A haiku for every NBA title contender at the midway point

This is a year to be inclusive. There's plenty of uncertainty (and bad poetry) to go around.

Good morning. It's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Let's basketball.

We have reached the midway point of the regular season for most NBA teams. As such, it's as good a time as ever to check in on which teams are legitimate title contenders. Longtime readers of this newsletter know that I am rather generous with admission to this list because we have seen time and again a team come out of relative nowhere to make a deep run or even win a title. As has been well documented, hegemony is out in the NBA, even if the Oklahoma City Thunder made us think otherwise for a couple of months this season. Inclusivity is the word here.

Here's each team on the list with a poorly constructed haiku in their honor.

Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder are great,
just not inevitable.
Plenty of tests left.

Denver Nuggets
Life without Jokic
has been a revelation.
Other Nugs? They're good.

Detroit Pistons
If only we had
an example of a team
from Detroit shocking?