I have been saying that they are a 0.500'ish team all along. Which they were (8-8) after losing to BNK on Nov. 21. Since then they have won 6 of 7 against mostly good teams. So now they are 14-9 and on pace to win 50 games. So I am trying to figure out what is happening that I didn't expect.
The X-factors to me have been mostly Walsh and also Queta. I did not expect Walsh to be stepping up and playing at a starter level, which is what he has been doing the last 7 games or so. I didn't even expect him to be playing in the regular rotation. Queta has exceeded my expectations also. There are some other surprises, Minott, for example, but I think it is Walsh and Queta making the big impact. The question is of course if they can keep it up as defenses adjust.
I feel that Mazzulla deserves a lot of credit also. He has this team playing hard, playing connected. If this keeps up, he will be in the running for coach of the year. I would say Mazzulla is exceeding my expectations. I never bought into the Mazzulla is the worst coach in the league narratives but I had him at good not great. I would say he has been better than that this year so far. It is pretty hard to make the argument that he is a bad coach at this point.