The only team I can think of would be the Spurs after they had the worst record when Robinson was out with injury. The next year, after they got Duncan, they made it to the finals. We were the worst team in the league, so I would give them an edge
I'm sure you meant to type "weren't the worst". San Antonio will always be the biggest turnaround in my book.
You're probably right. I wasn't a fan back then, so I couldn't have seen it with my own eyes. It's hard for me to make an opinion unless I see it with my own eyes.
There have been variations of this thread in several places. Portland is on pace to have an amazing turnaround but the gold standard is what Boston did from 78/79 to 79/80 going from 29 wins to 61 wins before finally losing in the conference Finals.
The difference in the San Antonio and Boston examples is they added future Hall of Fame players to their rosters. Hey, I like RoLo, but he's only getting into Springfield the same way we are--with paid admission. Here's the better question: Which team--which didn't add a significant piece or didn't have someone return from a season-long injury--has made the biggest turnaround?
I can't believe it took so long for this to be brought up. Not just best record, but won the title! From 24 wins to 66 wins, and the title.
I agree the Blazers are unique because its organic, they're 4 best players are the same. What is the biggest turnaround for a team that had 4 of the same players as starters in both years? The Spurs would be out because they added Duncan, a healthy David Robinson, and a healthy Sean Elliot. The recent Celtics would be out because they obviously added Garnett and Allen. I just looked up the Bird Celtics, it appears they might be similar to the Blazers since they retained Maxwell, Cowens, Ford and Archibald. Those guys lead the Celtics in minutes the year prior and were the top5 in team minutes along with Bird the following year. That team went from 29 wins to 61 wins, a 32 win improvement. So to better that our Blazers need a 33 win improvement on top of a 33 win season last year. 66-16 will be very unlikely record to get! Bird did lead the team in minutes his first year there. So if you changed the conditions to a team having the same 4 players lead the team in minutes played I think we may set the record. The Thunder of recent times had some big improvements a few years ago.
What about the 2005 Phoenix Suns? They replaced Marbury with Nash and went from 29 wins to 62 wins and Nash became an MVP. Pretty amazing turnaround. Granted Nash was pretty good with Dallas, but I sure would not have predicted that kind of turnaround by just swapping Marbury with Nash and adding Q Rich to a really mediocre team. Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and a sophomore Amar'e was about all they had on that team.
Stat challenged as I am, didn't the Clippers make an enormous leap in the win column after Olshey rebuilt their roster?
In Vinnie Del Negro's 3 seasons, the Clippers went 32-50, 40-26, and 56-26. Every coach with that kind of performance deserves to be fired.
McMillan went from 21-61 in his first year to 32-50, 41-41, 54-28, 50-32 and 48-34 in his last full year before injuries and a roster of malcontent rentals blew the team up. He didn't DESERVE to be fired either.
