This team was dead in the water in December, and looked like they'd struggle to make the playoffs.
The turnaround has been astounding.
I laughed at Al Horford coming back. Now that he's allowed to just play, and not have the offense run through him like before, he's free to do what he does best, stretch the 5, and play good defense.
Marcus Smart has finally learned that passing is usually a better option than him jacking up 3s, although his shooting has been overall more consistent this year, taking fewer 3s than in the last couple of year, and hitting 33%, which for him is actually quite good. He's also hitting 50% on 2s, which speaks to him getting to the basket more, as well as getting easy shots off pick and rolls. This (plus the defense, obviously) is what Danny hoped he drafted way back in 2015.
Finally, the development of Time Lord has been astounding. I truly thought he was just a bust of a draft pick his first couple of years here, and he's turned into one of the best defensive, rim-protecting bigs in the league, and is averaging a double-double every night, as a 6'8" center. Seriously, he's only 6'8".
The most important thing here though, as the team has bought into Ime Udoka as the coach, after spending the last couple of years tuning out Brad Stephens, who, also surprisingly, seems to have made some really good depth moves as a GM.
I don't know if they can keep up this pace, winning 21 of 24, against some of the best the NBA has to offer, but it's nice to watch this team finally, finally develop after all of the waiting and the Kyrie failures and all the rest.
