So has the G League contributed to actual NBA success?

You may have noticed that the two NBA franchises we’ve spent the most time on are in fact two of the most successful franchises of the past decade — the G League decade if you will.

The Thunder have a winning record in every season since 2009–10 and a winning percentage of .645. They missed the playoffs once and made the Conference Finals four times. The Rockets finished .500 or better each season and have made the playoffs six straight years with a winning percentage of .602.

Dating back to the league’s genesis in 2002, the top three G League winning percentages are held by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers (.573), Santa Cruz Warriors (.558), and Austin Spurs (.544). Six of the 14 championships have been won by those three franchises. It would be foolish to ignore the obvious connection between the best in the G League and the best in the NBA.

Over that same nine-year span, here are the top winning percentages in the NBA.

The Sioux Falls Skyforce have the fourth-best record in G League history. They’ve been affiliated with the Miami Heat for much of their existence and have led to recent Heat diamonds in the rough Hassan Whiteside, Tyler Johnson, and Derrick Jones, Jr. San Antonio draft picks Danny Green, Kyle Anderson, and Dejounte Murray spent their rookie season developing in the G League. Even the mighty Warriors developed Kevon Looney and this year’s feel-good story Quinn Cook, who spent most of the season in the G League before playing significant minutes down the stretch for the champs.

This is not to suggest that G League success equals NBA success. That would be absurd. But it is clear that the NBA franchises with the most consistent success over the past nine seasons have also had success at the G League level.

This phenomenon is a testament to system, structure, and continuity. The savviest organizations are run efficiently and effectively from the top down. NBA teams were given the opportunity to have a test tube in the form of a parent-club-controlled G League squad. The best and brightest pounced, while slow-to-the-punch owners have seen their franchises pay for their timidity. Fans 25 other teams are tired of hearing how awesome the Spurs, Thunder, Warriors, Rockets, and Heat front offices are and how buttoned up these organizations are from the top down.

The G League is still evolving, and there are somehow still three NBA franchises without their own affiliate, swimming against the ever-strengthening current.

They’re only wasting precious time as the NBA’s best and brightest pull further and further ahead.