Paulo Alves

Once again, I'm not saying this team's doomed.

I'm not saying I don't believe in this team.

I'm just saying I'm not at the level of belief where I can imagine them

To quote Kevin Wilde, I don't think they passed the confetti test at this moment.

I can't imagine them celebrating a championship best chronologically constructive.

I think they need that step up in defense.

I think they have the personnel to do that because it's largely the same as it was last year, except for Dylan Brooks.

And I think a lot of it comes from having guys step up in their intensities.

Feng Yun included, and I think mostly him, or not mostly him, but more than the others.

And once that kicks in, and it might just only kick in in the back end of the season, going into the playoffs, as it's taking games more seriously, you know, that's totally a possibility.

But until I see that...

I'm not willing to say, hey, this team is a tier one contender, which is what they were aiming for, which is the step up from what they were last year.

Because even though they lost the first round, I thought they were a contender, like a tier two contender.

But to get to that top of the top, or top of the top, I mean, not really, but just below the Thunder, I need to see the ability or for them to show the ability to gear into that defense when the time is most important.

yeah it's really just at risk at risk of sounding too uh ball don't lie-ish you know my eyes don't lie and and the intensity you feel on the defensive end just isn't the same or isn't and you're close to the same and the numbers might say it it might be a league-wide thing in which you know offense is the uptick in offense is so much that or step down in defense is still a step up compared to other teams step down or it's a smaller step down than what other team are facing

But it's exactly, you put it perfectly.

It's exactly as you said.

It seems to come and go at random.

And what we need to do is be able to harness that and I guess deploy it when it's most important.

Yeah, I think we need to investigate two things.