Sure there's some luck involved, there's also good scouting. Look at Portland. They traded all of their high priced vets and went young. They lucked out and got the #1 pick, but they also got Roy in a draft day trade for Foye, they got Aldridge in a draft day trade for Tyrus Thomas, they cleared a ton of salary, buy draft picks from teams who want to stay out of the luxury tax and overall draft well. Same thing with the Thunder. They let Rashard Lewis walk since they knew a non-special wing player on a team with no superstar wouldn't do them any good, especially when they had to pay him max money. They traded Ray Allen for the #5 pick used on Jeff Green. They had some luck and got Durant, but made a nice pick in Westbrook last year. Once again, they drafted well and cleared salary. Being below the salary cap allowed them to absorb the salary of Kurt Thomas to help clear some space for the Suns below the luxury tax. So they ended up trading a conditional 2nd round pick to absorb Thomas' salary and got two future 1st round picks from the Suns in the process. They then flipped Thomas to San Antonio for the expiring contracts of Francisco Elson and Brent Barry along with San Antonio's 1st round pick. They ended up trading the San Antonio pick for Thabo Sefolosha, who is a decent looking wing prospect and they could conceivably have two lottery picks next year, their own and the Suns. When was the last time the Bucks ever did something like the Blazers or Thunder?