Other than the Thunder road opener, were against division leaders. We easily could have beaten Detroit and Orlando w/out KP. Definitely shows we’re where we want to be and only seem to be getting better. KP’s elbow is likely just bone spurs that cause pain he’s got to play through until he can have the very minor surgery to treat. He may need to take a game off now and then on back to backs and I’m ok with that. His defense seemed ramped up vs Sac after getting a few days off in a row. All in all I couldn’t be happier with how we’re playing and our trajectory. Our young squad is only getting better individually and collectively each game.
It will be interesting to see where Noah plays into all this but he is a great team player so I think it shouldn’t have a negative effect. Our best big man individual defender who also plays great team D, a more than willing passer who fights for boards on both ends. What’s not to like?! Also it may be a case similar to Courtney Lee last year, where a good defender looks bad on a team that is playing very poor collective D.