Grading the LeBron-era Lakers, and everyone else, from 2018-19 to now

This fan post was inspired by several social media posts about how to grade LeBron's LA tenure, such as this one:

Source: https://twitter.com/LegionHoops/status/1785168455030931920

The replies/QTs go in two general directions. "Abject failure", or "Any era with a championship is an A+". I understand both extremes, but the truth probably falls somewhere in the middle. To explore that, I will rate and rank every team's success from the beginning of the 2018-19 season to right now, which as of this post is early April 30 (e.g., Denver and OKC get credit for advancing to the 2nd round, but not Boston). Obviously, things will change in the coming days and weeks, but this framework is easy enough to update. I will use a rubric that gives each team a final rating and relative ranking. It is heavily weighted towards playoff success, especially championships.

The Rubric

The Larry O'Brien: Winning a championship is 100 points, the only way to get that third digit. Championship or bust, after all.

Championship dominance: Winning a ring in dominant fashion gets extra credit. A team that never trailed in a series gets 5 points, and a team that never faced elimination gets 5 points. For example, the 2020 Lakers title run is worth 105 points, and the 2023 Nuggets title run is worth 110 points.

Playoff performance: The further a team gets in the playoffs, the more they score. Making it to the first round, second round, third round, and NBA finals is respectively worth 2, 4, 6, and 10 points. That's right; it's at least ten times as important to win the whole thing than just your conference (sorry, Miami), but sustained excellence is still important.

Bad seasons: Bad seasons are worse than mediocre seasons, but playoff success is more important than avoiding the doldrums. Being a bubble (or in earlier seasons, bubble-equivalent) team who misses the playoffs gets zero points. Being a regular bad team (worse than a bubble team, but not bottom 5) is worth negative one point. Being a bottom-five team in the league is worth negative two points.

Other: Winning the IST is worth... one point.

The rankings

Now we can apply the rubric to the past six seasons (again, as of this post before the games on April 30) and see how teams have done during this mini-era.

The ring bearers

1. Denver Nuggets (130)

2. Milwaukee Bucks (118)

3. Golden State Warriors (117)

4. Los Angeles Lakers (116)

5. Toronto Raptors (104)

Denver never missed the playoffs, advanced past the first round most of the time (including a pretty wild 2020 run to the WCF), and had the most dominant championship run since the healthy KD Warriors. The Bucks may frequently disappoint in the playoffs, but not in 2021, and they were never worse than "very good" the past six years -- something you can't say about teams 3-5. The Warriors went to the finals in 2019 (and were the favorites until KD and Klay went down). But that still leaves the Lakers at 4th. Not bad.

The also-rans

T6. Boston Celtics, Miami Heat (30)

8. Philadelphia 76ers (20)

9. Phoenix Suns (18)

10. Los Angeles Clippers (16)

11. Brooklyn Nets (11)

12. Dallas Mavericks (10)

Boston will probably alter this list in a little over a day, but I like how they're tied with Miami going into the series. This section is filled with "what if"s, strong teams that fell apart at the end, and early-career Luka Doncic.

The rest

13. Utah Jazz (8)

T14. Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies (6)

16. Portland Trailblazers (5)

T17. Minnesota Timberwolves, OKC Thunder (4)

T19. Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks (3)

T21. Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic (1)

24. Sacramento Kings (-1)

T25: Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers (-2)

T27: San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards (-3)

29: Charlotte Hornets (-6)

30: Detroit Pistons (-8)

The top of this list has some decent moments upon which they can reminisce. The bottom of the list, not so much. At least for the Spurs, this is mostly just the pre-Wemby Era.

Final thoughts

Relative to the league, any mini-era where you win a championship is a good one. The LA LeBron era may even continue, and there's even the slim chance of an improved outcome next year. As of now, the era has been good (4th best, in fact), but it could have been better.

It was not a good era by the standard of the 80s or early 2000s Lakers, where multiple championships were the expectation. More importantly, it wasn't a good era by the standard of its potential, especially once the front office had a championship-caliber roster in hand. It is likely that, were other paths taken or some ankles left unturned, the Lakers could have gotten another ring. Of course, every winner could say that.