18 Years in the Making: How the Spurs Have Sustained Their Success for So Long
Bringing It All Together
Ultimately, a team's success comes down to the combination of play at both ends of the court. We've seen that the Spurs have been one of the best offensive teams in the past 18 years and the cream of the crop defensively, too.
We have two more metrics that will clue us in on how much they've set themselves apart from the rest of the NBA -- SRS and nERD.
| Top 10 in nERD | SRS | nERD |
|---|---|---|
| Spurs | 6.32 | 1063 |
| Mavericks | 3.08 | 938.1 |
| Lakers | 2.99 | 866.7 |
| Heat | 1.57 | 853.8 |
| Suns | 2.29 | 828.8 |
| Rockets | 1.93 | 825.8 |
| Celtics | 0.48 | 800.1 |
| Pistons | 0.56 | 785.5 |
| Nuggets | -0.39 | 778.2 |
| Pacers | 1.2 | 777.1 |
Simple Rating System
The SRS -- Simple Rating System -- is a metric that is used to measure the team as a whole that Basketball-Reference provides. This metric combines point differential with opponent strength to give a composite number of generally how good a team is. Since it relies heavily on point differential, it could care less for team records.
With this metric, the Spurs look outstanding over the last 18 years compared to all other franchises. There have only been 12 franchises to accumulate a positive SRS in the last 18 years, and 10 of them have an SRS of 1.0 or greater. Of those 10 teams, only four -- Suns, Lakers, Mavericks and Spurs -- are above a 2.0 SRS with the Spurs out of the stratosphere with a 6.32 SRS, more than twice the Mavericks' SRS score.
Lastly, to measure the overall impact of the Spurs, we can use our in-house metric nERD. The term nERD refers to a team's overall efficiency. The team ranking is on a scale from 0-100, with 50 as the league average for a single season. This ranking is predictive of the team's ultimate winning percentage.
In looking at the table above, we see a cumulative nERD for each team. This total just goes back to the 2000-01 season, as that was the inception of our nERD data. But in encompassing 15 of the 18 years, it can still tell us a lot of information.
Cumulatively, the Spurs are head shoulders above everyone again with a nERD just north of 1,000 points. The next closest team (the Mavericks) is 124.9 points behind the Spurs. If we average that total over 15 years, that means the Spurs' efficiency has been eight points higher than the Mavericks per season. The Mavericks are also right behind the Spurs in number of seasons that netted a 60 or higher nERD -- the Mavericks have nine while the Spurs have notched a 62.0 nERD or higher in each season since the inception of our data.
A top-10 offense buoyed by best defense in the league over the last 18 years has been a great recipe for success for Gregg Popovich and company, and it's reason to believe that it will continue no matter who is on the court for the Spurs. With the dominance they've had for so long, we have been privileged to observe one of the best dynastys in basketball history.
