← NBA seasons

2016-17 NBA season

30 teams · 34 weeks · through 2017-06-18 · Elo from the project workbook

Golden State Warriors won the title. They also finished top rated, at 1798.

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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
WarriorsSpursCavaliersRockets30 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
67-15 +16-1 · Pacific · seed 1
1798
+56 yr
2
San Antonio SpursConf. Finals
61-21 +8-8 · Southwest · seed 2
1646
-83 yr
3
51-31 +13-5 · Central · seed 2
1623
-77 yr
4
55-27 +6-5 · Southwest · seed 3
1612
+79 yr
5
51-31 +3-4 · Pacific · seed 5
1602
-6 yr
6
Utah JazzPlayoffs
51-31 +4-7 · Northwest · seed 4
1594
+62 yr
7
49-33 +7-6 · Southeast · seed 4
1573
+56 yr
8
51-31 +4-6 · Atlantic · seed 3
1570
-45 yr
9
Boston CelticsConf. Finals
53-29 +9-9 · Atlantic · seed 1
1569
+23 yr
10
41-41 · Southeast
1548
+6 yr
11
47-35 +1-4 · Northwest · seed 6
1536
-162 yr
12
41-41 +0-4 · Northwest · seed 8
1531
-58 yr
Show all 30 teams
13
40-42 · Northwest
1527
+91 yr
14
43-39 +2-4 · Southwest · seed 7
1508
+36 yr
15
42-40 +0-4 · Central · seed 7
1506
-16 yr
16
42-40 +2-4 · Central · seed 6
1502
+89 yr
17
41-41 +2-4 · Central · seed 8
1490
+15 yr
18
43-39 +2-4 · Southeast · seed 5
1485
-98 yr
19
36-46 · Southeast
1483
-76 yr
20
34-48 · Southwest
1467
+55 yr
21
37-45 · Central
1461
-36 yr
22
31-51 · Northwest
1460
+55 yr
23
33-49 · Southwest
1436
-68 yr
24
32-50 · Pacific
1410
-24 yr
25
31-51 · Atlantic
1395
-2 yr
26
29-53 · Southeast
1376
-60 yr
27
26-56 · Pacific
1368
+66 yr
28
20-62 · Atlantic
1363
+34 yr
29
24-58 · Pacific
1361
-14 yr
30
28-54 · Atlantic
1350
+105 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.

Warriors won the 2017 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

Smoothie King Center, New Orleans · MVP Anthony Davis

Anthony DavisMVPPelicans · #4
Carmelo AnthonyKnicks · #10
DeMar DeRozanRaptors · #3
Giannis AntetokounmpoBucks · #1
Isaiah ThomasCeltics · #2
Jimmy ButlerBulls · #3
John WallWizards · #4
Kemba WalkerHornets · #1
Show all 25 selections
Kevin LoveCavaliers · #4
Kyle LowryRaptors · #3
Kyrie IrvingCavaliers · #4
LeBron JamesCavaliers · #13
Paul GeorgePacers · #4
Paul MillsapHawks · #4
DeAndre JordanClippers · #1
DeMarcus CousinsKings · #3
Draymond GreenWarriors · #2
Gordon HaywardJazz · #1
James HardenRockets · #5
Kawhi LeonardSpurs · #2
Kevin DurantWarriors · #8
Klay ThompsonWarriors · #3
Marc GasolGrizzlies · #3
Russell WestbrookThunder · #6
Stephen CurryWarriors · #4

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
12 Jun 17 · NBA Finals
129-120
1.94
2
118-113
1.90
3
14 May 17 · Conf. Finals
113-111
1.68
4
21 May 17 · Conf. Finals
111-108
1.50
5
28 Apr 17 · Quarterfinals
98-93
1.48
6
9 May 17 · Semifinals
110-107OT
1.42
7
22 May 17 · Conf. Finals
129-115
1.42
8
12 May 17 · Semifinals
92-91
1.35
9
128-119OT
1.34
10
20 May 17 · Conf. Finals
120-108
1.33
Show all 20 games
11
15 May 17 · Semifinals
115-105
1.25
12
25 Apr 17 · Quarterfinals
96-92
1.24
13
118-115OT
1.23
14
132-1272OT
1.20
16
30 Apr 17 · Quarterfinals
104-91
1.18
17
137-116
1.17
18
15 Apr 17 · Quarterfinals
97-95
1.15
19
2 May 17 · Semifinals
129-119OT
1.14
20
21 Apr 17 · Quarterfinals
111-106
1.13

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, 2016-17.