeks · through 2016-06-19 · Elo from the project workbook

Cleveland Cavaliers won the title. The season's highest rating belonged to Golden State Warriors, at 1742.

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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
WarriorsSpursCavaliersThunder30 of 30 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
73-9 +15-9 · Pacific · seed 1
1742
-30 yr
2
67-15 +6-4 · Southwest · seed 2
1729
+57 yr
3
57-25 +16-5 · Central · seed 1
1700
+54 yr
4
55-27 +11-7 · Northwest · seed 3
1699
+116 yr
5
Toronto RaptorsConf. Finals
56-26 +10-10 · Atlantic · seed 2
1614
+92 yr
6
53-29 +2-4 · Pacific · seed 4
1608
-79 yr
7
44-38 +5-6 · Northwest · seed 5
1589
+16 yr
8
48-34 +4-6 · Southeast · seed 4
1583
-2 yr
9
48-34 +3-4 · Southeast · seed 6
1559
+131 yr
10
48-34 +2-4 · Atlantic · seed 5
1546
+57 yr
11
Miami HeatPlayoffs
48-34 +7-7 · Southeast · seed 3
1542
+71 yr
12
41-41 +1-4 · Southwest · seed 8
1533
-91 yr
Show all 30 teams
13
40-42 · Northwest
1532
+9 yr
14
45-37 +3-4 · Central · seed 7
1522
+18 yr
15
41-41 · Southeast
1517
-18 yr
16
42-40 +1-4 · Southwest · seed 6
1504
-52 yr
17
44-38 +0-4 · Central · seed 8
1497
+42 yr
18
42-40 · Central
1474
-95 yr
19
42-40 +0-4 · Southwest · seed 7
1471
-119 yr
20
35-47 · Southeast
1436
+100 yr
21
33-49 · Northwest
1436
+4 yr
22
33-49 · Pacific
1435
+12 yr
23
33-49 · Central
1413
-39 yr
24
30-52 · Southwest
1412
-104 yr
25
29-53 · Northwest
1405
+88 yr
26
32-50 · Atlantic
1397
+95 yr
27
23-59 · Pacific
1375
-115 yr
28
21-61 · Atlantic
1329
-134 yr
29
17-65 · Pacific
1302
-24 yr
30
10-72 · Atlantic
1245
-55 yr

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.

Cavaliers won the 2016 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
3rd Team All NBA

All-Star game

Air Canada Centre, Toronto · MVP Russell Westbrook

Russell WestbrookMVPThunder · #5
Al HorfordHawks · #4
Andre DrummondPistons · #1
Carmelo AnthonyKnicks · #9
Chris BoshHeat · #11
DeMar DeRozanRaptors · #2
Dwyane WadeHeat · #12
Isaiah ThomasCeltics · #1
Show all 26 selections
Jimmy ButlerBulls · #2
John WallWizards · #3
Kyle LowryRaptors · #2
LeBron JamesCavaliers · #12
Pau GasolBulls · #6
Paul GeorgePacers · #3
Paul MillsapHawks · #3
Anthony DavisPelicans · #3
Chris PaulClippers · #9
DeMarcus CousinsKings · #2
Draymond GreenWarriors · #1
James HardenRockets · #4
Kawhi LeonardSpurs · #1
Kevin DurantThunder · #7
Klay ThompsonWarriors · #2
Kobe BryantLakers · #18
LaMarcus AldridgeSpurs · #5
Stephen CurryWarriors · #3

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
19 Jun 16 · NBA Finals
93-89
2.54
2
28 May 16 · Conf. Finals
108-101
2.04
3
30 May 16 · Conf. Finals
96-88
1.95
4
16 Jun 16 · NBA Finals
115-101
1.75
5
26 May 16 · Conf. Finals
120-111
1.74
6
16 May 16 · Conf. Finals
108-102
1.74
7
10 May 16 · Semifinals
95-91
1.70
8
13 Jun 16 · NBA Finals
112-97
1.65
9
125-121
1.63
10
2 May 16 · Semifinals
98-97
1.63
Show all 20 games
11
10 Jun 16 · NBA Finals
108-97
1.61
12
132-125OT
1.57
13
6 May 16 · Semifinals
100-96
1.50
14
8 May 16 · Semifinals
100-99
1.43
15
23 May 16 · Conf. Finals
105-99
1.41
16
29 Apr 16 · Quarterfinals
106-103
1.40
17
12 May 16 · Semifinals
113-99
1.37
18
109-106
1.25
19
121-118OT
1.24
20
21 Apr 16 · Quarterfinals
97-96
1.22

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, 2015-16.