Ben DuBose

You know, I don't have a magic seed number in mind.

I would like to at least get to 52-30, the win mark you had a year ago.

You don't want to take a step back.

You want to do more in the playoffs.

You want to look at least competitive against the truly elites.

When I say that, I say Oklahoma City, probably Denver, maybe San Antonio.

You know, if you lose a competitive series in six or seven games, that's okay.

At least, you know, it would sting, but I can understand it.

If you go out in a sweep or gentleman's sweep and there's several blowouts, you know, it's a different matter altogether.

Do something you didn't do a year ago.

Get yourself a matchup against a really good team.

And if you lose that elite team, at least hold your own.

And then, you know, Jackson made this point, but I really agree with him.

Make sure that none of your young guys are exposed.

The way, you know, we all felt worse about Jalen Green after that playoff run a year ago because of how easily the Warriors were able to take him out of the offense.

If we get through the playoff run and the adjustment the Spurs made to take him and Thompson out of that game is something that we see time and time again in the playoffs, or Reed Shepard is just completely unplayable defensively, I won't say that makes the overall season a failure, but it would make...

it would make, in my opinion, all of us more reluctant to buy in on the young core moving forward.

So I guess those are my checkpoints that I came to after the LOR roundtable.

Do something you didn't do a year ago, i.e.

win at least one playoff series, unless you're against an elite opponent in round one.