I looked at the last 15 NBA Champions (back to Jordan Mark II Championship One). I wanted to discover the MWS areas in which an NBA champion was most likely to be above average. The six MWS areas are three each for Team and Opponent: (1) Scoring Efficiency; (2) Possession Creation; and (3) Helpful Acts.
The table below shows how far above or below the prevailing NBA average (in the championship season) each team was, with Team stats on top and Oppo stats below. If the table shows ”2.2″, for example, that means the champion that season was 2.2 points above the prevailing MWS categorical average from that season. Also, in the Opponent sections, any positive number means the team was above average, which obviously would indicate their Opponents averaged below the prevailing NBA average (ie, if a champ allowed 33.45 net possessions per game to its opponents, and the prevailing NBA net possession per game average that season was 34.45, then the chart would show “1.0″ for the champion in the given category).
| Scoring | Possessions | Helpers | |
| LA | -0.72 | 3.71 | 0.66 |
| 3.74 | -0.33 | 0.07 | |
| LA | 2.41 | 4.71 | 1.48 |
| 2.41 | 0.88 | -0.26 | |
| Bos | 4.66 | 0.16 | 0.61 |
| 6.17 | 4.96 | 2.06 | |
| SA | 3.28 | 0.84 | 2.08 |
| 5.43 | 1.31 | 1.76 | |
| Mia | 3.43 | 1.28 | 0.33 |
| 2.03 | 1.01 | 1.54 | |
| SA | 0.78 | 1.27 | 1.89 |
| 4.91 | 2.55 | 2.27 | |
| Det | 1.44 | 0.51 | 1.26 |
| 5.56 | 2.58 | 1.88 | |
| SA | 3.55 | -0.83 | 0.62 |
| 4.02 | 1.37 | 1.98 | |
| LA | 2.52 | 3.46 | 0.31 |
| 3.43 | -0.62 | 2.31 | |
| LA | 3.11 | 1.94 | 0.73 |
| 0.54 | -0.55 | 2.46 | |
| LA | 0.27 | 5.17 | 1.63 |
| 6.15 | -0.83 | 3.06 | |
| SA | 1.94 | 2.51 | 2.69 |
| 8.44 | -1.51 | 1.37 | |
| Chi | -1.19 | 4.56 | 1.39 |
| 4.11 | 2.21 | 1.27 | |
| Chi | 2.53 | 6.67 | 5.22 |
| 4.51 | 1.61 | 1.05 | |
| Chi | 2.79 | 5.96 | 1.13 |
| 3.67 | 5.27 | 2.06 | |
Scoring Defense the strongest characteristic
As it turns out, the strongest championship characteristic was scoring defense. The second strongest championship characteristic was Team Possessions Created. The weakest characteristic, conversely, was Opponent Possessions Created.
The numbers break like this:
Scoring
Team Mean: 2.05
SD: 1.65
Opponent Mean: 4.34
SD: 1.92
Possessions
Team Possessions: 2.79
SD: 2.29
Opponent Possessions: 1.33
SD: 1.99
Helpful Acts
Team “Helpers”: 1.46
SD: 1.24
Opponent “Helpers”: 1.65
SD: 0.87
I have to leave this post now, but I will have more analysis on this chart in my next post. For now, notice that team’s have won championships with below average scoring offenses, but no team in the last 15 seasons has won a championship with a below average scoring defense. Also, please notice how the Chicago Bulls champions built their team mainly around surplus Possessions. Again, validation of the value of Dennis Rodman.
