Former teams ;Notes • denotes an
expansion team. • denotes a team that
merged from the
American Basketball Association (ABA).
Team timeline DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:25 Period = from:1970 till:2026 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:60 left:20 bottom:20 top:0 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:tan2 from:1970 till:1980 text:
Chicago Bulls (1970–1980) bar:2 color:tan2 from:1970 till:1978 text:
Detroit Pistons (1970–1978) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1970 till:end text:
Los Angeles Lakers (1970–present) bar:4 color:tan2 from:1970 till:1980 text:
Milwaukee Bucks (1970–1980) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1970 till:end text:
Phoenix Suns (1970–present) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1970 till:end text:
Portland Trail Blazers (1970–present) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1972 text:
San Diego / Houston Rockets (1970–1972, 1980–present) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1980 till:end bar:8 color:tan1 from:1970 till:end text:
San Francisco / Golden State Warriors (1970–present) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1970 till:end text:
Seattle SuperSonics /
Oklahoma City Thunder (1970–present) bar:10 color:tan1 from:1972 till:end text:
Kansas City-Omaha / Kansas City / Sacramento Kings (1972–present) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1976 till:end text:
Denver Nuggets (1976–present) bar:12 color:tan2 from:1976 till:1979 text:
Indiana Pacers (1976–1979) bar:13 color:tan1 from:1978 till:end text:
San Diego / Los Angeles Clippers (1978–present) bar:14 color:tan1 from:1979 till:end text:
Utah Jazz (1979–present) bar:15 color:tan1 from:1980 till:end text:
Dallas Mavericks (1980–present) bar:16 color:tan1 from:1980 till:end text:
San Antonio Spurs (1980–present) bar:17 color:tan2 from:1988 till:1989 text:
Miami Heat (1988–1989) bar:18 color:tan2 from:1989 till:1990 text:
Charlotte Hornets (1989–1990) bar:19 color:tan1 from:1989 till:end text:
Minnesota Timberwolves (1989–present) bar:20 color:tan2 from:1990 till:1991 text:
Orlando Magic (1990–1991) bar:21 color:tan1 from:1995 till:end text:
Vancouver Grizzlies /
Memphis Grizzlies (1995–present) bar:22 color:tan1 from:2004 till:end text:
New Orleans Hornets / Pelicans (2004–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:3 start:1970 ==Conference champions==