Paulo Alves

I think they're winning more than what they should be winning, just like they were losing more than what they should be losing a couple, like, 10 games back when everybody was in crisis mode.

Well, we lost some games that we could have won, you know, a couple of bounces ago a different way, and we win.

I think this time the opposite is happening as well for this, you know, stretch of 10 games where we won 8 plus 2.

So, all in all, just to say that those variations come and go, it just seems like the eye test doesn't lie.

And you look at this team and you watch this team play, and it feels like they can play up or down to the competition level of basically any team.

Like, they don't beat teams convincingly.

Like, you're playing the Pacers without Thaddeus Halliburton, like, clear tanking team.

and they hung on for a very long time.

Granted, you didn't have KD, but you do have an amazing game from Operational Noon.

That game should not have been particularly close.

And it's not like it's a one-game thing.

It's been a trend throughout the entire season.

This team just plays down the competition.

And then they don't strike now as a truly elite team.

Earlier on in the season, it might have, you could have made the case because the offense was just insanely hot and we could close our eyes to what the defense had been.

The defense got better, the offense has gotten dramatically worse.

And so, you know, those things even out.

But it just doesn't strike me as a team that you should invest real assets, this being for strong picks or trading young players, into gum this deadline, unless you're trading for a guy that you think is a beast that fits here long term.

If you want to make the case to me that Kobe White is someone who we should resign, although you'd rather have him than Fred Envlid next year, something of the sort, I understand it better than...

Some other alternative that costs a first-round pick.