Ben DuBose

I guess, Paolo, my question for you, how differently do you feel about this team after the 4-1 homestand?

Do you have a sense of relief relative to when we last recorded on that 0-3 road trip?

And I do want to jump in real quick and address the elephant in the room, which is that he came back early from a sprained ankle, and that might be contributing.

However, I do agree with you.

There's some stuff, just the awareness plays, where he doesn't even notice or care about a cutter, someone going back door, reminiscent of the days when James Harden would get this Vine compilation package.

just clipped of his low lights, that I don't think you can attribute to the ankle.

If he's not quite as springy on the jump balls, maybe, but the stuff that's awareness when he's moving just fine otherwise, that I think does speak to the middle side.

Just wanted to jump in quickly and address the ankle component, because I do think that there are small parts you can attribute to that, but by and large, I think your points are valid.

Well, let me throw a counter to this.

First off, I think if there's any coach in the NBA that I would want to sort out an effort issue defensively, it's Ime Udoka.

And there's still 41 games left to play before we get to the playoffs.

So...

I'm seeing a lot of the same things that you are, but I am going to give, especially on that side of the ball, the benefit of the doubt to Ime Udoka.

I do think he can make some headway there.

And I do think that some of the problems in recent games have been made worse by the fact that the rackets are shorthanded.

And when you're this shorthanded, it's tougher to make the effort subs.

Basically saying like that Clipper game where neither KD nor Shingun played in the fourth quarter because clearly Imei didn't like the effort.

Well, it's tougher to do that when you're as shorthanded as they've been in recent games.

That's hopefully going to improve.

Dorian Finney-Smith continues to improve by the week.