Eight Interesting NBA Playoff Charts & Graphs

Plus my thoughts on Dame Lillard

May 01, 2025

The NBA Playoffs have been very enjoyable so far. For some reason, I really love the first round. Thee Western Conference first-round always seems to have great matchups, juicy storylines, and lots of drama. These playoffs have not disappointed.

Like any normal fan, I started looking up interesting data to answer some questions about the NBA Playoffs. Pretty soon I thought, “This would be a good post for the newsletter.” Some of these I found as I went down the rabbit hole reading interesting playoff articles, and others I sorted through the data myself. I hope you enjoy it.

Champion Payrolls vs the League Average

I wanted to look at the payrolls of NBA champions over the years and compare them to the league average. Shoutout to the Spurs (‘03, ‘05, ‘14), Pistons (‘04), and Heat (‘06) for being the only championship teams to be under the league average and win it all over the last 25 years.

Another fun fact is that the highest team payroll in 2000 was less than the lowest payroll in 2017. The amount of money in the Association has exponentially grown in recent years, as I have previously written.

Best Winning Percentage in the Playoffs

Here’s a list as of 4/28/25 of the playoff winning percentages of all current NBA franchises. Fun fact, LeBron James has more playoff wins than 22 NBA franchises. The guy has been doing it for two decades.

Championship Rosters by Age

Instead of just averaging the age of a championship team, why not find the weighted age based on playing time in the playoffs? I found the data on Github, which only considers the age of players who played playoff minutes.

Initially, I was somewhat surprised by how narrow the age gap is between the youngest and oldest NBA champions. However, upon further thought, it makes sense. A balanced roster of youthful energy and veteran leadership is a good recipe for winning. Shoutout to my Blazers for being a full standard deviation younger than the next youngest team. Too bad they weren’t able to build a dynasty out of it.

Pace in the Playoffs vs the Regular Season

Everyone talks about how the game in the playoffs changes, and the pace is certainly cited as a big reason. The game slows down, the defense picks up, and every possession matters more. The grind-it-out nature of the playoffs is what I love and the data backs it up.

More Playoff blowouts (Wins by 20 or More Points)

Another surprising graphic shows that the percentage of blowouts in the playoffs is more than in the regular season. This goes against everything that comes to mind when thinking about the playoffs. We generally think of nail-biters and games won or lost on the last possession. However, that’s not the case. And still, playoff basketball feels so much more entertaining. I guess playing hard every minute of the game goes a long way in producing a better product.

Players with Most Made Threes in NBA History

This graphic is dominated by modern NBA players, which shouldn’t be a surprise since the three-point line wasn’t introduced until 1980 and didn’t become a focal point of NBA offenses until recently.

Threes Attempted in the Playoffs vs Regular Season

Interestingly, a larger percentage of shots attempted in the playoffs are threes compared to the regular season (though shot at a lower percentage). I would have thought the opposite would be true with teams grinding it out and trying to get easy buckets. But maybe stingier defenses result in teams needing to take more outside shots.

More Isolation Play in the Playoffs

“There are 82-game players, then there are 16-game players.” 16 game players know what it takes to win, which is oftentimes ‘out-talenting’ the defender in front of you. In the playoffs, teams often turn to their best player to make it happen.

My Thoughts on Dame Lillard

As I watched Dame slip and crumble to the floor and not get back up, I knew immediately it was his Achilles tendon. I thought I would feel more sorry for him than I did. I almost disappointed myself a little with how little I felt in the moment.

Dame has been one of my favorite basketball players for the past decade. He lifted my Blazers out of countless years of lottery picks and mediocrity. He brought the fight back to Portland. He doesn’t show it often, but he is extremely competitive. His battles with Russell Westbrook year after year always got the juices flowing. I’ve pumped my fist, jumped off the couch, and celebrated alone in my living room countless times because of this man. So when I didn’t feel much in what was probably the lowest moment in his career, it felt like I was cheating on him.

But that’s the weird thing about sports. You are loyal to a team over a player. Yes, I wanted him to succeed in Milwaukee. Yes, I wanted him to win a championship and come back to Portland to help the Blazers win in his dying basketball years. Yes, I would tune in to Bucks games when I could and regularly check his stats when I couldn’t. Yes, I’ll still go back and occasionally watch some of his old Blazers clips late at night. But ultimately, my loyalty is still with the Blazers and not Dame.

But as talk around Dame’s injury swirled and what it means for him and the Bucks, I did start to get a sliver of nostalgia for what he did do for Blazers fans everywhere. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in this newsletter before, but I used to write a Blazers newsletter with my brother-in-law called Chanting for Chalupas.

Side note, we sold it to a dude who contacted us and he hasn’t touched it since (lol). But we were ready to be done with it. Neither of us really wanted to write about a team that was entering a complete rebuild. It felt depressing. Shoutout to all the beat writers who cover tanking teams. Anyway…

I looked at some of the posts from our old newsletter after Dame got injured. I wrote about Dame a lot. In one particular post, I shared some of my favorite Dame moments. So in honor of Dame, I’ll do the same here. I'll see you out with some of his not-so-obvious best moments. We probably won’t witness greatness from him in the same way again.

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