73-9 Game
Spin the wheel to a random team-season, sign one player on a $100M budget, and do it five times. Then we simulate 82 games and show how often your squad topples the greatest regular season in NBA history.
🏀 It's basketball. 73-9 is the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors' record — 73 wins, 9 losses, the best regular season in NBA history.
73-9
BUILD A FIVE THAT BEATS THE 2015-16 WARRIORS
YOUR BANKROLL
- 1The wheel spins to a random team-season, anywhere from 1990 to today.
- 2Sign one player from that roster. Each costs what their deal would be worth against the 2026 salary cap.
- 3Five spins, five signings — one for every position. You can only sign players you can still afford.
- 4Blow the budget early and you'll be scraping minimum-salary scrubs by the fifth slot.
- 5We simulate an 82-game season, then reveal how often your five would beat the 73-9 Warriors — plus the best squad you could have signed.
What is the 73-9 game?
73-9 is the number that broke basketball history. In 2015-16 the Golden State Warriors won 73 regular-season games and lost only 9, edging past the 1995-96 Bulls' famous 72-10 for the best record the NBA has ever seen. The 73-9 game turns that benchmark into a challenge: build a starting five good enough to beat them.
You are not picking from a menu of every player at once. A wheel spins to a random team-season somewhere between 1990 and today. You get to sign exactly one player from that roster — and whatever you spend comes out of a single $100 million bankroll. Do it five times, once for each position, and you have your five. Then the simulation runs 82 games and tells you the brutal truth: how often would this team actually beat the 73-9 Warriors?
The $100M budget is the whole game
Every player is priced by what their contract would be worth against the 2026 salary cap, scaled to their production that exact season. Prime Nikola Jokic or a 33-9-9 Luka Doncic will eat most of your bankroll in a single signing. Sign one megastar and you are suddenly building the other four spots out of the loose change — role players, aging veterans, and the occasional minimum-salary scrub.
That tension is the point. A five max contracts would cost you the better part of half a billion dollars; you have one hundred million. The best players make you the best team, but they also make you poor. Winning the 73-9 game is about finding the seasons where a player was quietly elite and wildly underpaid, then stitching five of them together before the money runs out.
How the simulation decides if you beat 73-9
Each signed player carries a rating (RTG) built from their real per-game numbers that season — scoring, assists, rebounding, and shooting efficiency, weighted by how many minutes they actually played. Add the five ratings together and you have a team strength number. That number drives an 82-game simulation and a head-to-head projection against the 2015-16 Warriors.
The Warriors are deliberately hard to beat. They sit in roughly the top 0.1% of team strength ever assembled, so a merely good five will lose to them most nights and still post a losing record against the field. To win the matchup consistently you need genuine star power stacked five deep — which the budget is designed to make almost impossible. Almost.
The best squad you could've signed
When the simulation ends, the game looks back at the five team-seasons you actually landed on and computes the optimal legal five you could have built from them under the same $100M cap. It is the sharpest feedback in the game: the same wheel results, played perfectly.
Usually the gap is a few points per game — a star you passed on for value, a cheaper role player who freed up money for a bigger swing elsewhere. Learning to read that gap is how you climb from a lottery team to a genuine contender. Every result also comes with a shareable card, so you can challenge friends to beat your win percentage on the exact same premise.
Why 73-9 still matters
The 2015-16 Warriors are the ultimate what-if. They set the all-time wins record and then lost the Finals, which means the debate over whether 73-9 is the greatest regular-season team ever will never fully settle. The 73-9 game is a way to argue with a scoreboard: pull legends from thirty years of basketball, throw them at Curry, Thompson, Green, Iguodala and Barnes, and see what actually holds up.
It is free, runs in your browser, needs no sign-up, and plays in seven languages. Every run is a new set of spins and a new puzzle. Spin the wheel, spend your hundred million wisely, and find out whether your five has what 73 wins requires.
73-9 game — frequently asked questions
► What does 73-9 mean?
73-9 is the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors' regular-season record: 73 wins and 9 losses, the best in NBA history. It broke the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72-10. This game challenges you to build a starting five that could beat that team.
► How do I play the 73-9 game?
Spin the wheel to land on a random team-season from 1990 to today, then sign one player from that roster. Repeat five times — one for each position (PG, SG, SF, PF, C) — while staying under a $100 million budget. Then simulate the season to see how often your five beats the 73-9 Warriors.
► Why can't I just sign five superstars?
Because each player costs what their contract would be worth against the 2026 cap, based on their production that season. A single superstar can cost $80–100M+, which is nearly your entire bankroll. The budget forces you to balance star power with value signings.
► How is the win percentage against the Warriors calculated?
Every player gets a rating from their real per-game stats and minutes. Your five ratings are summed into a team-strength number that drives an 82-game simulation and a head-to-head projection against the 2015-16 Warriors, who sit near the top 0.1% of team strength ever assembled.
► What is the 'best squad you could've signed'?
After you simulate, the game looks at the same five team-seasons you landed on and calculates the strongest legal five you could have built from them under the $100M cap. It shows the gap between your team and the optimal one — the fastest way to get better.
► Is the 73-9 game free? Do I need an account?
Yes, it's completely free, runs in your browser with no download or sign-up, and is available in seven languages. Player names and stats are used for informational and simulation purposes only; this is an independent fan project not affiliated with the NBA.