I'm going to preach patience and moderation. Maybe you don't want to hear it in the midst of a three game winning streak, but I'd like to think we're better than that. I'd like to think our perfectly legitimate and normal emotional responses might be informed by rational assessment of our team.
For instance, the Charlotte Bobcats are not a championship level team. They're good enough to take a game or two in a first round series, but if they do make the playoffs, unless they get a particularly good matchup in the first round, they're not winning a series. That's not a nihilistic point. I'm looking for what will serve the team moving beyond this season, and progress can continue into the playoffs.
For instance, again, the Cats are 15-18, and their expected Win-Loss is 16-17. Stephen Jackson has played 24 of the team's 33 games, so we're getting to the point where we're not making exceptions for what the team did before Jax. They're better than they were before he arrived, but it's just another step, and I don't think we're seeing anything to indicate the Cats will finish better than 37-40 wins, which is in line with an optimistic projection from before the season.I guess what I'm hoping is that it's good enough for Jalen Rose to say the Bobcats are the fifth best team in the East, because he's just talking off the top of his head in the moment of a Cats hot streak, but that we take the time to think. They're not yet good enough to warrant that kind of optimism, but we can identify what we can do to get there.