In the process of giving Boston its 17th NBA title last week, the Celtics gave the rest of the NBA something else:

Hope for next season.

Especially the teams in the bottom half of the NBA.

Yes, even the Milwaukee Bucks, who won only 26 games and endured still another management purge, and their incredibly loyal fans, most of whom fall somewhere between disgusted and disillusioned, can look at the Celtics and ask with a straight face, "Are we next?"

Boston set the standard for quick turnarounds in the NBA this season. The Celtics went from having the worst record in the Eastern Conference to winning the NBA title. Their regular-season win total jumped from 24 to 66, the largest one-year improvement in league history.

The Celtics proved that quick turnarounds aren't impossible in the salary-capped NBA, though they are rare. Usually, such turnarounds are a combination of good decision-making and some special circumstance.

Historically, a dramatic increase in wins is often the result of a star player returning after missing much of the previous season due to injury. On occasion, a team has tanked the final months of the season and gotten lucky in the draft lottery. Most often, a franchise-turning talent is unexpectedly available via trade, free agency or the draft.

There have been five teams in the last 20 years that lost 60 or more games in one season and made the playoffs the next. In every instance, the team drafted an instant all-star caliber player: Golden State (Mitch Richmond), San Antonio twice (David Robinson and Tim Duncan), Orlando (Shaquille O'Neal) and Denver (Carmelo Anthony).

Boston's meteoric rise had a lot to do with capitalizing on a rare opportunity. The Celtics traded the No. 5 pick in last year's draft and two players to Seattle for Ray Allen and shipped five players and two future first-round picks to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett. Along with Paul Pierce, that gave them the three all-stars it takes to win an NBA title these days.

The Bucks have a new general manager in John Hammond and enough talent in Olympians Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian to think that a major move or two could vault them into immediate contention. But if the Bucks look at the Celtics' season as a blueprint, it would be a mistake.

You see, the Celtics lucked out because there are very few Kevin Garnetts available in the NBA. And if Minnesota hadn't been backed into a contractual corner with Garnett, he wouldn't have been available last year, either.

Hammond, who says he's open to just about anything, has been receiving encouragement from some quarters to trade the Bucks' first-round pick — No. 8 overall — in Thursday's draft for veteran help in an attempt to turn the Bucks into an instant winner.

But no matter what Hammond does this offseason, there is little likelihood of the Bucks making a Celtics-like leap next season.

Therefore, the Bucks need to use this draft to find a rookie with great athleticism and potential for stardom — West Virginia's Joe Alexander? LSU's Anthony Randolph? UCLA's Russell Westbrook? — who will help them make a slower but surer climb into contention.