The best NBA teams from the 2020s (so far)

Result: 52-19; Won NBA Championship

That's right! The 2020 Lakers have been the best team of the 2020s thus far. Haters have tried to discredit this championship because it took place in the Bubble, but they seem to forget that, before the world shut down from the pandemic, the Lake Show had the best record in the Western Conference and were the hottest team in the league, having beaten the other two consensus contenders — the Bucks and Clippers — in back-to-back games that March. Their two best players — LeBron James and Anthony Davis — both made First Team All-NBA, making them the only duo to accomplish that feat in the 2020s. The rest of LA's roster was chock full of three-and-D wings and veterans, making for a hellacious defense (remember when they held the Heat to 36 points in the first half of Game 6 of the Finals?). The Lakers also mowed through the competition in the playoffs, winning via gentlemen's sweeps (4-1) in their three Western Conference series, then 4-2 against the Heat in the Finals. Lastly, and perhaps the most impressive team stat in the 2020s, the Lakers were 57-0 when leading after three quarters in the regular season and playoffs. 

Result: 53-29; Won NBA Championship

The 2022 Warriors were sporadicly great. They raced to a 41-13 record, then only won 12 games the rest of the regular season. They had three separate seven-game winning streaks and the NBA's top defensive rating, but despite getting very good seasons from Steph Curry and Jordan Poole, had the 17th-rated offense. In the playoffs, they handled their business in each series, never having to play in a Game 7, even after falling behind 2-1 in the Finals against the Celtics. This team gets the nod over the 2021 Bucks for the second spot because they cruised through the West and defeated a more dynamic opponent in the Boston Celtics, who were playing extremely confident basketball having taken down Kevin Durant in the first round, Giannis Antetokounmpo in the second round and Jimmy Butler in the Eastern Conference Finals. And because, if the two were pitted against one another in a do-or-die game, I'm just more confident that Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Steve Kerr would have a little more composure veteran savvy than the 2021 Bucks — who were on the ropes in two separate rounds during their run to the championship.

Result: 46-26; Won NBA Championship

While the 2020 Bucks were a much better regular-season team (as are the 2023 Bucks), the 2021 Bucks get the third spot in these rankings because they secured the title, which is weighted heavily in this exercise. The 2021 Bucks were in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive rating. They had Giannis Antetokounmpo, fresh off back-to-back MVP seasons, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday all in their respective primes playing well on both ends of the court. And while they had some luck in the playoffs since the Nets were dealing with injuries to Kyrie Irving and James Harden, and the 76ers fumbled the bag against the Hawks (the infamous Ben Simmons pass-gate game), they still beat Kevin Durant doing his own 2018 Playoff LeBron impression in a series and a smoking hot Suns team in the Finals led by Devin Booker and Chris Paul. Giannis put on probably the best Finals performance of the 2020s after Milwaukee fell down 0-2 in the series, capping off the four straight victories with a 50-point, 14-rebound closeout game in Game 6. 

Result: 48-24; Lost in Second Round

This was the greatest theoretical team in NBA history, featuring Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving all at the peak of their respective powers. Unfortunately, the trio only a total of 16 games (regular season and playoffs) together over the better half of two seasons (they went 13-3 during those games). But good lord, when they did play together, it was a sight to behold. In 2020-21, the team easily had the best offense in the league, scoring 118.3 points per 100 possessions. In the first round of the playoffs, the trio played five games together and that offensive rating jumped to 130.1 points per 100 possessions!! The three combined to average 85.2 PPG, 21 RPG and 16.4 APG during the series. It looked as though Brooklyn was going to waltz its way to a title after crushing the Bucks in Games 1 and 2 of the second round, but then Harden and Irving both got injured and Durant wasn't quite able to beat the Bucks all on his own (despite having two of the finest games of his career in Games 5 and 7). 

Result: 51-31; Lost in NBA Finals

The 2021-22 regular season was a tale of two seasons for the Boston Celtics. On January 21st, they lost to the lowly Blazers to fall to 23-24 on the season. They would do a complete 180 from that point forward, ripping off a 28-7 record the rest of the season. Equipped with the best defense in the league heading into the playoffs, the Celtics buried Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Nets in the first round, 4-0, then impressively outlasted an apex Giannis Antetokounmpo series in the second round, 4-3. And while they almost blew the Heat series and eventually lost to the Warriors in the Finals, this Celtics team was a dominant team on both ends of the court, had the Defensive Player of the Year (Marcus Smart) and a First Team All-NBA member (Jayson Tatum) in addition to other very talented players (Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams, Al Horford). Had Steph Curry not had a signature game in Game 4 of the Finals, the Celtics probably would have won it all. 

Result: 58-24; 1-seed in the Western Conference

This year's Bucks have a chance to vault way up these ranking if they are able to win another championship this summer. Milwaukee has the consensus best player on the planet in Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has had yet another MVP-level season (31.1 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 5.7 APG on 59.9 percent FG). They began the season by ripping off nine straight wins, letting the league know that they were absolutely one of the contenders for a title. Then, in late January, they put the rest of the Eastern Conference in a stranglehold with a 16-game winning streak that didn't end until March. They finished the season with the most wins in the league and will enter the playoffs as the favorite to win it all. They've been in this position before this decade (see 2020); will they be able to finish the job this time?

Result: 51-21; Lost in NBA Finals

Despite being the two-seed in the Western Conference, the Suns were expected to lose to the defending champion Lakers in the first round of the 2021 playoffs and even fell down 2-1 in the series before mounting a comeback once Anthony Davis got injured. From that point on, the Suns looked like a championship-caliber team the rest of the playoffs. They were even up 2-0 in the Finals before losing four straight to Giannis and the Bucks — Games 4 though 6 were all decided by seven or fewer points. Devin Booker and Chris Paul led this team to the third-best net rating in the NBA (plus-5.9 per 100 possessions).

Result: 44-29; Lost in NBA Finals

Going strictly off the Bubble playoffs, this Heat team might have snuck into the top-four on this list. But alas, this exercise takes into account the full season, and the Heat only finished in fifth-place in the Eastern Conference in the COVID-truncated 2019-20 season. However, once the Bubble began, the Heat were dominant. In the first round of the playoffs, they swept the Pacers, 4-0. In the second round, they eviscerated the heavily-favored Bucks, 4-1. Then they took down the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, 4-2. And, while they eventually were taken down by the champion Lakers in the Finals, Jimmy Butler was absolutely sensational, averaging 26.2 PPG, 9.8 APG, 8.3 RPG and 2.2 SPG and battling LeBron James and Anthony Davis admirably. 

Result: 56-17; Lost in second round

This Bucks team appeared to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Eastern Conference (and possibly even the rest of the NBA) for the majority of the 2019-20 regular season. Unfortunately, the team fell apart during the second round of the playoffs in a shocking upset to the fifth-seeded Miami Heat. And while that clearly hurt their ranking in this exercise, it would be remiss of me to ignore how dominant this team was in the regular season, finishing with, by far, the best net rating in the league (plus-9.5 per 100 possessions), which was nearly three points better than any other team that season. Moreover, they had the best defensive rating and eighth-best offensive rating in the NBA that season as well as the NBA's MVP (Giannis Antetokounmpo). 

Result: 57-25; 2-seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs

This year's Celtics started this season like a bat out of hell, winning 21 of their first 25 games and making everyone quickly forget about the controversial suspension/firing of Ime Udoka. And while the team has had some sporadic struggles (three separate three-game losing streaks) throughout the season, they still finished with nearly 60 wins and the second-best record in the NBA. Boston has a top-five offensive and defensive rating and the NBA's best net-rating (plus-6.4 per 100 possessions), and seem well-positioned for yet another run to the Finals. If they cap this season off with a championship, they vault into the top-two on this list considering that they'll likely have to beat Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo in consecutive playoffs series before the Finals.

Result: 46-27; Lost in Western Conference Finals

The Bubble Nuggets loved getting down 3-1 in the 2020 playoffs — they did it three times in a row! And while that finally came back to bite them against the eventual champion L.A. Lakers, their exciting comebacks against the Jazz and the heavily-favored Clippers were enough to get them a spot in this list. Nikola Jokic (24.4 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 5.7 APG, 52-43-84 shooting splits) and Jamal Murray (26.5 PPG, 6.6 APG, 51-45-90 shooting splits) were incredible throughout the playoffs and showed up big in every do-or-die game — recall Murray going for 50 points in Game 6 against the Jazz and 40 points in Game 7 against the Clippers or Jokic posting a wild 16-point, 22-rebound, 13-assist triple-double that same Game 7. This was the foundation for the title contender Nuggets of this season.

Result: 53-29; Lost in Eastern Conference Finals

The 2021-22 Heat will go down as one of the weirder teams on this list as they finished the regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference, but seemed to have overachieved by even reaching the conference finals. Led by Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and a stout defense (fifth-best defensive rating), the Heat rampaged the lowly Hawks, but then benefitted greatly against the 76ers due to injuries that limited Joel Embiid to appearing in only four of the six games. In the conference finals, the team struggled mightily to score outside of Butler, who had an excellent series despite being injured in Game 3 (25.6 PPG, 7.0 RPG). In fact, only Bam Adebayo (15 PPG) was the only other member of Miami to average double-digit points per game during the series. 

Result: 47-25; Lost in Western Conference Finals

Clippers fans should remember this team fondly. After a strange, COVID-, injury- and load management-riddled regular season, the Clippers — especially Kawhi Leonard — dug deep to fend off Luka Doncic and the Mavericks in an exciting, seven-game first-round series where they trailed 0-2 and 3-2 during the series. Then, just as it seemed things were falling in place for them, Leonard tore his ACL in Game 4 against the Jazz. Miraculously, Paul George, Reggie Jackson and Terance Mann all leveled up and upset Utah in Games 5 and 6 to send the team to the conference finals. The team ultimately succumbed to the Suns in a closer-than-you-might-remember six-game series that swung on a Deandre Ayton buzzer-beating alley-oop dunk in Game 2. However, this team was significant because it overachieved when hit with adversity — something that the 2020 Clippers failed miserably at.

Result: 64-18; Lost in second round

The 2021-22 Suns seemed destined to be the best team of the early 2020s when the regular season wrapped up and they sported, by far, the best record in the league at 64-18, as well as the best net rating (plus-7.5 per 100 possessions). Devin Booker played like a stealth MVP all season and made First Team All-NBA while Chris Paul had a vintage year and made Third Team All-NBA. Unfortunately, everything unraveled in the playoffs as Booker went down with an injury in Game 2 of the first round against the Pelicans and missed the next three games. Although the Suns would ultimately survive the series, they ran into Luka Doncic in the second round... and were humiliated in Game 7, losing by 33 points at home to the underdog Mavericks. We now know that the team was apparently ravaged by COVID near the end of the series, but had they been a truly great team, they would have taken care of the flawed Mavericks much earlier in the series. 

Result: 49-23; Lost in second round

Speaking of teams that surprisingly struggled in the Bubble, the 2020 L.A. Clippers went from being a title favorite to a team that embarrassingly blew a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs. After finishing second to the Lakers in the Western Conference and sporting the league's second-best net rating (plus-6.3 per 100 possessions), second-best offensive and fifth-best defensive rating, the Clippers, led by elite wings, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, seemed equipped to matchup with the Lakers and the Bucks in the playoffs. Yet, when they needed to dig deep and put away the Nuggets, they simply couldn't stop Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. That doesn't sound too weird today, but in real time, it was downright shocking. 

Result: 51-31; Lost in Second Round

The defending champion Bucks played the 2021-22 regular season on cruise control, winning only 51 games and playing their three stars — Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday — fewer than 68 games. After crushing the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, the team was shorthanded and without Middleton against Boston in the second round. And despite Giannis having an all-time great individual series, averaging 33.9 PPG, 14.7 RPG, and 7.1 APG, and having a close-out opportunity in Game 6, they eventually fell to the Celtics in seven games. Had they been healthy, who knows — they may have won it all.

Result: 52-29; 1-seed in the Western Conference Playoffs

At times — like when they raced out to a 41-18 record heading into the All-Star Break — the 2022-23 Nuggets have looked like the best team in the NBA. At times, like when they suffered an embarrassing 21-point loss to the lowly Rockets and head coach Mike Malone called them "soft," they've looked like a team that may get upset in the first round of the playoffs. If the former shows up the for the playoffs, this team could be one of the top-five teams of the 2020s. If the latter shows up, cynics will question whether this team even belongs on this list, and will further question whether two-time (and maybe three-time) MVP Nikola Jokic is merely a regular-season stat stuffer who will never come through in the postseason. My guess is we see the early-season Nuggets once the games get serious — this roster is too good to not make a deep playoff run.

Result: 52-30; Lost in Western Conference Finals

Time will tell whether this was a random blip or a sign of things to come for the Mavericks, who have struggled to put a great supporting cast around Luka Doncic. The 2021-22 Mavericks put a solid supporting cast around him featuring the likes of Jalen Brunson, Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie — all of whom are no longer with the team in 2023. Last year's Mavs had the sixth-best defensive rating in the regular season, which helped them upset the Jazz in the first round despite Luka missing the first three games. In the second round, Luka & Co. won all of their home games and proceeded to shock the world by nuking the Suns in a Game 7 romp where Doncic scored as many points (27) as the entire Suns team in the first half. Dallas would eventually fall to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, 4-1.

Result: 52-20; Lost in second round

The Jazz, you ask? Even though nobody took them all that seriously as a championship contender, we must acknowledge how good they were during the 2020-21 regular season. Their league-best 52 wins in the regular season (in 72 games) translated to winning 59-60 games in an 82-game season. They had a league-best plus-9.3 net rating as well. Donovan Mitchell had blossomed into one of the NBA's best young guards, averaging 26.4 PPG, 5.2 APG while shooting 38.6 percent from three and Rudy Gobert was the Defensive Player of the Year for his third time. Despite seemingly having everything fall in their favor in the playoffs with Kawhi Leonard getting injured in Game 4, the Jazz fumbled the bag and were upset in the next two games by the undermanned Clippers. 

Result: 54-28; 3-seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs

Perhaps to my own detriment, I'm selecting the 76ers over the likes of the Cavs (4-seed in the East, but probably a year away), Grizzlies (2-seed in the West, but maybe a year away) and Suns (4-seed in the West...and Kevin Durant + Devin Booker, but not enough evidence considering Durant's played less than 10 games with the team). Philly has the presumed MVP in Joel Embiid, the league's most effective pick-and-roll with James Harden and Embiid, a top-10 offensive (third) and defensive (eighth) rating and a helluva lot of people in their organization with something to prove this postseason (Embiid, Harden, Doc Rivers, Daryl Morey, etc.). Desperation often brings out the best in people, and I expect these guys to do just that. The Sixers match up well with the Bucks, but not as much so with the Celtics, so all eyes will be glued on that looming second-round series against Boston. If Philly makes the Conference Finals, they'll have justified being on this list; if they make the Finals, they'll be around the top-10; and, if they win it all, they'll be in the top-4.