18 Years in the Making: How the Spurs Have Sustained Their Success for So Long
Winning Culture
Thanks to the tools on Basketball-Reference, I was able to search for the cumulative stats for every team from the last 18 years. We'll be mostly dealing with percentages and ratings (per 100 possessions), but at the surface, the Spurs over the last 18 years stand tall in winning percentage and total number of wins.
| Top 10 in Win % | G | W | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spurs | 1428 | 1005 | 70.4% |
| Mavericks | 1428 | 875 | 61.3% |
| Lakers | 1428 | 870 | 60.9% |
| Heat | 1428 | 814 | 57.0% |
| Suns | 1428 | 813 | 56.9% |
| Jazz | 1428 | 794 | 55.6% |
| Rockets | 1428 | 786 | 55.0% |
| Pacers | 1427 | 785 | 55.0% |
| Sonics/Thunder | 1428 | 774 | 54.2% |
| Blazers | 1428 | 769 | 53.9% |
Only 12 teams have been able to sustain a winning percentage above .500 in that span -- the Pistons and Celtics plus the teams in the chart above. Only three of those teams have won 60% of their games with the Spurs leading the way, winning 70.4% of their regular season games.
And thanks to the high winning percentage, the Spurs have secured the most wins (1,005). Only four other teams have more than 800 wins, and 120 wins separate the Spurs and the Mavericks, who are second on the list.
But how have the Spurs achieved all those wins? Let's examine their offense over the last 18 years.
