The Pistons’ turnaround is already the biggest in the NBA this year: they’ve won 34 games after winning just 14 in 2023-24, marking a 20-game turnaround by March 1.

The question now isn’t just about the Pistons making the playoffs or how high their seed could be, but how this single-season turnaround ranks in NBA history.

The Pistons have 21 games remaining between now and the end of the regular season, starting on Monday at Utah, to build off of what’s already been an impressive turnaround.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest single-season turnarounds in NBA history, a list this Pistons team could be joining by mid-April:

2007-08 Boston Celtics: 42 more wins

The Pistons could win out the rest of their regular season games and still not match this feat. The Celtics made a turnaround from 24 wins and a last-place finish in the Eastern Conference in 2007 to 66 wins, the league’s best regular season record and an NBA title in 2008.

They did so thanks to a historic 2007 offseason that saw them trade for two future Hall of Famers in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Garnett won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2008 and both made the All-Star game as they joined Paul Pierce to form a Big 3 that helped the Celtics win five straight division titles.

1997-98 San Antonio Spurs: 36 more wins

David Robinson suffered a foot injury and only played only six games as the Spurts managed just 20 wins in 1996-97. Little could anyone know at the time that the injury helped form one of the NBA’s modern dynasties. With the first pick in the 1997 NBA Draft due to that dreadful season, the Spurs picked Tim Duncan, who won Rookie of the Year honors in 1997-98 and along with Robinson helped lead a team that won 56 games in Gregg Popovich’s second full season as head coach.

The Spurs lost in the conference semifinals that season but won the franchise’s first NBA title the following year, then took home three more titles in the next eight years.

1989-90 San Antonio Spurs: 35 more wins

Adding Duncan spurred a 36-win improvement for the Spurs in 1998. Adding Robinson eight years earlier was close behind. After a 21-win campaign in 1988-89, the Spurs got the services of the former first overall pick following his two-year military commitment. Like Duncan would years later, Robinson won Rookie of the Year honors and spurred a dramatic turnaround, this time under Larry Brown as head coach.

Steve Nash returned to Phoenix as a free agent in 2004 after blossoming into an All-Star in Dallas and immediately brought his game to a new level. Nash won back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006 and boosted the Suns from 29 wins the season before his arrival to 62 wins after it.

Mike D’Antoni also had his first full season as head coach in 2004-05 as Nash, Amar’ Stoudemire and Shawn Marion formed the famous “7 seconds or less” offense.