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For many years, amid fan festivals, T-shirt giveaways and light-up bracelets that spice up opening nights across the NBA, there has been an open secret that hangs over tipoffs each season.
Almost none of these teams celebrating fall renewals will have a chance to win by spring.
In a "good year" throughout the 2000s and 2010s, maybe five teams per season could truly look themselves in the mirror at the season's start and believe they could hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy in June. Don't even ask about the 1980s and '90s, when the league was basically dominated by five teams over 20 years.