Thunder's Way

In these days every unsuccessfull teams trying to do Thunder's formula to become successfull. It is becoming more and more boring  to see tanking that much. Drafts are not always a gold mine. Thus we tried to remember how successfull teams (made Conferance Finals) built their team between 2000-2012. Between these years because before that there was an unfair league [1]. I'll write only selected teams made Conferance Final more than one. This post shows the team who reached Conferance Fibals between 2000 and 2006. Here are teams.

 LALx4:

We all know 2000's Lakers right. Kobe? Shaq? Ok. They were not good in Jordan era. They missed play-off '93-'94 first since '76. An then they looked around for the best center in the league like all years they did(Mikan-Wilt-Kareem-Shaq-Dwight). Shaq was available at '96 summer, well, got him. Same year draft night Mr.Logo did one of the best trades of all time and took Kobe. Result ; 2 MVP's 4 final and 3 rings. By the way they hired P-Jax as coach in these years.

DETx4:

They started to build championship roster after 2000(32-50 record). They missed play-off that year.But they not at the deep of league like these years. Joe Dumars made amazing moves after that not like these years(Darko Milicic broke his heart I guess.) They got 4 allstar 4! 3 of them was trade. Billups joined from FA. None of them came from draft.

SASx3:

'85 play-off
'86 28-54 = 1th pick=David Robinson
'96 Conference Semi-finals
'97 20-62 = 1th pick=Tim Duncan
'97 Greg Popovic hired as headcoach.
Also they selected two all-star from draft. '99 57th pick !!! '01 28th pick!!. BAM! Here is the dynasty. 15 consequent year play-off 4 rings.

NJNx2:

Look at these records.98-99= 16-34, 99-00=31-51, 00-01= 26-56 nice right! How about  that 02 Final - 03 Final!!. They selected Kenyon from 1st pick in '00 (I guess that draft was worst draft ever.). They sent Stephon Marbury for Jason Kidd. Great!! Also they took Jefferson in 01'draft night by sending 6th pick Eddie Griffin.

INDx2:

In '86-'87 they were at the last spot of play-off. 87' draft night Reggie Miller is selected from 11th pick. That was very suprising and unable to understand for Pacers fans not to select Steve Alford but Donnie Walsh was confident. Result? Ask jersey #31 at Banker Life Fieldhouse ceiling. Anyway, they got Rik Smith after that year form draft. Then, They made 16 play-offs in 18 years. 5 conferance final 1 final. In 2000 Jalen Rose became a Pacer and he was scorer of the Finalist team that year. Besides, they were successfull indeed with Jermaine, Ron Artest, Al Harington. But c'mon Ron Ron.

DALx2:

A conversation from 90's in Dallas.
+ What did Mavs last night?
-Mavs Who?The band one?

Dallas was totally loser in 90's. 0 "zero" play-offs. '98 Draft night  was breaking point  for franchise. Don Nelson wanted a German guy and Suns back-up guard Steve Nash. They had 6th pick for weird-haired blond German. Besides Buck desired Robert Traylor from draft and Suns wanted Pat Garrity. What Mavs did ? Selected Traylor from 6th pick-sent Bucks, took 9th pick Dirk- Pat Garrity from 19th pick-sent Suns got Nash-. Result? 1 MVP 2 Allstar. 2 Final 1 Ring. 12 consequent years play-offs.

PHOx2:

They were not bad in 90's, they lost one time against His Airness, made all play-offs between '89-'01. In '01-'02 team had Marbury-Hardaway-Marion trio but they had gone out of play-offs after 82 games. '02 draft Suns selected Amare Stoudemire from 9th overall. But team was going nowhere. In the mid of '03 they sent Marbury and Hardaway for pieces which means nothing. But they got FA Steve Nash future 2 times MVP. D'antoni's system suited playerss like Nash, Amare and Marion excellently. Nearly all players in these year made their carrer numbers. But that wasn't enough for ring. They needed luck also.

MIAx2:

Early 2000's the hot-blooded '90s Miami's roster was seperated. After 25-57 '02-'03 season Pat Riley gave up, too and left the coaching spot to Stan Van Gundy to take 2 and a half years later. '03 draft night they were waiting Chris Bosh or some thing but special thanks to Joe Dumars they selected Dwayne Wade from 5th overall. One year later, Lakers made a choice between Shaq and Kobe. Shaq was the packing up one. Miami sent a package for  'really' Big-man(Odom-Butler- 10th pick of '02 draft Grant). Wade-Shaq duo lost against Pistons '05 conference finals after that year won rings from 0-2 against Dallas Mavericks.

Wild Card - SAC:

Sacremento Kings was really nice buddy with Dallas Maverick in 90s. Between '87 and '98 seasons they made only one play-off and never won 40 games or more. Again same faith with Mavs in '98 summer(retirement of Jordan and Lock-out '98 summer was milestone for many teams) everything changed for Sacremento -at least for awhile. They made Chris Webber a King and sent all-star guard Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe for him to Wizards. Their 14th pick in '96 draft Predrag Stojakovic joined to the team and Rick Adelman-2 time WC champion with Blazers- hired as a head coach. Following years they captured respectively Vlade Divac, Doug Chirstie and Mike Bibby. And 61-21 overalled, Western Conference Finalist, very lovely team was built. But we all know Big Shot Rob right?

[1] Michael Jordan era.
[2]Traded with 4th round pick Stephon Marbury
[3] Peja joined league in 1998
[4] Mavs traded No. 6 pick and a future pick  to the Celtics for Eric Montross and a No. 9 pick
[5] Nets traded 7th round pick Eddie Griffin for 13th round pick Jefferson and pieces
[6]Mavs sent 6th pick  Robert Traylor for 9th pick Nowitzki and 19th pick  Pat Garrity on draft night
[7] Rights from Dallas