How strong each team was, season by season, in Elo. 1500 is an average team, and only a handful of teams ever have topped 1800. 538 kept these ratings for 76 years; we carried them forward.
Boston, season by season
Rating at the end of each season. The dotted stretch is ours: regular season only, from 2023-24 on.
2025-26 Boston 56-26
Finished at 1701, peaked at 1702. The league's 4th strongest finish of 30 teams that season. Up 8 from 2024-25. Our rating, regular season only.
Tap a dot, or pick a season, to see that team.
Strongest finishes, rating on the last day
1985-86 · 1801 · 67-15
2023-24 · 1743 · 64-18
2007-08 · 1722 · 66-16
2021-22 · 1709 · 51-31
1981-82 · 1703 · 63-19
Worst seasons
1946-47 · 1218 · 22-38
1996-97 · 1244 · 15-67
1947-48 · 1305 · 20-28
The greatest teams ever
By peak rating, the highest a team got at any point in the season, so a team's number here can sit above its finish. Through 2022-23 that's 538's rating, playoffs included. Seasons marked * are ours, regular season only.
Elo through 2022-23: FiveThirtyEight's NBA Elo data (CC BY 4.0), from the Internet Archive. After that, the same method on our results, regular season only. ABA seasons count for Denver, Indiana, the Nets and San Antonio, as 538 counted them. Not affiliated with the NBA.