J. Kyle Mann

I assume it will be a West team, but who are you most worried about if you're a Thunder fan?

I think the West, I think, here's where I am.

I think there are only four teams who can win the Western Conference right now that I can take seriously, like you could make the finals.

Oklahoma City, Denver, San Antonio, and Minnesota.

I don't see it with Houston.

And if this KD burner thing is real, God help us all.

And I don't see it with the Lakers and nobody else is in the conversation.

And my answer, the answer should be Denver, to your point about who the Thunder should be most worried about.

It's starting to get notable that Denver is 24th in defense.

Like, this isn't like the Denver team that's number one in offense, number 14 on defense, and that nets out is enough to win the championship.

24th is a little bit of a problem.

And then when you look at their, like, oh, they must be getting roasted on threes.

No, they're not.

They're allowing like a pretty decent percentage on three-point shots.

They're getting roasted at the rim, which is kind of endemic to who they are.

And the healthy version of the Nuggets...

cements itself on defense to me because they have all of these guys who are good at some parts of defense and not as good at others or good at certain kind of matchups and not as useful in others.

And they kind of need them all to navigate three playoff rounds.

So Aaron Gordon, I've called his legs the biggest X factor in the league is hamstring issues, catfishes, whatever they are.

Like,