Boston Celtics: B/R unjustly lists Cs behind Clips on top-10 rankings list

The Boston Celtics find themselves ranked 10th, right behind the Los Angeles Clippers, on Bleacher Report’s list of the best franchises over the past-5 years.

Success can be measured in many different ways. In the Houdini’s eyes, the Boston Celtics have proven to be one of the most successful franchises in sports, not just over the past five or so years but, frankly, in history.

While many would venture to agree about the latter statement, the former is something that has many debating, not whether they deserve to rank in such category, but where they should rank.

By our metrics, we’d go as far as to say that the Celtics are deserving of a top-8 spot easily in regard to success over the past five seasons. From their overall record of 253-147 over that span and their five-straight postseason berths to their three trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and their numerous top-billed All-Star acquisitions it would appear that, despite dealing with adversities (injuries, chemistry issues, etc.), the shamrocks have proven to be one of the best teams within the association over this past half-decade.

According to Bleacher Report, however, while they too see Boston as a top-tier franchise during this time span, they do not rate the Cs as high as we do when abiding by their own set of standards.

In an article entitled Power Ranking Every NBA Franchise over the Last 5 Seasons, writer Dan Favale based his ranking on the following categories:

1. Average RTR over the past five years ( NBA Math’s rolling team ratings)
2. Peak 82-game RTR (average of the best 82 scores, each of which represents a 10-game stretch)
3. True RTR peak (the single best 10-game stretch)
4. Overall winning percentage
5. Playoff appearances
6. Championships

When “crunching the numbers”, he went on to place the Boston Celtics within the top-10 of the league’s franchises, specifically logging in at tenth overall. In his own words, this placement may even be seen as “a touch too low” for some.

Part of his reasoning read as follows:

"Boston has the fifth-highest winning percentage over the past five years, during which time its leaders in value over replacement player consist of Al Horford, Isaiah Thomas, Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder, Gordon Hayward and Kemba Walker. (Jaylen Brown is 14th.) That is…a lot of top-end talent.The Celtics only cede ground when looking at performance peaks. They are 10th in the 82-game category and 14th in the short-term 10-game department. This is mostly believable. They have ingrained themselves into the Eastern Conference contender’s clique, though not without turnover.Three different All-Star point guards—Irving, Thomas, Walker—have cycled through Boston over the past five years. Hayward has battled injuries since arriving in 2017, including missing all but five minutes of his inaugural season. Brown (2016) and Tatum (2017) were drafted and integrated in consecutive years. The Celtics went from starting Amir Johnson to Al Horford to Daniel Theis at center."

The rest of the rankings would go as follows:

• (9) Los Angeles Clippers
• (8) Utah Jazz
• (7) Milwaukee Bucks
• (6) Oklahoma City Thunder
• (5) Cleveland Cavaliers
• (4) Houston Rockets
• (3) San Antonio Spurs
• (2) Toronto Raptors
• (1) Golden State Warriors

While it’s hard to argue a majority of Favale’s rankings, one gripe we at HH have is the fact that we find the LA Clippers placed above Boston.

Despite having a ludicrous amount of talent surrounding them, the Clippers have not been able to make it out of the second round over this span, most recently falling in an upsetting 3-1 fashion to the Denver Nuggets.

Upset, disappointment, and dissatisfaction are three words that could summarize LA’s past five years and, yet, we still find them ahead of the overachieving and constantly succeeding Boston Celtics on this list.

This is just a perplexing placement in our eyes.