Lottery to Playoffs: Which Teams Could Make the Jump?

Which teams have the best chance of leaving the lottery behind and landing a spot in the postseason?

Fielding a lottery team can often be demoralizing. It can take a toll on the players, the front office and, naturally, the fan base. It can bring such a negative energy that we see teams overpay for players and go into “win-now” mode, while other teams steadily improve on the path of their rebuilding plan and eventually find themselves in the playoffs.

Last season, there were five teams who were in the lottery the previous year and made the playoffs. In the Eastern Conference, the Wizards, Raptors and Bobcats/Hornets all went from the lottery teams to the postseason. Out West, the Trail Blazers and Mavericks made the leap.

For all those teams except the Mavericks, who have had past postseason success, the leap into the playoffs brought a new energy to their respective franchises.

There are teams every year who get out of the dreaded lottery and reach the playoffs. Who will it be for the upcoming 2014-15 season?

Eastern Conference

The Eastern Conference is wide open. With the breaking up of the Big Three in Miami and LeBron James joining Cleveland, the conference is not as top-heavy as in years past. Here are a few of the lottery teams from last season who have a chance at making the playoffs:

Note: Granted, more offseason moves could be made, but current rosters were taken into consideration while writing this post.

Cleveland Cavaliers

I know, crazy first selection, right? The Cavs are going to make the playoffs next year after missing the previous four postseasons. When you add the best player in the world and pair him up with a budding star in Kyrie Irving and a No. 1 pick in Andrew Wiggins (or potentially Kevin Love), you are going to contend for a Finals appearance, not just a playoff appearance.

New York Knicks

Last season was a disaster for the Knicks. After winning 54 games the previous year, the Knicks responded with a dreadful 37-45 record. However, times are changing in the Big Apple. With the addition of Phil Jackson as team president and Derek Fisher as head coach, the Knicks are hoping to get back into the playoffs, and they have a chance.

Carmelo was really, really good last season. It may have been his best, most efficient season of his career. He averaged 27.4 points per game, while shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 40.2 percent from beyond the arc. All that was overshadowed by just how bad the Knicks were. But they get Anthony back, an upgrade at the point guard position in Jose Calderon and will have a system on offense (the triangle offense). If both Anthony and wild-card J.R. Smith buy into the triangle, the Knicks will certainly improve from last year. But are they a playoff team? We will see.

Detroit Pistons

I described the Knicks as a disaster, but the Pistons last season were whatever is worse than a disaster. Catastrophic? Calamitous? One of those. The Pistons went 29-53 last season, and the investment in Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith backfired significantly. While they have talent on paper with Jennings, Smith, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, the pieces just don’t mesh. A Smith-Drummond-Monroe frontcourt isn’t effective offensively or defensively. The trio had a net rating of -8.0 points per 100 possessions when on the floor together.

So with all that said, how is this a team who could make the playoffs? Adding Stan Van Gundy, an elite coach, instantly improves the team. The way Van Gundy transformed Dwight Howard in Orlando should be similar to what we’lll see with Drummond this year. They were a bottom-five defensive team last season, and Van Gundy’s worst defensive team in Orlando was ranked 12th. While it will take a lot of magic and potential moves (talking to you, Josh Smith) from Van Gundy to get this team in the playoffs, I don’t think the feat would be impossible.

Western Conference

The Western Conference is a whole other animal. While the East will be more balanced than last year, the West is going to be just as loaded and it might take 48-50 wins to get into the playoffs once again. Therefore, there is less of a chance a lottery team makes the playoffs in the West.

Phoenix Suns

As one of the best stories of the league, the Suns were so close to the playoffs last season. A team led by a first-year head coach that no one saw winning more than 30-some games took the league by storm and finished 48-34. It came down to the last week of the season, but they missed the playoffs by one game.

Fast forward to this upcoming season, and it’s doubtful they got better from last season. They lost Channing Frye, who stretched the floor and played a role in making them a top-10 offense. Eric Bledsoe, a restricted free agent, has not been re-signed. If Bledsoe is re-signed, their dynamic backcourt of he and Goran Dragic will have Phoenix winning 40-plus games again, but it could be hard to get over that hump again.

New Orleans Pelicans

“And your 2014-15 MVP from the New Orleans Pelicans is…Anthony Davis.”

This is how the Pelicans get to the playoffs. We all know Davis is stud. He’s on a fast path to being a superstar. If he makes the kind of leap he is capable of, he may be the third best player in the league next year.

A lineup of Jrue Holiday-Eric Gordon-Tyreke Evans-Ryan Anderson-Davis, if all healthy, could be exciting. But they are nothing more than exciting unless Davis is a top-five player in the league, with consistent guard play around him. They also added big man Omer Asik, who can potentially play next to Davis to form a stout defensive frontcourt. Regardless, Davis is going to be all the fun to watch next season. He’s a special player.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves are another one of those Western Conference teams that would be a playoff team if they were in the Eastern Conference. However, they are not.

The Timberwolves finished 40-42 last season. They could have been in the playoff hunt if they had won close games. They were 6-13 in games decided by four points or fewer and lost their first 11 games of the season in that scenario, according to Zach Harper of CBS Sports. If they flip that around or even go .500 in those games, they are potentially a playoff team. Boasting a new coach in Flip Saunders and possibly Kevin Love (if he’s not traded and fully commits to winning), the Timberwolves could be a playoff team in 2014-15.