They have great shooters, regardless of who you consider a top 10. We aren't contenders against teams like the Cavs, Celtics, OKC, and the Warriors as long as we settle for mediocre shooters. Sure, we could get lucky a couple games, but the odds of that streaky luck carrying this team through playoffs with the guys we have isn't giving me high hopes. Look at the Warriors starters. Four of them shoot over 40% from behind the arc and the 6 players with the most minutes all shoot over 38% from behind the arc. The starting guards on OKC and the Cavs shoot over 40% from behind the arc. Hell, the Celtics have 2 starting guards shooting over 40%, and they even have a center shooting over 47%. Then there's us. Nobody on our team shoots that well from the 3. Out of the 6 guys with the most minutes only two shoot over 34% and that's Eason and Brooks. Brooks is the only one shooting over 35%, and I doubt even he will keep his 39% shooting all year. Let's talk FG%. OKC and the Cavs have 4 of their top 6 players in minutes shooting over 50%. None of the top 4 guards on the Cavs shoot under 46%. Our two starting guards are shooting under 40%. There are plenty of better guards in this league than the starting duo we have. We really do need to trade for one of them. We have a good defense, but this offense isn't good enough.
Our title odds are currently 15th, which seems about right. I would probably put the clips above us in the highly unlikely scenario kawhi comes back strong though and they're 19th in title odds.
You look for the word dark horse - darkest of all horses, contender is someone whom you identified before the season and who usually had years of experience being a contender.
Barring injuries, this team is 100% capable of running the table in the playoffs. Just think, we are doing this with Alpi shooting bad right now. He will turn that around. We will get even better. The best record in the West is not of of the question which should give us favorable playoff matchups. OKC is the only team that scares me right now and we just beat them.
