NBA: Top 5 Biggest surprises from the 2015-16 Season

#5 Teams written off which pleasantly surprised

The Blazers were not expected to even be competitive

No other team was so thoroughly decimated in the postseason as the Portland Trailblazers. They lost four of their starters in the offseason as LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Nicholas Batum and Weasley Matthews all went off.

This was supposed to be the season the Blazers tooled around for a rebuild. They certainly had every excuse to do so. No team wants to be stuck in the no man's land of being good, but not good enough. The manner in which the Blazers managed to bounce back has been nothing short of amazing

Powered by one of the most explosive back-courts in the league, the Blazers fought their way to the playoffs and made it all the way to the Conference semi-finals before falling to the Warriors.

Damian Lillard established himself as the most dangerous point guard from downtown not named Stephen Curry. He averaged 25.1 points per game with 6.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds. His running mate CJ McCollum won the Most Improved Player of the year award as he averaged 20.8 points per game with 4.3 assists.

The other team which surpassed expectations was the Dallas Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks were supposed to tank. At least that's what Mark Cuban proclaimed when he thought he had acquired DeAndre Jordan in the offseason. Instead, the Mavericks fought their way to the 6th place in the bloody Western Conference. The combination of Rick Carlisle’s adroit coaching and Dirk Nowitzki’s refusal to decline with age helped the Mavericks be competitive night in and night out.

When an owner like Mark Cuban admits that your season was supposed to be a lost cause, and you make it to 6th spot in the Western Conference, you know that you’ve achieved the near impossible.

Mark Cuban admitted this was a DeAndre or doom summer. Mavs would have gone in tank mode if they struck out.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) July 3, 2015