NBA standings based on pace: The Cavaliers are the league’s turtles

The NBA standings provide a quick at-a-glance look at which teams in the NBA are the best, and which are the worst. After their blowout win over the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference, and sixth in the entire NBA.

Those NBA standings are only looking at wins and losses, however, and there is a lot more that we can learn about a team than simply which games they win and which games they lose. Which teams have the best offense? The best defense? And, as we will look at today, which teams play at the fastest and slowest pace?

What would the league standings look like sorted for pace?

Pace is a term that describes how many possessions a team has in a given game. A team’s “pace” is an estimate of how many offensive and defensive possessions they have per 48 minutes. Here are the “standings” for the league’s ten fastest teams:

Pace Standings: 1-10

1. Golden State Warriors
2. Los Angeles Lakers
3. Memphis Grizzlies
4. Minnesota Timberwolves
5. Oklahoma City Thunder
6. Charlotte Hornets
7. San Antonio Spurs
8. Indiana Pacers
9. Sacramento Kings
10. Atlanta Hawks

The first thing that should be readily apparent is that this is not a list of the league’s best teams. In fact, the only team in the top 10 of pace that is also among the top 10 of records (through games played 3/4) is the Memphis Grizzlies, although the Golden State Warriors are first in pace and 11th in record, while the Milwaukee Bucks are 11th in pace and first in record.

The second is that there is not a strong correlation between either offense or defense. Among the top 10 you see the league’s best defense (Memphis) and its best offense (Sacramento), as well as the worst offense (Charlotte) and the worst defense (San Antonio).

Pace Standings: 11-20

11. Milwaukee Bucks
12. Utah Jazz
13. Detroit Pistons
14. New Orleans Pelicans
15. Chicago Bulls
16. Houston Rockets
17. Orlando Magic
18. Brooklyn Nets
19. Denver Nuggets
20. Boston Celtics

In this second set we get a few more of the league’s best teams, including the top seed in each Conference. The rest of the league’s worst teams also fall in this bracket; while the Spurs and Hornets play at a fast pace, the Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic are in this middle bracket.

Perhaps one interesting factor is that the pace of teams starts to spread out. Only 1.3 possessions per 48 minutes separated the top ten teams; 1.7 possessions separate this group, and 2.8 possessions will separate the bottom 10. That suggests the fastest teams are pushing against a soft “ceiling” of how fast a game can go, while at the bottom there is a much larger range of possible speeds.

Pace Standings: 21-30

21. Washington Wizards
22. Phoenix Suns
23. Portland Trail Blazers
24. LA Clippers
25. Toronto Raptors
26. Philadelphia 76ers
27. New York Knicks
28. Miami Heat
29. Dallas Mavericks
30. Cleveland Cavaliers

And finally, we find the Cleveland Cavaliers, all the way down at No. 30. The league’s second-best defense and the team with the top net rating in the entire NBA is in last place in pace. Is that bad?

The Cavaliers are last in pace. Is that a problem for the playoffs?

The answer, almost immediately, is probably not. Looking at the bottom ten teams, nearly all of them are good teams; there are a few teams just below .500 (Washington and Toronto) and a lot of the league’s fringe contenders, from the new-look Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and LA Clippers to the heart of the East playoff picture: Philadelphia, New York and Miami alongside Cleveland.

Last season, the final four teams in the playoffs were the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat, the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks. Those teams ranked 24th, 28th, 13th and 30th in pace for the year. Nine of the 12 slowest teams made the playoffs, and the Cavaliers had a winning record as one of those three who didn’t. Clearly, pace is not a limiting factor in the playoffs, which makes sense as you consider how postseason games tend to slow down.

There are some other connecting factors between these teams among the bottom ten in pace. They tend to either play a lot of two-big lineups — the Washington Wizards, the New York Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers — or play through a ball-dominant star who doesn’t push the pace. That would apply to teams like the Dallas Mavericks (Luka Doncic), the Philadelphia 76ers (Joel Embiid) , the LA Clippers (Kawhi Leonard) and the Miami Heat (Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo).

The Cleveland Cavaliers are last in pace, but you don’t win basketball by being high on the pace list. It’s a stylistic measurement that doesn’t translate to success at any particular end of the court. If the Cavaliers can thrive playing at a slow pace, they have just as good of a chance of winning in the playoffs as the teams that run.