Heading into the new season, the San Antonio Spurs were projected to be a good team, but maybe not as great as the Silver and Black have been on the court.
At 39-15 and riding the league's current longest winning streak at seven games, the Spurs are rolling, and guard De'Aaron Fox sees that teams are no longer dismissing them as the season progresses.
"I think teams knew that we had talent, obviously, but I think teams were kind of waiting to see how that would play out," he said.
Things are playing out tremendously well for the Spurs.
In their current winning streak, the Spurs rank third in the NBA in Offensive Rating at 123.3, fourth in Defensive Rating at 108.1, third in rebounding percentage at 55.5%, and second in effective field goal percentage at 58%.
In other words, the Spurs are playing exceptionally well on both ends of the court, and opposing teams are taking notice.
"I don't think we're catching anybody by surprise right now. I think at the beginning of the year, it probably could have been a surprise," he said.
The Spurs have racked up a five-game winning streak and an eight-game winning streak, and they have suffered no more than two-game losing streaks.
That kind of dominance is a far cry from recent seasons, when the Spurs were near the bottom of the standings and experienced more losing streaks than the current Spurs team has this season.
But with success comes a larger target on the Spurs' back; however, as Fox notes, teams will have to play at a high level to beat them.
"I definitely think teams are coming in and knowing that's a game that you know you're going to have to come out here, you're going to have to play hard," he said. "You're going to have to play well to beat us."
Beating the Spurs is a difficult task, especially now.
San Antonio boasts a Net Rating of 15.2 during their current win streak and overall, has a 6.3 Net Rating for the season, good for third in the league.
But for Fox, it is simpler than stats or winning streaks. It comes down to the team continuing what has brought them success and looking past how the opposing team is faring this season.
"Whenever we're doing what we're supposed to do, we always give ourselves just a chance to win, no matter kind of how good another team playing."
And he will just continue to play his role for the betterment of the team, nothing more or less.
"I'm just continuing to play in the flow of the game," he said.