J. Kyle Mann

They are 10th in offense and second on defense and every big picture indicator that you can choose road record.

Top-notch road wins, point differential, all of it suggests, yes, they are ready for this.

This profile is a legitimate championship contender, a legitimate favorite to make the NBA Finals, and yet we don't really talk about them quite that way, and they're not perceived quite that way.

So I will just put it... You can interpret the question any way you want.

I mean it like, are they ready to actually make an honest run at winning the championship?

I just think the offense is going to be very interesting to watch in the playoffs.

Definitely.

Because Asar Thompson, I've said this, he's one of my wildcard players for the rest of the season.

Plus Jalen Duren, that's as much non-shooting as you can probably put out there against a real playoff defense.

And yes, I know that they make up for their lack of shooting, their 28th and three-point rate, and they don't shoot it all that well.

I know they make up for it with offensive rebounds, cutting.

Forget the defense.

free throws, like all the stuff they do on offense to compensate for their lack of shooting.

Even the connecting passing too, I think for both of those guys is really important.

not only the connecting passing, but like, you know, teams toy with, or we're going to put our centers on a star Thompson and try to muck up your spacing that way.

And jail endurance, like, Oh, I'll just mash your poor overmatched wing and dunk on his face or get 15 offensive rebounds until you start a fight with me.

And like now the three point shooting, they're also 22nd in turnover rate.

That's a little bit worrisome too, but I just think,

They are inexperienced and young, but they also made the playoffs last year and felt like this is a real... We played a conference finals team pretty toe-to-toe and lost.

You can take something from that.