The rebuilding stage in basketball is one that can be exciting for NBA fans, but more often than not, it’s a long and tedious process. Entering a rebuild usually means that multiple years of losing games await; once you compile a plethora of young pieces, and a player to build around, you’re on your way. However, this isn’t always the case - there have been a few instances in history where rebuilds have happened over the course of one season, as a result of some thrifty trades or a significant draft pick or free agent addition. These are the cases we will be discussing today. Enjoy!

#HOBL #BuffaloBullets2 #ShowtimeBullets #PlayoffBullets #FinalsBullets #BOTD #BOTW

-----<《=+=》>-----

Boston Celtics: 2006-08

2006-07 Record: 24-58

2007-08 Record: 66-16

The Boston Celtics are known as one of the NBA’s greatest franchises, and rightfully so; boasting a large number of hall of famers, and the most championship banners in NBA history, only the Lakers can stack up to the green from an all-time standpoint.

Despite their undeniable greatness, their glory days came in the 1960s and ‘80s, when Bill Russell and Larry Bird were at the pinnacle of operations. In the 2006-07 season, however, they were at their absolute lowest point. Albeit making the Playoffs just two years prior - getting knocked out in the first round - Antoine Walker had gone out the door, leaving Paul Pierce as the lone significant mainstay that the team had to offer. Pierce was quite the player, but he’s not one that will single-handedly carry a substandard team into the postseason… and as a result, Boston’s beloved basketball team compiled a measly 24 wins on the year. With a 29-year old Paul Pierce and nobody surrounding him, the Celtics were poised to enter a rebuild, a stage that their throwback fans were largely unfamiliar with.

Boston was braced for a tough time ahead, but general manager Danny Ainge had other thoughts in mind. Now known as one of the more prominent trade artists that the league has to offer, the 2007 offseason is when he acquired much of his fame. He managed to acquire All Star shooting guard Ray Allen from the Seattle SuperSonics, giving up Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and Jeff Green in the process. With Pierce and Allen alongside each other on the wing, Ainge wasn’t satisfied. With a limited number of assets at his disposal, he swung power forward Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves for developing center Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, and two first-round picks, which would turn into Wayne Ellington and Jonny Flynn. From hindsight’s perspective, it’s not hard to see who came out on top in these two deals. With a new three-headed monster of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen born in Boston, they had what they needed to make a run at the postseason - just a season after winning only 24 games.

With help from the development of point guard Rajon Rondo, a second-year player who they had acquired in a post-draft deal the year before with the Phoenix Suns, the Celtics did not disappoint. No single player stood out above the rest; every Celtic averaged below 20 points per contest, with Paul Pierce coming closest to the mark with 19.6 points per game. It was simply an admirable display of teamwork, and on the back of their big four, the green would go on to win 66 games on the year, cementing the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history with an incredibly 42-win increase. Boston was back into the history books, and through a magical postseason that saw Rajon Rondo break out and ended with the Celtics beating Kobe Bryant’s Lakers in six games, it didn’t take them long to revisit them, this time with their 17th championship trophy.

It’s amazing what one offseason can do - especially when you’re Danny Ainge.

-----=+=-----

San Antonio Spurs: 1988-90

1988-89 Record: 31-51

1989-90 Record: 56-26

The year after drafting Tim Duncan is the more known Spurs’ turnaround, but David Robinson’s rookie season is not to be overlooked.

The Spurs drafted David Robinson first overall in the 1987 NBA Draft, but due to his place in the Naval Academy, he wouldn’t play in the NBA until the 1989-90 season. The wait felt a whole lot longer for the fans in Texas, as they were forced to endure two seasons at the bottom of the league while they awaited Robinson’s arrival. (they made the Playoffs in 1988, but that was the product of one of the weakest conferences ever; they went 31-51 on the season and would get swept by the Lakers in the first round.) All that they had to boast was Alvin Robertson, who - although he was one of the better wing defenders that the league had to offer - wasn’t the type of player that could put a team on his back and score in volume, and a young Willie Anderson, whose rookie year was his best in the NBA.

When Robinson’s anticipated arrival came in the 1989-90 season, he was a man amongst boys. Being a military product, and standing 7’1, he had the physicality of a seasoned veteran, and at 24 years of age, he was by far the oldest rookie in the league. His maturity was evident early on, and with the addition of forward Terry Cummings through free agency, the Spurs were reading to make some noise in the NBA for the first time since the George Gervin era.

Of course, it should be remembered that the Spurs were coming off of a 21-61 year. While Spurs fans may have told you how good David Robinson was and how good the Spurs were as a team, there were not a huge amount of people that expected what would take place that season. Even with Robinson’s circumstances as a ‘rookie’ considered, a turnaround of this magnitude is impossible to predict.

Nonetheless, San Antonio defied all odds. David Robinson was on a pedestal with the game’s greatest bigs from day one, putting up one of the best rookie seasons that we’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing: 24.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 3.9 blocks per game on 53.1% shooting. Defensively, “D-Rob” was a goliath, a menace that nobody had fun going up against. The absurd number of blocks that he put forth on a given night was unheard of for a first-year player, and he continued upon a precedent of rookie dominance that was set by the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain before him. With the help of Cummings, as well as the efforts of role players such as Anderson, Maurice Cheeks, and a young Rod Strickland and Sean Elliot, the Spurs steamrolled to a 56-26 record, a remarkable 35-game turnaround from the previous season. The Spurs were the second-seed in the West, and it was obvious that they had something special in Robinson. Although they would take a disappointing loss to Clyde Drexler’s Trail Blazers in the second round in a tough seven-game series, this year was the beginning of a special time in San Antonio.

Who knew that one player could make such a huge difference?

-----=+=-----

Phoenix Suns: 2003-05

2003-04 Record: 29-53

2004-05 Record: 62-20

Steve Nash is one of the greatest point guards that the game has ever seen, and he has two MVP awards to show for it. At least, that’s how it is for most players - Nash’s two awards are quite possibly the most controversial of all-time, as most people think that he didn’t even deserve one of them. Nash is often given the title of the most overrated player of all-time, and his MVP awards are held against him in all-time rankings. This is one of those cases where statistics are held in a higher light than impact… but if you consider the “valuable” component of the “Most Valuable Player” award, things might make more sense. Nash’s impact was unprecedented, and the turnaround that the Suns exhibited in the 2004-05 season is the perfect evidence to show for it.

Although they made the Playoffs with a 44-38 record just a year before, the Phoenix Suns struggled mightily in the 2003-04 NBA season. Amar’e Stoudemire endured injury problems, while Penny Hardaway regressed and was traded, and leading scorer Stephon Marbury was dealt away as well. The Suns were set to rebuild around youngsters Joe Johnson and Stoudemire, with Shawn Marion playing the role of a defensive catalyst. However, Johnson and Stoudemire were 21 and 22 years of age respectively, and although they were both fantastic young players, they weren’t going to make legitimate noise in the league until they were in their primes. The rebuild was going to take some time.

Well, it was supposed to take some time.

Insert Steve Nash into the equation, and suddenly, success is on top of them. Nash was turning 30 years old in his first year in Phoenix, an age when stars are supposed to start declining. Nash had hit his supposed prime in the 2002 and 2003 seasons with Dallas, and while he was going to be a solid contributor for the Suns and act as a playmaker for their young pieces, they did not plan on him being the centerpiece of their franchise and their catalyst to success.

To their pleasant surprise, that’s exactly what he was. With Nash’s arrival came one of the most significant turnarounds in NBA history, as the Suns went from a 29-win team to a 62-win team in one season, with Nash as the only prominent addition. Sure, the development of the younger guys helped, but pinning the success on them is merely a petty means of taking away from Nash’s influence. He was the glue that held that team together, even if his mediocre averages may lead you to believe otherwise. Mike D’Antoni’s famed “seven-seconds-or-less” Suns team doesn’t happen without Nash, and his eminence needs to be recognized rather than looked off.

Phoenix rode Nash’s playmaking abilities to the first seed of the Playoffs, with Amar’e Stoudemire’s effectiveness being bolstered heavily by the point guard’s skill running an offense. Stoudemire put up 26 points per game on the season, establishing himself not only as one of the league’s best young players, but as one of the league’s best big men overall. Their reign continued into the postseason, where they would sweep the Grizzlies in the first round, win in six games against the Mavericks in the second, and fall short against the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. While they came up short of the big stage, the immense turnaround that Steve Nash facilitated that season cannot be overlooked.

Whether or not Nash deserved the MVP award that season is not up for debate; what can be argued is whether or not another player was more deserving. The award next year is the more questionable of the two, but let’s not let Nash become one of those players who is given the “overrated” tag so often that he becomes underrated. He deserves the respect that he gets.

-----=+=-----

Milwaukee Bucks: 1968-70

1968-69 Record: 27-54

1969-70 Record: 56-26

Led by greatest player of all-time candidate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Bucks were the best team of the early 1970s. Prior to the infamous big man’s arrival, however, things were rough in Milwaukee.

1968 was actually the Bucks’ first year as a franchise, and while their depth may lead you to believe that they were a good team - they had an impressive eight players averaging double-digit points - their record will tell you otherwise. One good thing that comes out of a bad record, of course, is a high draft pick; and the 1969 draft class just so happened to include college legend Lew Alcindor. After winning 24 awards in just three years of college play, Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was the most hyped draft prospect to date. The dominance he put forth on the college stage was unrivaled to that point, as was his knack for winning games - a combination that was bound to serve him well in the association.

Once the anticipated day came and the Bucks got their hands on the heralded big man, he didn’t disappoint. (that was one of the more homosexual sentences I’ve ever written in a blog.) His college success translated immediately, as he averaged 28.8 points and 14.5 rebounds per game on 51.8% shooting, most likely sending back a fair number of shots as well, considering his averages once blocks began being recorded. The most spectacular statistic of all, however, is the turnaround exhibited by the Bucks. With Abdul-Jabbar as the only addition to the roster, Milwaukee won 29 more games than the year before, bringing success to the franchise in only its second year. The Bucks’ offense jumped from the ninth best in the league to the second best, and Milwaukee managed the second seed in the Eastern conference after being the second worst team in the entire league the year before.

The Bucks were knocked out by Willis Reed’s New York Knicks in the Eastern Division Finals - the equivalent to the Eastern Conference Finals - but their shortcoming could not be attributed to Abdul-Jabbar, who led all but one game of the series in scoring. They won a ring the next season, and the big man would go on to win plenty more in his career, while also compiling six MVP awards, good for the most All Time. This was the first major turnaround seen in an NBA team, and it only makes sense that the sudden success was the result of the arrival of one of the five greatest to ever play the game.

-----<《=+=》>-----

There are plenty of other examples to choose from - Jason Kidd and the Nets in 2002, Larry Bird getting drafted to Boston in 1980 - but I got home from a camping trip just a few hours ago, and with that on top of some homework and tests to study for, I had a short time window to work with. My creative juices just weren’t flowing, and while I wish that I could have put out a better blog for Buffalo, I hope everybody enjoyed. My Bullets are trying to pull out their second straight title, and I want to applaud all of my teammates for picking up my slack. Let’s pull of this sweep.

Thanks for reading!