NBA standings ordered by SRS: Why the Celtics are in a tier by themselves

There are many ways to determine how well an NBA team plays during the regular season. The most common form is to look at win-loss records but there are better ways that could include net rating or the eye test. One of the best measures of team strength is Simple Rating System (SRS).

SRS as explained by Basketball Reference: "Simple Rating System; a rating that takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule. The rating is denominated in points above/below average, where zero is average."

Essentially, SRS is a team's average scoring margin adjusted for how good the teams they've played are. To put this in simpler terms, the teams that have a high SRS win a majority of their games, against good and bad teams, and win by a lot of points. The teams that have a low SRS lose a majority of their games by a lot of points.

This stat is a very good way to measure the quality of the wins a team has because if a team wins every game in a blowout, they must be a good team. Here are the NBA standings by SRS. 

Eastern Conference standings by SRS

Western Conference standings by SRS

Takeaways from the NBA Standings by SRS

There are two top dogs in the east: When looking at the Eastern Conference, almost everybody agrees that the Celtics, Bucks, and 76ers are the three best teams. When looking at SRS, it suggests that pecking order goes the Celtics, then the 76ers, and then everybody else because the fashion in which they win, have been so much better than everyone else. 

The Western Conference is loaded: It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Western Conference has a better average SRS than the Eastern Conference. The East's average SRS is -0.37 and the West average is 0.12. This suggests that the teams in the West have an overall harder schedule (because there are better teams in the West) but also win their games by a fair amount more than the teams in the East.

Biggest risers and fallers: The biggest risers and fallers are both Western Conference teams. The biggest riser was the Golden State Warriors, who are currently the 12th seed but have the seventh-best SRS in the west. This means that they play well enough against good teams and play great against the bad ones. The biggest faller is the Sacramento Kings, who are the fifth seed but have the ninth-best SRS. Since their SRS is at 0.54, it's suggesting they are slightly above average.

Milwaukee Bucks: Having a tandem of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard would make a team a championship contender, which the Bucks are, but their SRS score suggests that they are only the fourth-best team in the east and the ninth-best team in the league. Their inability to play lockdown defense as they’re accustomed to has allowed every game to be a close game and why their SRS is lower than expected.