Dave Hardisty

Yes, I do think that Ime Udoka might be considered more of a floor raiser than a ceiling raiser.

He is someone who was really valuable to bring this team from a team that just wasn't good at all, change the standards, establish a new culture, get them to where they are today.

I think it is valid to question whether he is the guy to take that team to a championship-level team.

Then again, with the Celtics who were, you know, really, really talented, right?

They weren't lacking for talent when he was there.

So that's maybe because of the credit as he gets for getting them to the finals.

But that's not my point overall.

I think there's some validity to saying, okay, this may be a team that's at a point where it might make sense to bring in someone who's more of a ceiling raiser than Mewdok, right?

And at the same time, I do think that one of the famous sports metaphors is that guys that come in and change the culture, those floor raisers, those defensive oriented guys, eventually the effort and play hard voice eventually wears thin in the locker room.

When you first come in, your impact is a little bit bigger.

And as guys get used, and then you intimidate the team, and you rally these guys together, as time goes on, I think that's something that decays more than someone who's a tactician or an X's and O's genius, because that's just friends.

Unless you're one of the guys that only has one system, that eventually... I think that kind of like Steve Kerr is someone that will pass through time a little bit longer.

I do think that those two are valid criticisms.

At the same time, what is he working with this season?

He doesn't have Fred.

He doesn't have Steven Adams.

At the beginning of the season, they were historically good.

Yeah, they're still third in the West, right?

You could argue that they should be better than the Spurs, but then again, the Spurs are pretty damn close to the Thunder at this moment.

And it just feels like hard to judge based on how much different a typical season is from what he got this season.