No matter what, there's hope even if you start bad.
I just remember back in '06 the Mavs went 0-4 to start the season, and then went 67-11 the rest of the way. They were a bad start away from breaking 70 wins (but then lost in the 1st round so we won't talk about them).
LeBron/Wade/Bosh started 9-8 in their first season together back in '11.
Warriors started 4-3 last year.
And for more of a worst case scenario, the '97 Suns started with 13 straight losses and went 1-14, and then played with a 60 win pace the rest of the year, making the playoffs and pushing the #1 seed to a 5th game in a best of 5 first round.
Though I'm still hoping the C's start 82-0 in the regular season and 16-0 in the playoffs.