Can anybody think of an example of a team that went out and got a whole bunch of "character" guys and made significant improvement?
That's tough, I think you have to follow teams closer to know if they did that. I can't think of any in the league right now.
Maybe Atlanta when they had Horford, Millsap, Korver, Teague, and Carroll. Brooklyn looked similar to that up until this offseason with how they acquired solid character vets like Dudley and young guys with potential that hadn't been given the opportunity elsewhere. They didn't have a choice since Boston had all of their picks. Atlanta is the best case. They dumped Joe Johnson and then Josh Smith before hiring coach Budenholzer.