Despite the numbers and eye test suggesting the Oklahoma City Thunder should be taken as a serious title contender, the gut feeling around the NBA says otherwise.
During the NBA's Sunday ESPN slate, Brian Windhorst revealed that folks around the league don't view the Thunder as a threat to them. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has led the youthful group to one of the most dominating regular seasons ever.
"The reality is, people in the league just don't respect the Thunder," Windhorst said. "The Thunder are the youngest team in the NBA, you do not see the youngest team in any sport win. And so if you're sitting back like the Warriors, and you're trying to build something here, you see that as a target."
It sounds like the Thunder will need to earn the respect of their opponent despite back-to-back first-seed finishes. They lost to the Dallas Mavericks last year in the second round of the playoffs, but a zero-point differential showed how tight that series went.
Despite dominating the regular season, the older veteran squad that knows what it takes to win a championship like the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors likely aren't worried about facing the young Thunder.
Still, what they've done this season has been historically unprecedented. If anybody is an exception to Windhorst's adage about young squads not tasting championship champagne without a few battle scars, it's the Thunder. After all, the same conversations were said about the Warriors just a decade ago, and look how that turned out.
Alas, that's part of the sports life cycle. All three of those teams -- particularly the last two -- have aging superstars in the twilight stage of their careers. LeBron James is 40 years old, Stephen Curry is 36 years old and Jimmy Butler is 35 years old. Of course, they're not scared of the new kids on the block.
That said, the Thunder will lick their chops to get the chance to prove to do to them what every teenage son does to their father when they go play basketball -- that their time is over and the future is now.