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If the NBA has listed its major strengths, unpredictability on the pitch is probably not up to par.
While surprises are inevitable in an 82-game marathon, they usually don’t weigh heavily on the columns of wins and losses. The final registers usually reach the same postal code as the preseason screenings and, unless there is a substantial change in the roster, clubs often occupy the expected level.
But as with anything in life, there are exceptions.
Occasionally, a team approaches and greatly improves its prospects. The following teams are the most striking members of the club with 60 Association wins. Each was selected and classified based on previous performance and, when available, on preseason expectations.
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Heat continuously dreams big with Pat Riley, and this was especially true in 1996.
After reshaping the roster with previous operations for Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, Miami launched into the offseason with great visions. Mourning marked the league’s first nine-digit contract. The Heat made a $ 98 million commitment to Juwan Howard, but the championship canceled him two weeks later due to insufficient space for the limit. Hardaway renamed, but not before Miami courted Gary Payton and Magic Johnson.
The Heat, who lost 50 games in 1994-95, thought they could be decent.
“I think we expect a 45 to 50 game season,” Hardaway told reporters. “Being up there in third, fourth, fifth place in the conference, in the playoff game would be ideal.”
Predictions have tried the same thing and Miami has received a 47.5 above / below, for SportsOddsHistory.com. Nobody set the bar high enough.
The Heat have won 14 of their first 18 games and have never let go of the accelerator. They became even more dangerous with a three-by-one exchange for Jamal Mashburn on expiry. In total, they have won a record 61 games in franchising, a number that the superlatives Heatles have only passed once, with Hardaway earning his only honor in the first All-NBA team (and finishing fourth in the MVP vote) and reserving to Isaac Austin the name of Player Improvement.
Miami won its first division title and playoff series that year, eventually falling in five games at Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals.
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In the wake of three consecutive first-round releases, the Pacers were ready for a change in 2003. They gave control of basketball operations to Larry Bird, who quickly replaced head coach Isiah Thomas with Rick Carlisle. But the off-season role moves were minimal: a trade for Scot Pollard, a free will pact with Kenny Anderson – nothing that could change the fate of what had been a 48-game team the previous season.
So Indiana took off at 14-2 in 2003-04, and the Eastern Conference suddenly had a new juggernaut. Jermaine O’Neal and Ron Artest (now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest) have booked All-Star trips. Fred Jones won the Slam Dunk competition. The circular city buzzed like it hadn’t happened in years.
Oddsmakers had set Indiana’s over / under to 47.5 wins. The Pacers celebrated their 48th win in early March and would continue to record 61 record-breaking franchise wins. O’Neal earned his first (and only) honor for the NBA’s second team that season and also finished third in the MVP vote (his first and only season with votes). Artest took a place in the All-NBA third team and won the Defender of the Year Award.
The Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell against eventual champion Detroit Pistons in six games. Indiana’s success would prove short-lived. These same two teams clashed with the infamous Malice at the Palace in November 2004. Along with Reggie Miller retiring in 2005, the Indiana core crumbled shortly after reuniting for this unexpectedly fun race.
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The Bulls, like any other team with enough room to unleash their imagination, hoped for a transformational offseason in 2010. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James looked at Windy City, but when they booked him in South Beach, Chicago was left to allow yourself the luxury of Carlos Boozer and some absolutely unspectacular role actors.
“Self [James would have come to Chicago], I think we would have had the best starting from five in basketball and we could have competed with the Lakers, “said Boozer at the time, according to Sporting News.” … Without him, I think we can compete and be difficult for any team to knock on the playoffs. “
The Bulls were coming out of a 41-game season, and their over / under was only reduced to 46.5. Chicago demolished that figure with 62 wins under head coach Tom Thibodeau, while the projections miscalculated two different areas.
First of all, nobody expected Derrick Rose to become the youngest MVP in NBA history. Yet there he is, raising the Maurice Podoloff trophy at the end of his 22-year season, during which he averaged 25.0 points, 7.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds.
Perhaps equally important, Thibodeau’s impact turned out to be bigger than expected. Awarded as Trainer of the Year for his efforts, he pressed all the right buttons for the Bulls to get first place in defensive efficiency and consistently outperform their opponents.
“They played hard like any other team we’ve ever played,” Wade told Athletic Darnell Mayberry.
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The Celtics have waited a full year for Larry Bird, taking him with the sixth absolute choice as a junior eligible for the project in 1978 knowing that he had planned to – and did – opt for one last season at Indiana State. When he finally arrived in Boston, the Shamrocks greeted him immediately with a five-year $ 3.25 million contract, thus the highest ever given to a rookie in any sport.
Expectations could not have been higher for the novice, although he did his best to drain the water from the preseason flames.
“Very few people can change teams on their own,” said Bird ahead of the 1979-80 season. “And I’m not one of them.”
Even for the most confident believers in Bird, it was unclear how much immediate impact it could have on the Celtics. Only 61-103 had passed in the previous two seasons and had exchanged their top scorer, Bob McAdoo, with future draft choices.
But Bird has wasted little time establishing himself as an all-time great.
He orchestrated Boston’s jump from worst to first in the Atlantic Division as team leader in points, rebounds and thefts. He is one of the five ever beginners with an average of 21 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Those numbers earned him an All-NBA first-team spot and the Rookie of the Year honors Magic Johnson, who caused a similar turnaround for the Lakers but had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to help with heavy lifting.
The Celtics ended Bird’s freshman year with 61 wins, 32 more than the previous season. They fell in five games against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals.
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Before the Suns ushered in the future of basketball, they had to cross an organizational crossroads. Before the 2003-04 season, they gave Stephon Marbury a four-year extension which pushed his six-season contract and was therefore the richest deal ever granted to an athlete in Arizona.
But Phoenix had an 8-13 start, which cost Frank Johnson his head coaching concert. Mike D’Antoni took over and the Sun committed to redo the role to adapt it to his system. This meant mediating a successful exchange with the New York Knicks who shipped Marbury and Anfernee Hardaway primarily for withdrawals and financial aid. Phoenix, who hadn’t won a playoff series since 2000, was ready to play the long game.
“Are we probably going to take a small step back? Yes, at the beginning,” D’Antoni told reporters. “But with the reserved space we have now and with the draft choices that we will have, together with the core of young players who will have a lot of time to play, we are thrilled.”
The Suns ended that season only 29-53, but they put that newfound flexibility to use shortly thereafter. The free agency has delivered both Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson, who have already put on a roster with Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson. Meteorologists were intrigued, but only enough to put a 44.5 above / below for 2004-05.
When Phoenix won 24 of its first 27 competitions, it was clear that this team was special. Behind Nash (the eventual MVP) and D’Antoni (the Coach of the Year), the Sun were so domineering in attack – 2.4 points for 100 possessions more than the second degree attack – that it didn’t matter that there were only 17 on defense. They went to the NBA’s best 62-20, somehow even sneaking a six game losing streak in the dog days of late January.
The good times went all the way to the Western Conference finals, where Phoenix fell in five games against the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.
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The exclusive NBA club consisting of 60 winning teams mainly features a roster studded with stars after the next. The 2014-15 Hawks are the exceptions one of these things is not like the others.
The top five had two All-Stars, but Al Horford (two) and Paul Millsap (one) were 20 years behind schedule with three combined career selections. Jeff Teague was solid, but nothing more. Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll were veterans who have traveled extensively and who have only recently become full-time beginners.
All five, in addition to coach Mike Budenholzer, were present for the 2013-14 season, in which the Hawks made only 38-44. Of course, Horford only passed 29 contests before a torn pectoral muscle stopped his campaign. But even then, the Hawks almost looked like a budding powerhouse, with a 16-13 record at the time of the injury.
Atlanta received an over / under of 42.5 wins for 2014-15, which seemed perfectly reasonable when the team started 7-6. But then the Hawks basically decided they had lost.
They promptly embarked on a streak of nine games, suffered a one-point loss of road, then retired for another five wins in a row. After a 30-point defeat the day after Christmas, the Hawks passed a 19-game winning streak that spanned the entire month of January. The top five players shared the honors and all but Carroll were selected for the All-Star game.
The Hawks were the greatest example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Budenholzer invented a brilliant egalitarian approach built around the movement and spacing of the ball, and the Hawks systematically brought out the best in each other.
But the lack of legitimate stellar power has left this club with the smallest margin of error. Of all the 60 winning clubs in the history of the NBA, these Hawks are ranked last in the simple evaluation system and penultimate in the average victory margin. They peaked too early – it was only 17-11 after the All-Star discontinued – and were thrilled by the time they closed their horns with LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, who swept them away from the conference finals.
All statistics have been kindly provided by NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise indicated.
Zach Buckley covers the NBA for the Bleacher report. Follow him on Twitter, @ZachBuckleyNBA.
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