The NBA's Best Lineups and How Chicago Compares

With the Bulls' last game of the regular season tonight against the Cavs, I thought I'd take a look at how Chicago's 5 man units performed. This will mostly be per 100 possessions statistics because that shit is so good.

Best NBA Point Differential Lineups

The Bulls' most used lineup this year was Rose, Brewer, Deng, Boozer, and Noah. That lineup also turned out to be the best overall lineup of the 2012 season with a point differential of +17.0 in 290 minutes. This lineup ranked 2nd in the league in DRtg (96.0) and was 5th in ORtg (113.0). That's pretty fucking impressive.

It's scary to think about how good this team would have been if they would have stayed 100% healthy this year. The Heat's best lineup (+10.3) of Chalmers, Wade, James, Bosh, and Anthony played 533 minutes in 39 games and locked up the 2nd seed in the East. The Pacers' best lineup (+9.0) of Collison, George, Granger, West, and Hibbert played 1000 minutes in 55 games and locked up the 3rd seed in the east. Basically what I'm trying to say is, the best possible team they could assemble played about 2x the amount of minutes (Heat) and 3.5x the amount of minutes (Pacers) more than the Bulls this year.

Best NBA Offensive Lineups

The Bulls rank 5th, 1.9 points per 100 possessions less than the Clippers. Pretty great, I guess. Look at Steve Nash still doing his thing. You da man, Steve.

Best NBA Defensive Lineups

The Bulls rank 2nd behind the Thunder. Glad the Bulls aren't in the same conference as those dudes. They seem "legit as fuck". Also, pretty impressive what Tyson Chandler has done to the Knicks defensively, right?

Best NBA ORB% Lineups

I changed the minutes played criteria for these rebounding stats from 250 to 150 pretty much for the sole reason that more Chicago lineups would qualify. They only had one lineup crack 250 minutes this year.

The Bulls rank 5th and 7th. How beastly are Taj and Omer that their lineup featuring Korver and John Lucas ranks in the top 10 in the league? Or is it just that fact that Lucas and Korver jack up a bunch of jumpers for them to rebound? Whatever.

Best NBA DRB% Lineups

Go pre-healthy Rip Hamilton starting lineup! Grabbing 78% of all available defensive rebounds ranking 5th in the league.

Best NBA TRB% Lineups

Yeah, look at fucking Taj an Omer being awesome. Keep chucking up them jumpers, JLIII. Also, only 5th place for pre-healthy Rip Hamilton starting lineup? Step up your shit, guys.

Best NBA eFG% Lineups

If you didn't know, eFG% is just a better version of regular FG%. It takes into account that a 3 is worth more than a 2 (duh) and counts a 3 as 1.5 FGs in the formula that figures that shit out. It's, like, way better.

Anyways, 4th and 9th. That's pretty decent. Actually really surprised by that. Especially since the non Korver lineup doesn't like the 3 ball too much.

Best Scalabrine Lineups

This included every lineup he was in that resulted in positive net points. Unfortunately that only yielded 12 of a possible 32 lineups, but whatever. Everyone loves this dude. Rejoice in his 3 lineups that have a +100 rating!