As far as rebuilds go, the Spurs have managed a relatively quick turnaround. From tearing things down to the studs in 2023, to reaching legitimate contender status, it’s been a quick three years. Currently, San Antonio sits poised and firmly cemented in the two seed of the Western Conference, on a 58-win pace, which would be quite the jump from 34 only one season ago.
But this is the NBA. There’s the regular season, which is all fine and good, but what matters is the playoffs. And there’s a commonly held belief that in order to truly contend for a championship, a team needs to taste defeat in the playoffs first. They need those “playoff scars.”
So how true is that? For those teams that managed to invert their regular-season status, what does history say about doing the same in the postseason?
Taking a look at the modern era, since the turn of the century, history tends to favor teams knocking on the door of the Finals to just barging in. Very few teams have gone from not making the playoffs to even making the Conference Finals the very next year, but it does happen.
The first example is the 2021 Phoenix Suns. Phoenix hadn’t sniffed the playoffs since 2010, but then managed to make the finals in 2021. This was following an undefeated run in the Orlando bubble, which still did not grant them a playoff birth. In the offseason, they traded for Chris Paul, Monty Williams coached his ass off (finishing 2nd in Coach of the Year voting), and they went on a run.
Next are the 2020 Lakers. They flipped a six-year playoff drought into a championship in the bubble. This was their second year with LeBron James, and their first year with Anthony Davis.
The next team also features James. The 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers added him in free agency and traded for Kevin Love, thus kicking off a four-year run of Cleveland in the Finals. This, after they hadn’t even won more than 33 games since 2010.
Finally, the 2024 Indiana Pacers round out the list. The Pacers had been absent from a postseason appearance for three years until making a leap to the Conference Finals. This new success was attributable to the development of star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, as well as the addition of star forward Pascal Siakam.
And that’s the list. Overall, there is a small trend. All of these teams have added major talent and are usually built around a generational great.
While history shows us that most deep playoff runs follow at least a first or second round exit the year prior, the precedent is there for a deep run, provided the team has the right pieces.
This Spurs team has the right pieces. They have a generational great in Victor Wemanyama and have the new addition of De’Aaron Fox. This is on top of the talented role players built around them. It won’t be easy, but it’s quite possible that San Antonio breaks the trend and adds itself to the above list.