Career Winning Percentages (updated)

[Phenomanul]

I saw DesignatedT's signature and the BleacherReport (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/565001-ranking-the-top-10-nba-players-in-winning-percentage#/articles/565001-ranking-the-top-10-nba-players-in-winning-percentage) article that it was based off of and felt curious enough to want to update it...

Seeing how I had to go through several Basketball-Reference pages to fill out the tables I only updated the totals for our Spurs' players (Duncan, Parker and Ginobili) but also included Kobe Bryant (for counterpoint)...

Updated season-to-date numbers...

Regular Season
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/RSwinper.jpg

Post Season Playoffs
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/POwinper.jpg


Interesting note: Ginobili would lead both categories if Bryant had one more playoff loss in his tally or if Ginobili had one more playoff win in his... :hat

[Dex]

Goddamn Derek Fisher....

[FromWayDowntown]

Goddamn Derek Fisher....

Fisher actually has a higher playoff winning percentage than any of these guys. He's 133-76 in 209 career playoff games -- a .636 winning percentage (thanks mostly to the Jazz's run to the WCF in 2007).

[timvp]

Very cool, Phenomanul. It makes sense that the order in winning percentage would be Ginobili --> Parker --> Duncan. Since they win the most often when all three are healthy, the player who missed the most games would have the highest winning percentage.

I wonder what the Spurs winning percentage is over the years when all three are healthy at the same time. I'd guess 72.5% but that's a complete guess.

Speaking of Fisher, a good way to rile up a Laker Fan is to bring up this stat:

Kobe's career winning percentage without Fisher as a teammate is 49.2% and he never made it out of the first round in three tries.

[jcrod]

Very cool, Phenomanul. It makes sense that the order in winning percentage would be Ginobili --> Parker --> Duncan. Since they win the most often when all three are healthy, the player who missed the most games would have the highest winning percentage.

I wonder what the Spurs winning percentage is over the years when all three are healthy at the same time. I'd guess 72.5% but that's a complete guess.

Speaking of Fisher, a good way to rile up a Laker Fan is to bring up this stat:

Kobe's career winning percentage without Fisher as a teammate is 49.2% and he never made it out of the first round in three tries.

Yeah, Manu has the most missed games so it explains why he has the best winning %.

[Phenomanul]

If it hadn't taken as long to compile the data or if this statistic were already calculated somewhere (I'll admit I didn't look too hard)... I would have included Nowitzki, Larry Legend, Jordan and Magic Johnson in the table/analysis... Maybe I'll add them when I update the tables in about a month or so...

[Phenomanul]

I was also going to prorate the wins and losses as a function of usage rate (minutes played in each corresponding win or loss)... but that analysis would have taken far, far, longer to compile...

[will_spurs]

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I have to say that I had the same reaction when I saw DesgnatedT's signature pic. I was really surprised (or even shocked) that BB-reference doesn't provide the W/L stat for players, or in the searches. I really didn't feel like going through all the game logs one by one, especially since I would like to know who has the best regular season ever (and among active players too).

I think it's possible to download the whole content of BB-reference database, so maybe it's also possible to upload in a proper database tool (e.g. mySQL) and run some more specific queries.

[Solid D]

Thanks Phenomanul! When I look at this, the Spurs' 1998-99 playoff run of 15-2 and Lakers' playoff run in 2000-01 of 15-1, including running through the Spurs in the WCF, were incredible playoff performances. Those winning percentages really boost the numbers.

[Phenomanul]

I added some other interesting comparison players into the mix...

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/RSwinper2.jpg

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/POwinper2.jpg

[timvp]

Beautiful :tu

Awesome that David Robinson's winning percentage is so high considering he had by far the worst supporting casts of the players you listed.






Somewhere whottt is giving you a thumbs up as well . . .

[MI21]

Would somebody be so kind as to work out Robert Horry's playoff winning %? :)

[Sean Cagney]

Would somebody be so kind as to work out Robert Horry's playoff winning %? :)

That would be great to see! He never played on a bad team lol.

[MI21]

That would be great to see! He never played on a bad team lol.

I just did a quick search and added a few numbers and Horry has a winning percentage in the playoffs of just under 63%... So impressive, but not as high as I would of thought, tbh.

[FromWayDowntown]

I get Horry at 155-89 in 244 playoff games. A .635 winning percentage.

[DMC]

How about Steve Kerr?

[Spursfanfromafar]

I did an expanded form of Phenomanul's work. Extracting data from Basketball-reference.com's play index and doing some vlookups.

Note that some of the data is incomplete, because it does not have information before 1985-86.. So data on Michael Cooper or Abdul Jabbar or Magic or Larry Bird for example in the list would only involve their seasons since 1985-86. And playoff data is only from 1991 onwards.

Tried to list the players with the best overall win percentage (regular season + Playoffs ) -

Here is the Top 20 - (Data available only from 1985-86 onwards) -

Michael Cooper 75.84
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 75.24
Magic Johnson 74.71
Larry Bird 71.30
Manu Ginobili 70.04
Tim Duncan 69.51
Dennis Rodman 69.48
Tony Parker 69.30
Scottie Pippen 68.75
Michael Jordan 68.37
Dennis Johnson 67.98
Glen Davis 67.66
David Robinson 67.00
Shaquille O'Neal 66.62
Robert Horry 66.47
Danny Ainge 66.35
Steve Kerr 66.21
Cliff Levingston 66.01
Doc Rivers 66.01

Kobe Bryant is at the 23nd position - 65.65%


Here's the top 50 only for the Playoffs (minimum of 26 games since 1991) -

Craig Hodges 76.47
John Paxson 76.12
Michael Jordan* 75.40
Bill Cartwright 74.63
Bill Wennington 72.55
Cliff Levingston 71.43
Ron Harper 70.87
Horace Grant 69.29
Scottie Pippen* 68.67
Jason Caffey 68.57
Jud Buechler 67.61
Steve Kerr 67.48
B.J. Armstrong 67.42
Will Perdue 67.39
Josh Powell 67.39
Mark Madsen 67.35
Scott Williams 67.02
Beno Udrih 66.67
Dennis Rodman* 66.32
Luc Longley 65.52
Jordan Farmar 65.22
Fabricio Oberto 65.22
Samaki Walker 64.58
Rick Fox 63.96
Derek Fisher 63.64
Toni Kukoc 63.64
Shannon Brown 63.64
Robert Horry 63.52
Speedy Claxton 63.33
Kobe Bryant 62.50
Manu Ginobili 62.30
Aaron Williams 62.26
Malik Rose 62.20
Stanislav Medvedenko 62.16
Brian Shaw 62.10
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga 62.07
Daniel Gibson 62.00
Sasha Vujacic 61.54
Luke Walton 61.36
Vladimir Radmanovic 61.36
LeBron James 60.87
Tim Duncan 60.80
Mike James 60.61
Devean George 60.47

Tony Parker is at the 72nd position - 58.7%
David Robinson - 56.64%

[MI21]

I did an expanded form of Phenomanul's work. Extracting data from Basketball-reference.com's play index and doing some vlookups.

Note that some of the data is incomplete, because it does not have information before 1985-86.. So data on Michael Cooper or Abdul Jabbar or Magic or Larry Bird for example in the list would only involve their seasons since 1985-86.

Tried to list the players with the best overall win percentage (regular season + Playoffs ) -

Here is the Top 20 - (Data available only from 1985-86 onwards) -

Michael Cooper 75.84
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 75.24
Magic Johnson 74.71
Larry Bird 71.30
Manu Ginobili 70.04
Tim Duncan 69.51
Dennis Rodman 69.48
Tony Parker 69.30
Scottie Pippen 68.75
Michael Jordan 68.37
Dennis Johnson 67.98
Glen Davis 67.66
David Robinson 67.00
Shaquille O'Neal 66.62
Robert Horry 66.47
Danny Ainge 66.35
Steve Kerr 66.21
Cliff Levingston 66.01
Doc Rivers 66.01

Kobe Bryant is at the 23nd position - 65.65%


Here's the top 50 only for the Playoffs (minimum of 26 games since 1986) -

Craig Hodges 76.47
John Paxson 76.12
Michael Jordan* 75.40
Bill Cartwright 74.63
Bill Wennington 72.55
Cliff Levingston 71.43
Ron Harper 70.87
Horace Grant 69.29
Scottie Pippen* 68.67
Jason Caffey 68.57
Jud Buechler 67.61
Steve Kerr 67.48
B.J. Armstrong 67.42
Will Perdue 67.39
Josh Powell 67.39
Mark Madsen 67.35
Scott Williams 67.02
Beno Udrih 66.67
Dennis Rodman* 66.32
Luc Longley 65.52
Jordan Farmar 65.22
Fabricio Oberto 65.22
Samaki Walker 64.58
Rick Fox 63.96
Derek Fisher 63.64
Toni Kukoc 63.64
Shannon Brown 63.64
Robert Horry 63.52
Speedy Claxton 63.33
Kobe Bryant 62.50
Manu Ginobili 62.30
Aaron Williams 62.26
Malik Rose 62.20
Stanislav Medvedenko 62.16
Brian Shaw 62.10
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga 62.07
Daniel Gibson 62.00
Sasha Vujacic 61.54
Luke Walton 61.36
Vladimir Radmanovic 61.36
LeBron James 60.87
Tim Duncan 60.80
Mike James 60.61
Devean George 60.47

Tony Parker is at the 72nd position - 58.7%
David Robinson - 56.64%

:worthy:

Thank you sir. Obviously some funny ones in there for "certain human victory cigar" players, but Michael Jordan's playoff % is just ridiculous :lol

[Phenomanul]

:worthy:

Thank you sir. Obviously some funny ones in there for "certain human victory cigar" players, but Michael Jordan's playoff % is just ridiculous :lol

That's because his analysis excluded pre-1991 playoff data... or losses which would bring Jordan's otherworldly winning percentage down...

[Horse]

I saw DesignatedT's signature and the BleacherReport (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/565001-ranking-the-top-10-nba-players-in-winning-percentage#/articles/565001-ranking-the-top-10-nba-players-in-winning-percentage) article that it was based off of and felt curious enough to want to update it...

Seeing how I had to go through several Basketball-Reference pages to fill out the tables I only updated the totals for our Spurs' players (Duncan, Parker and Ginobili) but also included Kobe Bryant (for counterpoint)...

Updated season-to-date numbers...

Regular Season
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/RSwinper.jpg

Post Season Playoffs
http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/POwinper.jpg


Interesting note: Ginobili would lead both categories if Bryant had one more playoff loss in his tally or if Ginobili had one more playoff win in his... :hat
This right here shows all you dildos the difference a healthy Manu would've made last yr and other yrs he missed playoff games.

[FromWayDowntown]

I wonder what the Spurs winning percentage is over the years when all three are healthy at the same time. I'd guess 72.5% but that's a complete guess.

It's a remarkably good guess.

Since the start of the 2002-03 season, the Spurs have played 767 regular season games; in that span, they are 538-229 (.701).

Of those 767 games, the Big 3 have played together in 553. In those 553 games, the Spurs are 404-149 (.731).

Duncan and Parker have played 101 games without Manu and are 69-32 in those games (.683).

Duncan and Ginobili have played 48 games without Parker and are 31-17 in those games (.646).

Parker and Ginobili have played 34 games without Duncan and are 19-15 in those games (.559).

Duncan has played 9 games in which neither Parker nor Ginobili played; the Spurs are 6-3 (.667) in those games.

Parker has played 11 games in which neither Duncan nor Ginobili played; the Spurs are 5-6 (.455) in those games.

Ginobili has played 7 games in which neither Duncan nor Parker played; the Spurs are 4-3 (.571) in those games.

The Spurs have played 4 games without any of the Big 3 since the start of the 2002-03 season; they are 0-4 in those games.

[polandprzem]

The stats looks good for Timmey


And hmm Tim stepped up his game during Ginos absence. :tu
Looks like he does not care about his knee and plays harded on the leg then usualy

[timvp]

Great work, Spursfanfromafar and FromWayDowntown.

Regarding player winning percentage, I'm surprised that stat is so difficult to find. IMO, it's a worthwhile stat. Maybe put a requirement on it like at least five minutes played. But it'd be a handy tool to compare players. And while it'd be obviously far from a perfect way to judge a player, rewarding winning is never a bad thing.

FWD, 73.1% means the Spurs are almost exactly a 60-win team when the Big 3 is healthy. That is pretty amazing. Regardless of teammates or the health of anyone else, the Big 3 = 60 win pace when they play together. Awesome.

Plus, it's a reminder of how the Spurs will have a shot in the playoffs as long as the Big 3 is healthy ... which hasn't been the case since 2007.

Combined with the work done by Phenomanul, this is one of the best threads in a while. :tu

[polandprzem]

yup good work guys :tu

[FromWayDowntown]

FWD, 73.1% means the Spurs are almost exactly a 60-win team when the Big 3 is healthy. That is pretty amazing. Regardless of teammates or the health of anyone else, the Big 3 = 60 win pace when they play together. Awesome.

They've actually been remarkably consistent through the years; in 10 seasons, they've been under .700 in the games that they've played only once (in 2009-10, when they only played 50 games together):

2002-03 -- 50-18 (.735)
2003-04 -- 45-15 (.750)
2004-05 -- 45-15 (.750)
2005-06 -- 48-14 (.774)
2006-07 -- 53-20 (.726)
2007-08 -- 41-17 (.707)
2008-09 -- 29-12 (.707)
2009-10 -- 29-21 (.580)
2010-11 -- 59-15 (.797)
2011-12 -- 5-2 (.714)

There's a lot to be learned from the raw data. I have a couple of additional numbers that I'm curious about; when I have time to calculate them, I'll put them up as well.

[sabar]

Bill Russell '57-'69

75.77% regular season win percentage
64.7% playoffs win percentage
11 championships

Two of those years he was a player-coach! The league was much less diluted because of its size, so his teams would, for example, play against Wilt 11 or more times a year. The opposition wasn't dumbed-down either with a very large number of game 6s, game 7s, close games, and lucky breaks in the playoffs.

I believe he was the only constant from his first team to his last (full turnover of team mates and coach).

He also somehow averaged 42 minutes a game and regularly played all 48 minutes, even as an old man in an NBA where there was no conditioning or weight training, so his win percentage doesn't skew since he's always in the game.

I wish it was easier to find pre-ABA merger stats.

[TampaDude]

Bill Russell '57-'69

75.77% regular season win percentage
64.7% playoffs win percentage
11 championships

Two of those years he was a player-coach! The league was much less diluted because of its size, so his teams would, for example, play against Wilt 11 or more times a year. The opposition wasn't dumbed-down either with a very large number of game 6s, game 7s, close games, and lucky breaks in the playoffs.

I believe he was the only constant from his first team to his last (full turnover of team mates and coach).

He also somehow averaged 42 minutes a game and regularly played all 48 minutes, even as an old man in an NBA where there was no conditioning or weight training, so his win percentage doesn't skew since he's always in the game.

I wish it was easier to find pre-ABA merger stats.

Thanks for posting this. Bill Russell is the man. :toast

[Phenomanul]

I think this long break makes for a perfect bump... (plus the fact that Nowitzki and Bryant have exited the playoff fray)...

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/RSwinper3b.jpg

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/POwinper3.jpg

[Agloco]

Not surprising that the GOAT has the highest playoff win percent (including the Russell comparison above).

This is something that GOATs do tbh.

[urunobili]

Derek Fisher is not part of this list? Robert Horry?

[Phenomanul]

Correction: Dirk's Regular Season Stats weren't updated... now they are, and he slipped behind MJ)...

[E-RockWill]

Great work, Spursfanfromafar and FromWayDowntown.

Combined with the work done by Phenomanul, this is one of the best threads in a while. :tu


Seconded...:tu

[Phenomanul]

I guess I should add Garnett to the mix just to show how silly it is when folks suggest he is Duncan's equal...

[Phenomanul]

Additional Players for comparison...

Kevin Garnett
LeBron James
Dwyane Wade


http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/RSwinper4.jpg

http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh638/Phenomanul/POwinper4.jpg

[Galileo]

:worthy:

Thank you sir. Obviously some funny ones in there for "certain human victory cigar" players, but Michael Jordan's playoff % is just ridiculous :lol

Jordan playoff record is 119-60. That is .665. The chart is wrong.

:wow

[Phenomanul]

Jordan playoff record is 119-60. That is .665. The chart is wrong.

:wow

:toast

I knew I had seen that 0.665 number elsewhere but couldn't figure out why my table didn't produce that result... You found the lone error in my exercise... I have Jordan's 1987-1988 playoff numbers reversed... should be 4 wins and 6 losses. That's a 4 game swing!!!

I'm going to try and add Magic and Larry Bird into the table at the conclusion of these playoffs...

[Phenomanul]

Interesting notes:

1) If the Spurs end up winning their 5th Larry O'Brien trophy... Parker has a chance to move ahead of both Kobe Bryant and Lebron James in the playoff rankings...

2) If by any chance the Spurs sweep their way to another 'chip that would give Ginobili such a nefarious playoff winning percentage 92 / 138 = 0.666666666 :wow :wow :wow This was Manu's evil plot all along to pass-up Michael Jordan and land on that beastly mark :stirpot:... now some of those injuries in his past don't seem all that "freakish" or inopportune anymore... Manu was simply playing the numbers...

3) Only 4 players in the Regular Season table above can claim never to have had a losing season... They all claim "Silver and Black"... that's pretty remarkable...

[Danny.Zhu]

Cool stats.

[Seventyniner]

If by any chance the Spurs sweep their way to another 'chip that would give Ginobili such a nefarious playoff winning percentage 92 / 138 = 0.666666666 :wow :wow :wow This was Manu's evil plot all along to pass-up Michael Jordan and land on that beastly mark :stirpot:...

Except that an older translation of the book of Revelation says that the number of the beast is 616, not 666.

[TDMVPDPOY]

funny how you mention kg in the comparison, padding his wins in the pathetic east playoffs, the celtics 2 runs into the finals clearly avg out his 7 first roune exits in the west

[Galileo]

Except that an older translation of the book of Revelation says that the number of the beast is 616, not 666.

I thought it was 606?

[Galileo]

Bill Russell '57-'69

75.77% regular season win percentage
64.7% playoffs win percentage
11 championships

Two of those years he was a player-coach! The league was much less diluted because of its size, so his teams would, for example, play against Wilt 11 or more times a year. The opposition wasn't dumbed-down either with a very large number of game 6s, game 7s, close games, and lucky breaks in the playoffs.

I believe he was the only constant from his first team to his last (full turnover of team mates and coach).

He also somehow averaged 42 minutes a game and regularly played all 48 minutes, even as an old man in an NBA where there was no conditioning or weight training, so his win percentage doesn't skew since he's always in the game.

I wish it was easier to find pre-ABA merger stats.

Russell was great, but he had help:

Hall-of-Fame teammates each season

1968-69 (3)
1. John Havlicek
2. Bailey Howell
3. Sam Jones

1967-68 (3)
1. John Havlicek
2. Bailey Howell
3. Sam Jones

1966-67 (4)
1. John Havlicek
2. Bailey Howell
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones

1965-66 (3)
1. John Havlicek
2. K.C. Jones
3. Sam Jones

1964-65 (4)
1. John Havlicek
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones

1963-64 (6)
1. John Havlicek
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Clyde Lovellette
6. Frank Ramsey

1962-63 (7)
1. Bob Cousy
2. John Havlicek
3. Tom Heinsohn
4. K.C. Jones
5. Sam Jones
6. Clyde Lovellette
7. Frank Ramsey

1961-62 (5)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

1960-61 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

7. Bill Sharman


1959-60 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

7. Bill Sharman

1958-59 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. K.C. Jones
4. Sam Jones
5. Frank Ramsey

7. Bill Sharman


1957-58 (7)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. Sam Jones
4. Andy Phillip
5. Frank Ramsey
6. Arnie Risen

8. Bill Sharman


1956-57 (6)
1. Bob Cousy
2. Tom Heinsohn
3. Andy Phillip
4. Frank Ramsey
5. Arnie Risen

7. Bill Sharman

Average per season: 5.1

[Wild Cobra Kai]

^^ Russell made ALL of those players HOFers. Russell's arrival was as cataclysmic for Boston as Duncan's was for us. Just like SA, Boston was a good team that could never seem to get over the hump and no one was afraid of. Russ turned them all into legends.

[Galileo]

^^ Russell made ALL of those players HOFers. Russell's arrival was as cataclysmic for Boston as Duncan's was for us. Just like SA, Boston was a good team that could never seem to get over the hump and no one was afraid of. Russ turned them all into legends.

that's a load. Cousy, Havlicek, Sam Jones, and Bill Sharman were all named to the top 50 team, a step up from a routine hall-of-famer.

Baily Howell was a great player for years before he ended his prime with 3 seasons with Russell.

Frank Ramsey was an all-American at Kentucky back when it meant something.

Heinsohn won rookie of the year OVER Bill Russell.

Lovelette was already a hall-of-famer before he joined the Celtics, he was a 20-10 man the season prior to coming over.

Risen and Phillips were old role players who already had hallof fame credential.

KC Jones. You got me, he won the national championship in college and then won again in the pros with Russell. Russell made Jones a hall-of-famer.

And I'll give you Tom Sanders who I left off my list.

:lmao

[TJastal]

cobra been hittin' dat crack pipe again

[tesseractive]

Russell was great, but he had help
Didn't other teams pretty routinely have multiple HoFers back in those day?

Totally agree that Russell had help -- Red Auerbach was a man among boys as a GM in those days.

But Russell was just a force that willed his teams to win. Sort of like a certain Spur whose talents aren't as flashy as those of some of his notable competitors.